May 2009 Archives

The Wrigley Association's annual board elections will take place at 7 p.m. Monday at Veterans Park, 101 E 28th St.

Six seats on the 11-member board are up for election.

According to the by-laws, there will be no write-in votes. Candidates must be announced ahead of time. Statements of up to 300 words from the candidates will go out to Wrigley Association members via e-mail on Sunday.

The candidates are: 

Bethel Cope-Vega

Chris Graeber (i)

Adriana Martinez

Gavin Mc Kiernan (i)

Sammy Portillo (i)

Raul Romo

Sandi Sandman

Tensi Torres-Comas

Coleen Vandepas (i)

Lisa Wibroe -(i)

Association members will also be asked to renew their memberships.

Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Long Beach, said in a statement that her annual "Senior Briefing" on Tuesday in Carson drew 700 attendees. She and the seniors discussed health care, prescription drug plans, Social Security and other issues under federal purview.  

U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Long Beach, praised President Obama's selection for the Supreme Court today. The 37th District congresswoman called Judge Sonia Sotomayor well qualified to become an associate justic.

Downey Mayor Mario A. Guerra sent along this open letter updating constituents on happenings in his town. The words below are his.

I know many of you have been asking for city updates and emails about some of the great things that are happening in our city. I am sorry that I haven't done one in a month and I promise to give you all an update in the near future. There are many good things happening that I want to share later.

But with all the bad news in the world these days I did wanted to let you know about something pretty cool that we can do in our city that many of you have been asking for many years...

It will be on the agenda and we will be voting on it at Tuesday nights' council meeting...It is so cool that I wanted to get an email out to some Downey friends and residents as soon as I could to let you know and also to get your input.

As many of you know we will be opening our first new park in over 30 years shortly. Discovery Sports Complex was dedicated last November but delays in construction and other items have delayed the opening....At last weeks council meeting I asked our staff to come back to us with a report on what we need to do to open it and what else we needed to be done....

I also asked if we could possible open it on July 4^th and turn the event into a city celebration and to include fireworks at the end of the day....( I asked if they needed more time that maybe July 20^th could be a back up day....July 20^th is the 40^th anniversary of us landing on the moon....,Downey is of course the home of Apollo which took the astronauts there ).

We will be voting for such a plan on Tuesday to fund a great day for our city....

I envision baseball games between little leagues...To also include our awesome challenger division......I see football passing games between local and surrounding high schools....I see soccer games going on all day....I see our city stage with local musical talent playing all day long.....I see local organizations and community groups selling food and raising some money for their causes...I see games being provided by our community service...I see sponsorships to be able to offset some of the cost...I see a great family atmosphere all day long....I see families having a great time....I see community...I see Downey at its best.......

And at the end of the day, we can all see an awesome fireworks display that many in our community have hoped for....

It will be a safe, fun, family day of celebration for our city and of course to celebrate the independence of the greatest country in history...As you can tell, I am really excited about this..

There is a cost to this which will include police and fire services to make sure we have a safe and protected day...Staff time cost.....And the fireworks will cost of course......But we hope to raise most of the money by sponsorships......And by having a city fireworks event we can also hope to save some fires from happening and proving the safe experience we all want for our families. And with these financial times many will not be able to afford fireworks and thus we can share this great expereicne together....I remember the fun my family had when there was a fireworks show at Warren High many moons ago.

So what do you all think ?......I  welcome and ask your thoughts via emails...I also welcome your thoughts at Tuesdays council meeting to let our council know if you support this concept and event...I am truly interested in what you think and want and appreciate your responses.

I hope you are having a good week and all is good for you and your families....God Bless....

Dn. Mario A. Guerra

Mayor

CNN sent along a transcript of today's interview between Wolf Blitzer and Meg Whitman, the former eBay chief running for governor of California. Whitman, you may recall, visited a Long Beach Chamber of Commerce luncheon last week. She discussed California's fiscal crisis with Blitzer. The transcript follows.

BLITZER:   One of the largest states in the nation sits on the brink of financial disaster.  That's whatCalifornia's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is saying.  Literally hours from now, Californians vote on a host of measures intended to take the state off a road to ruin.

    Opponents are urging defeat, but Schwarzenegger warning of doomsday consequences for California if these measures don't pass, at stake, possibly ballooning California's $15 billion deficit.  The state's already saddled with an 11 percent unemployment rate and it had the third highest foreclosure rate last month.

    My next guest would be dealing with all of this if she becomes governor of California.

    Meg Whitman is the former CEO of eBay.  Meg, thanks very much for joining us.

    You sure you want to be governor of California?

    MEG WHITMAN (R), CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE:  Well, thanks for having me, Wolf.

    Yes, I do, because I think California is on a terrible path.  And I think someone needs to step in and -- and try to right it.

      BLITZER:  What is the governor, the current governor, doing wrong right now?

    WHITMAN:  Well, I -- first of all, I have a lot of respect for Governor Schwarzenegger.  He's done a number of good things, workman's compensation, the redistricting initiatives.

    But, in the end, he has not stepped forward to cut government the way it needs to be cut.  We have a bureaucracy that has 345,000 people who work in it, 2,000 more than just a year ago.  And think about it.  Two million Californians are unemployed, 176,000 have lost their jobs in the last two months, and, yet, the bureaucracy is untouched.

    And I think, you know, what has to sit at the feet of the governor is the financial situation in the state.

    BLITZER:  He says -- you know, last week, he said he would like to lay off 5,000 of those state employees.  How many would you like to see laid off?

    WHITMAN:  Well, I know, from my experience, that almost any organization, you can lay off 10 percent of the bureaucracy, and actually -- maybe it's easier, actually, with fewer people, and it will not be a hardship on the state.  And, so, that would say that you want to lay off between 30,000 and 40,000 people.

    And while I feel terrible for those individuals who would lose their job, it is in the long-term health of the state of California to get the government to a place where the people of California can actually afford the government that they -- that they -- that they deserve.

    BLITZER:  There's a limit to what he can do.  There's a limit to what he can do, given the role of the state legislature in all of this.  How would you be able to deal differently with a state legislature that wouldn't necessarily want to lay off 30,000 or 40,000 state employees?

    WHITMAN:  Well, you know, at some point, you have to take the hard medicine and do what is right for the state.

    And I think the governor has a number of different levels.  First is the appointments that you make.  The governor can make 4,000 appointments.  And those -- and 400 of those are incredibly important, because they're your agency heads and your department heads.

    And there's at least $15 million of cost savings that can be done by streamlining purchasing, by employing technology to pull this government into the 21st century.  And that can actually be done without the state legislature.  It -- it takes leadership.  It takes courage.

    But a number of -- a large amount of savings can actually be done without the legislature.  And then...

    BLITZER:  Are you one -- are you one of those -- well, let -- I interrupted you.  Go ahead.  Finish your thought.

    WHITMAN:  No, that's OK.

    I was just going to say, you know, you have got to go to Sacramento with, I think, a very focused agenda.  And the agenda right now has to be job creation and job retention.  We have to get the economic engine going again, because the only way to sustainably grow revenues is to grow the people who are working in good jobs.

    The second priority has to be getting government spending under control.  On a per capita basis, we're among the highest in the nation in terms of government spending.  And then my last piece of the agenda would be public education, K-12.  In addition to all of California's fiscal problems, as you know, we were just rated 48th out of 50 states in our K-12 public education system.

    BLITZER:  Well, are you one of those Republicans who would make a no-new-taxes pledge to the people of California?

    WHITMAN:  I would make a no-new-taxes pledge.

    You know, when you actually look at the documents that you're asked to sign, there's a lot more in those documents than just no new taxes.  But we should not be raising taxes on average Californians.

    Here's a really interesting statistic.  Barack Obama is about to give $800 back to the average Californian make $45,000 with two children.  And that same family is going to get $800 from the Obama administration and is going send $732 of it to Sacramento.

    I mean, we just might as well have just done a wire transfer from Washington to Sacramento.  I mean, to the extent that there is a benefit from the Obama stimulus plan for hardworking Californians, we're not going to see it, because it's not going to land in people's pockets.

    BLITZER:  He supported -- the governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, he supported the governor's economic stimulus package, even though a lot of other Republican governors did not.

    Where would you have stood if you had been governor of California when the president was making his announcement?

    WHITMAN:  Well, it was an extraordinary stimulus package.  And I agree.  Given the economic situation, something was absolutely required.

    I probably would have done it a little differently, and I would have focused all my economic stimulus on one metric, which is, can we increase the number of people who have jobs or decrease the unemployment rate?

    Because, as you know, Wolf, we're in now a consumer-led recession.  And unless we put people back to work, and they are put in productive jobs, I think a lot of the other elements in the stimulus plan are actually not going to help the fundamental problem, which is that employment is too high in the United States and in California.

    BLITZER:  One final question -- among the various Democratic names out there that may be running, Jerry Brown, the attorney general, the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, the San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom, who -- who do you see as your biggest threat?

    WHITMAN:  Well, I think, you know, the Democratic field is very powerful.  They -- they're -- you know, have been in politics a long time.

    But I think, you know, by June -- by November of this year, this will still be all about the economy.  And the question Californians will have to answer is, who do they think is best-equipped to create jobs, to balance the budget, to put California back on a sure financial footing?

    And, actually, my 30 years in business and the outsiders' perspective of having created jobs, balanced budgets, will actually stand me in good steady vs. any of those three.

    BLITZER:  Creating jobs, but you -- but I just want to reiterate, you are saying you would eliminate 30,000 or 40,000 state jobs?

    WHITMAN:  Yes.

    But, as you know, Wolf, actually, the private sector pays for the public sector.  So, what you want is, you want the public sector jobs to grow, and you want to run an energetic and efficient and streamlined government.

    I'm not for no government, but I am for energetic and efficient government.  So, if you could actually take 30,000 employees out of the bureaucracy, get the cost structure of the state of California into a good place, so that we could stand up and compete -- you know where we are losing jobs the most?  We are not losing them to India or China.

    We're losing them to Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Texas.  It's inexcusable.  We have to stand up and compete.  And we have got to be a much more competitive state, because those states are -- are -- are stealing our jobs.  And if we're going to have California's economy be strong, we cannot lose another job to a neighboring state.

    BLITZER:  Meg Whitman wants to be the governor of California.

    Good luck.  Thanks for coming in.

    WHITMAN:  Thanks a lot, Wolf.  Good to see you.

    BLITZER:  Thank you.

---END---

It's a boy for Rep. Linda Sanchez.

The Lakewood Democrat and husband Jim Sullivan announced the birth of their first child at 9:14 a.m. EST on Wednesday.

Joaquin Sánchez Sullivan weighed in at 7 pounds, 14.6 ounces and was 20.6 inches long.

Sanchez became the eighth member in the history of the House of Representatives to give birth while in office.

An e-mail from Sanchez spokeswoman Marsha Catron described the baby as healthy, as did a statement from Sullivan.

"Linda and I have been blessed with a beautiful baby boy," said Sullivan, a political consultant. "Mother and baby are both healthy and happy. Joaquin's arrival is a long awaited welcome in our lives and we are richer because of it."

Pictures were not immediately available but Catron wrote that they would soon be shared with 39th Congressional District residents. The territory includes Lakewood, Cerritos, a sliver of Long Beach and other communities in southeastern Los Angeles County.

The congresswoman, who won a fourth term Nov. 4, recently married Sullivan. It was her second marriage.

There is a precedent for members of the House giving birth to more than legislation.

In 1973, former Rep. Yvonne Burke was the first woman to become a mother while serving a House term. Burke recently retired from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Though Sanchez was not immediately available for comment, she said in an earlier interview that she is confident she can handle motherhood and Congress.

"The only thing I am worried about balancing with this pregnancy are my favorite pair of heels," she said.

[TAG1]john.canalis@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1273

Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, announced this week that Mona Sutton, owner of the Omelette and Waffle Shop in San Pedro, is the 54^th Assembly District's 2009 small business honoree.

Sutton will be asked to the state capital May 2, where the state will honor small businesses.

A fund-raiser benefitting the Long Beach Neighborhood Foundation will take place at 5:30 tonight at Phil Trani's Restaurant, 3490 Long Beach Blvd. Trani's will provide complimentary food and a no-host bar. 

Long Beach first lady Nancy Foster, Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga, Former Councilman Evan Braude, Long Beach Rescue Mission CEO Jim Lewis, Bixby Knolls BIA Executive Director Blair Cohn, CPAC Chair Annie Greenfeld-Wisner and Long Beach Little Ones founder Laura Gallagher, each of whom serve on the organization's adivsory board, are expected to attend. Council members Val Lerch and Gerrie Schipske are also expected.

The Long Beach Neighborhood Foundation is a non-profit organization committed to organizing and sponsoring athletic events and programs in Long Beach while also promoting community involvement, education, tolerance and non-violence. 

dmission is $100, which benefits programs for at-risk youths and economic development in "historically underserved parts of Long Beach."