Supervisors’ second-largest union argues it was asked to give up too much before terms were imposed; terms reached with biggest union

BY DUANE W. GANG AND DUG BEGLEY
STAFF WRITERS
dgang@pe.com | dbegley@pe.com

Published: 31 January 2012 09:15 AM

More than 1,000 Riverside County workers took to the streets Tuesday protesting benefit reductions and warning that additional strikes could be on the way if county officials don’t reopen contract negotiations.

The 24-hour work stoppage was expected to last until 6:59 a.m. today and marks the latest escalation between county management and the Service Employees International Union Local 721, the county’s second-largest employee group.

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Riverside County officials have gone to court in an effort to stop a one-day strike by health care professionals.

BY RICHARD K. De ATLEY
STAFF WRITER
rdeatley@pe.com

Published: 30 January 2012 11:33 AM

A judge Monday barred 248 health-care workers from joining a one-day strike by members of Riverside County’s second-largest union.

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BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

Published: 27 January 2012 08:34 PM

Riverside County will go to court Monday seeking to keep nearly 300 nurses and other health professionals from taking part in a day-long strike planned by the county’s second-largest union.

County officials this week appealed to a state labor relations board for help after the Service Employees International Union Local 721 informed officials at Riverside County Regional Medical Center that nurses planned to participate in the strike Tuesday.

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Supervisors will take up an agreement Tuesday to provide raises to nurses at the Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley.(FILE PHOTO/2008)

BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

Published: 06 January 2012 06:01 PM

In an effort to make Riverside County Regional Medical Center nursing pay more competitive, supervisors Tuesday will take up a deal to provide the hospital’s nurses with significant raises.

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BY DUG BEGLEY
STAFF WRITER
dbegley@pe.com

Published: 20 December 2011 08:50 PM

Riverside County supervisors on Tuesday warily approved a four-year deal with a union covering various lawyers, setting the stage for a larger face-off with the county’s largest union next year.

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BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

Published: 16 November 2011 11:21 AM

Anyone convicted of a crime and sentenced to Riverside County jail will soon have to pay for their stays in the lockup.

Riverside County supervisors gave their final approval Tuesday to a measure aimed at recovering the $142.42 per day it costs to keep someone behind bars.

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Supervisors, managers and employees not represented by unions will pay 8 percent of their salaries toward retirement

BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

Published: 15 November 2011 07:25 PM

Riverside County’s elected leaders and management will begin paying their own pension costs in a move designed to save money and show employees that they are willing to lead by example.

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The county board already favors contributing to their own pensions to save $14 million over 3 years

BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

Published: 13 November 2011 08:20 PM

Riverside County supervisors Tuesday will take up a measure requiring all county elected officials and management to pay their own retirement contributions.

Supervisors earlier this month voted in favor of the concept but had yet to work out the details.

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Riverside County supervisors are moving ahead with a plan to charge inmates for their stays in jail, including at facilities such as the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.

BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

Published: 02 November 2011 10:35 AM

Riverside County is moving ahead with a plan to charge people for their jail time.

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BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

Published: 06 October 2011 06:03 PM

An estimated $80 million budget gap for next fiscal year is only the start of the challenges Riverside County supervisors face in the coming months.

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Riverside County supervisors debated pension changes on Tuesday.
BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

Published: 04 October 2011 09:55 PM

Riverside County supervisors said Tuesday that county employees must start contributing more toward their own retirements, a move that would translate into immediate, long-term savings for the cash-strapped county.

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10:22 PM PDT on Thursday, September 22, 2011

BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

PDF: Read Bill Luna’s resignation letter as Riverside County CEO

Riverside County supervisors accepted the resignation of CEO Bill Luna on Thursday and are expected to hire a search firm next week to help find a new top executive.

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10:04 PM PDT on Tuesday, September 20, 2011

BY DUANE W. GANG and DUG BEGLEY
STAFF WRITERS
dgang@pe.com | dbegley@pe.com

Negotiations between labor unions and Riverside County moved from the bargaining table to the Board of Supervisors chambers Tuesday.

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10:30 PM PDT on Tuesday, August 16, 2011

BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

Riverside County supervisors approved new district boundaries Tuesday amid heated debate and accusations of gerrymandering between supervisors Bob Buster and John Tavaglione.

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10:10 PM PDT on Tuesday, August 16, 2011

BY DUANE W. GANG
STAFF WRITER
dgang@pe.com

Riverside County officials voiced support Tuesday for a more efficient way to dispatch 911 calls and get ambulances to medical emergencies more quickly.

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By PE Politics
July 20, 2011 9:19 AM

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, who proposed that 13 counties secede from California, has taken his effort online.

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Supervisor Jeff Stone, a Republican pharmacist from Temecula, called California an “ungovernable” financial catastrophe and proposed that 13 conservative counties break away to form a separate state of “South California.” (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times / July 8, 2005)

By Steve Harvey, Los Angeles Times
July 16, 2011

If California State Assemblyman Andres Pico had gotten his way more than a century ago, the college football team that plays its home games in downtown Los Angeles would be known as the University of Colorado Trojans.

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Jeff Stone

July 13th, 2011, 11:49 am · posted by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

A Riverside County supervisor backed off of his call for 13 counties to secede from the state when fellow supervisors threw cold water on the idea Tuesday night.

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South California
Supervisor urges 13 counties to secede
Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer
Created: 07/11/2011 08:10:22 PM PDT

RIVERSIDE – A local lawmaker has called for much of Southern and Central California to secede from the Golden state.

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By Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times
July 11, 2011

Accusing Sacramento of pillaging local governments to feed its runaway spending and left-wing policies, a Riverside County politician is proposing a solution: He wants 13 mostly inland, conservative counties to break away to form a separate state of “South California.”

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10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 29, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County should purchase four additional ballot scanners to speed vote counting during next year’s presidential elections, the county’s top election official said.

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11:03 PM PDT on Saturday, June 18, 2011

By JEFF HORSEMAN
The Press-Enterprise

Since 2001, the company proposing a quarry near Temecula has donated more than $59,000 to political candidates in Riverside County — including at least $38,000 to county supervisors who will decide if the project gets built.

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10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, June 14, 2011

By DUG BEGLEY and DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Determining which Riverside neighborhood will be shifted to a new supervisorial district is the only unresolved issue in redrawing Riverside County lines, officials said Tuesday.

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Tuesday, June 14, 2011 – 10:30 a.m.

One has to wonder why there is such a disconnect in the way San Bernardino and Riverside County governments conduct business respectively.

Riverside County seems to be able to maintain a sense of order and cohesiveness.

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10:01 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 8, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County’s top executive has recommended a spending plan for next year that includes $55 million in cuts, resulting in additional layoffs and reductions in core county services.

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By PE Politics
June 7, 2011 4:44 PM

Riverside County will begin researching how to recoup costs from people sentenced to county jails under a measure supervisors approved 4-0 today.

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Stone

By PE Politics
May 26, 2011 4:42 PM

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone has agreed to pay $16,000 for failing to properly report $84,052 in contributions to his 2010 campaign for state Senate.

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By PE Politics
May 25, 2011 10:06 AM

Riverside County declared an impasse last week with the Riverside Sheriff’s Association and will impose contract terms on the union starting June 2.

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10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, May 24, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

A Riverside County committee helping to draft new supervisorial districts will forward two proposals to the Board of Supervisors after failing Tuesday to reach agreement on how best to divide the city of Riverside.

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10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, May 24, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County supervisors Tuesday declared their support for public safety and said imposing pay cuts and pension changes on the union representing sheriff’s deputies is unfortunate but will save money and jobs.

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Bono Mack

10:00 PM PDT on Sunday, May 22, 2011

The Press-Enterprise

Inland Rep. Mary Bono Mack is standing behind her stepson, Chaz Bono. But it remains unclear whether Chaz and his fiancé will stand before Bono Mack on their wedding day.

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10:48 PM PDT on Sunday, May 15, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

One of Riverside County’s largest employee unions allows any member to attend contract talks, raising concerns in recent weeks from at least two supervisors that the open-door policy isn’t productive.

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11:21 PM PDT on Tuesday, May 3, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to put on hold a proposed regional jail in Whitewater that would have cost $300 million to build.

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11:13 PM PDT on Sunday, April 24, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County supervisors failed to follow their own policies when awarding a new criminal defense contract earlier this year, a newly released grand jury report concludes.

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10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, April 6, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County supervisors Marion Ashley and John Benoit announced Wednesday that they will seek to halt planning for a regional jail in rural Whitewater.

The move marks a reversal for supervisors and comes amid growing community opposition to the jail.

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10:33 PM PDT on Tuesday, March 29, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside Board of Supervisors meet about county budgets
Published: 3/29/2011 07:18 PM

Riverside County’s four public-safety departments painted a bleak picture Tuesday of their finances, saying they face significant budget shortfalls for next fiscal year.

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Stone

10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, March 24, 2011

By GAIL WESSON and DUANE GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone urged business and civic leaders to support the county supervisors’ efforts at pension reform at an economic development forum in San Jacinto on Thursday.

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10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, March 22, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

In a 3-2 vote Tuesday, Riverside County supervisors approved a measure supporting Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to shift some state services to California’s 58 counties.

Supervisor John Tavaglione requested the resolution.

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10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, March 15, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County will hold three community meetings next month to gather input from residents on how officials should redraw supervisorial district boundaries.

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Stone

REGION: County supervisor says union campaigning against him

DAVE DOWNEY
ddowney@californian.com North County Times
The Californian | Posted: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 10:53 pm

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone accused a law enforcement employees union Tuesday of orchestrating a telephone campaign to plant negative impressions of him in advance of his 2012 re-election bid.

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10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, March 9, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG and JIM MILLER
The Press-Enterprise

Thousands of Inland residents will soon have a different county supervisor to represent them.

Riverside and San Bernardino county officials must begin redrawing their district boundaries based on census 2010 data released Tuesday.

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California Watch
A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting
Money and Politics

March 3, 2011 | Chase Davis

Once the grand jury got together, it didn’t take long for Larry Minor to fold.

Less than 24 hours after his indictment last month, the Southern California agribusiness mogul pleaded guilty to charges that he funneled money through friends and family to circumvent the state’s campaign contribution limits.

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10:00 PM PST on Friday, February 18, 2011

By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY
The Press-Enterprise

Sarah Minor wasn’t sure what Jeff Stone did in politics — she thought the Riverside County supervisor was a state senator — but in 2009 she wrote a $3,900 campaign contribution check to him because her father-in-law and Agri-Empire chief Larry Minor asked her to do it.

He reimbursed Sarah and husband Andy — Larry’s son — who also made a $3,900 contribution.

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Stone

By PE Politics
on February 16, 2011 11:04 AM

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone’s unsuccessful Senate campaign raised almost $204,000 in June 2009, when authorities allege that “potato baron” Larry Minor arranged contributions to Stone and illegally reimbursed the donors.

Minor reached a plea deal Wednesday. Stone has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

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By PE Politics
on February 16, 2011 11:30 AM

PDF: Read the indictment of Larry Minor

Larry Minor, 70, of San Jacinto, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors this morning to charges that he laundered campaign contributions and conspired to violate the state’s Political Reform Act.

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10:00 PM PST on Tuesday, February 15, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County supervisors agreed Tuesday to research how much public-safety retirements cost and what options are available to send a pension-reduction proposal to voters.

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RIVERSIDE COUNTY: Supervisors are likely to pursue tighter disclosure requirements.

10:00 PM PST on Tuesday, February 15, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone withdrew his proposal Tuesday to impose campaign contribution limits on board and countywide candidates.

Stone’s decision came as colleagues voiced concern that the plan would unleash a torrent of independent expenditures not subject to limits.

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08:37 PM PST on Saturday, February 12, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone wants to put the heat on one of the county’s largest and most powerful unions.

In a proposal headed before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Stone is asking county staff to analyze public-safety pension costs and gather information about a potential ballot measure that would reduce retirement benefits.

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Stone

10:00 PM PST on Thursday, February 10, 2011

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone is proposing campaign contribution limits for the board and countywide officials.

Stone, a Republican, will ask his colleagues Tuesday to support a measure to limit how much any person can donate to county campaigns.

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Wednesday, February 2, 2011 – 04:45 p.m.

Members of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors raised slightly less and spent significantly more campaign money than their San Bernardino County brethren last year.

They also reported significantly depleted warchests.

And I mean significant.

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10:00 PM PST on Thursday, December 30, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

The state’s new Citizens Redistricting Commission has ushered in a new era in California, heralded by supporters as a way to take politics out of the drawing of legislative and congressional boundaries.

But a political tug-of-war among elected officials could still play out at the local level next year as counties, cities and school boards redraw their own district lines.

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Saturday, December 11, 2010 – 11:20 a.m.

The selection process for the new contract to handle Riverside County indigent defense cases blew-up at last Tuesdays board of supervisors meeting.

The contract is established to provide criminal defense attorneys for defendants lacking financial resources.

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11:05 PM PST on Sunday, December 5, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

After new bids were sought in September, a contract to handle criminal defense for those who cannot afford lawyers goes before the Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

A committee of public defenders from three Northern California counties reviewed the proposals and recommended that Riverside-based Blumenthal Law Offices receive the $8.8 million contract.

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10:00 PM PST on Monday, November 29, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Special Section: Inland Wildfires

Severing ties with Cal Fire and creating an independent Riverside County fire department would increase costs by $46.6 million a year, a new report concludes.

In addition, setting up a stand-alone agency would require the county to replace three state-owned fire stations at a one-time cost of $11.9 million, the analysis found.

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10:00 PM PST on Thursday, November 25, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

A majority of Riverside County supervisors favor opening the recruitment for a new registrar of voters to applicants from outside the county with the hope of attracting an experienced candidate.

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10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, August 31, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

The politics of pension reform took center stage among Riverside County supervisors Tuesday.

An invitation mailed last week to raise money to oppose the Riverside Sheriff’s Association-backed Measure L on the November ballot included the names and signatures of all five supervisors.

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Ken Calvert

By PE Politics
on August 17, 2010 11:23 AM

Four out of five Riverside County supervisors recommend another term for Inland Rep. Ken Calvert.

The Corona Republican, who is seeking his 10th term in office this November, announced today that he has the backing of John F. Tavaglione, Jeff Stone, John J. Benoit and Marion Ashley. All four are registered Republicans.

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09:16 PM PDT on Tuesday, August 17, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County supervisors, currently grappling with pension reforms, themselves have decades of combined service and will receive substantial retirements when they leave the board.

Supervisor Bob Buster is in his 17th year on the board and served eight years on the Riverside City Council before that.

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10:56 PM PDT on Tuesday, July 13, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County supervisors voted Tuesday to purchase $650,000 worth of additional equipment designed to speed future vote-counting operations.

The recommendations came as part of a sweeping probe into how Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore handled the June 8 primary.

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Jeff Stone

By PE Politics
on June 3, 2010 1:15 AM

The state Senate campaign of Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone acknowledged Wednesday that it failed to disclose dozens of donations from mid-March through most of last month.

Richard Temple, a Stone consultant, said the campaign’s accounting firm misunderstood state rules that require, within 90 days of an election, reporting of contributions of $1,000 or more within 24 hours.

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Supervisor Jeff Stone

10:00 PM PDT on Sunday, May 23, 2010

The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone says he doesn’t like independent expenditure committees, but he might be getting their help whether he likes it or not.

At a forum last week for candidates for the 36th state Senate District seat, Stone said he would propose legislation to curb spending by the “IE’s” — the unions, business groups, tribes and other special interests that can dump unlimited amounts of money into a race as long as there is no coordination with candidates.

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10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, May 18, 2010

By DUG BEGLEY
The Press-Enterprise

Pooches and prisoners will have to wait a little longer to know if they’re going to see changes in their level of care, as Riverside County officials weigh sweeping cuts that could curtail animal adoptions and cut down on the availability of on-site psychiatric care for inmates.

At a Tuesday afternoon county budget session supervisors said the painful cuts were regrettable, but held true to the 20 percent cuts they requested from many county departments.

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10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, May 12, 2010

By JIM MILLER
Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO – Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone wants to give up better pay, time at home and being one of five members on a Republican-leaning board to be part of a Democrat-controlled state Senate.

But Stone is just one of the candidates in a four-way battle for the Republican nomination in the 36th Senate District.

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10:00 PM PST on Tuesday, March 2, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside County supervisors took steps Tuesday to put in place a policy aimed at making the bidding process for county contracts more public.

The policy would include a provision to publicly unseal bids of at least $100,000 at the weekly Board of Supervisor meetings.

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.

One has to ask why would the Riverside County Board of Supervisors vote to approve a project that will eventually lead to the construction of 11,150 homes, with an ongoing major recession not likely to end anytime soon?

Yes, I wrote 11,150.

This very approval happened last Tuesday. The beneficiary of course was the Lewis Group of Companies.

Lewis will be the master developer for the development known as the Villages of Lakeview.

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10:13 PM PST on Sunday, January 3, 2010

By JOHN F. HILL
The Press-Enterprise

An effort by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors to make it easier for residents to carry concealed firearms isn’t likely to change policy, the Sheriff’s Department said.

In a 3-1 vote in November, supervisors passed a resolution asking the sheriff to consider applications for permits based solely on “personal defense.”

Supervisor Jeff Stone, author of the resolution, pegged the issue to the potential release of thousands of California inmates as part of a plan to meet a federal mandate to reduce the state’s prison population.

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11:05 PM PST on Sunday, December 20, 2009

The Press-Enterprise

After leaving legislation to honor Tiger Woods in the proverbial rough, Inland Rep. Joe Baca says a mulligan could be in order sometime in the future — if the scandal-plagued golfer cleans up his act.

Baca recently announced that he has no plans to move forward with his bill seeking the Congressional Gold Medal for Woods, in light of Woods’ admission of “transgressions” in his personal life and rumors of extramarital affairs.

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