It's not THAT bad
Villaraigosa's "close friend" Mirthala Salinas reportedly quit her job at Telemundo rather than accept the transfer to the Riverside bureau.
As a former resident of Riverside and reporter at the Riverside Press-Enterprise (a great paper back then, still a good one now), I can honestly say it's not that bad. Hot, yes. Smoggy, uh-huh. Suburban, oh yes. But it is iIn fact, it's a wild place for news, assuming someone's willing to look for it. The Inland Empire encompasses some of the weirder parts of the Southern California. And things get to happening there.
But I do understand. She would have a hard time keeping an eye on the mayor from 50 miles away.
Wonder what's next for Salinas. Will she show up as a spokewoman at some L.A. organization now? Or morph into political sidekick? Stay tuned.
I’m not sure who has the least life expectancy, being the mayor’s main, secondary or tertiary squeeze or being Salinas’ man of the hour. In either case being the other’s partner is like the part of an unnamed crewman of the Enterprise on Star Trek. Doomed. You just got to believe that this is a match made in karmic heaven.
Actually, news would have been very hard for Mirthala to find out there.
With all the growth that has gone on, there have been many political corruption and conflict of interest scandals in recent years. I know, I was asst. editor of the IE Business Journal for a while.
However, this would do Mirthala no good, as she has clearly demonstrated a complete inability to recognize conflicts of interest or any similar misconduct.