June 2007 Archives

Sen. Hillary Clinton announced the formation of the campaign’s National Hispanic Leadership Council with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa serving as national co-chair.

Clinton also named the group's Executive Committee, whicfh her campaign said shows her support amontg Latinos. Th eannouncement cam ein Orland, Fla., where she was participating a presidential forum during the 4th Annual Conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO).

The Executive Committee, comprised of national and local leaders from across the country, will serve as an advisory board for the campaign on issues important to the Latino community and will play an active role reaching out and organizing Hispanics in their communities and across the country.

“I am honored to be joined by so many leaders that have dedicated their lives to advocating for better education for our children, access to health care, civil and voting rights and advancing economic opportunities not only for Latinos, but for all Americans,” Clinton said. “With their support, we will continue taking our message of change across the country.”

Executive committtee members from Calkifornia include:

Fabián Núñez, California Assembly Speaker

Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (CA-38)

Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34)

Dolores Huerta, Co-Founder, United Farm Workers Union, Human Rights Activist

California members of her leadership council include"

State Assemblymember Anna M. Caballero, Salinas

State Assemblymember Charles M. Calderon, City of Industry

State Assemblymember Kevin de Leon, Los Angeles

Honorable Maria Echaveste, DNC Member, Berkeley

State Assemblymember Edward P.Hernandez, West Covina

City Attorney Dennis J. Herrera, San Francisco

State Assemblymember Tony Mendoza, Norwalk

Honorable Mirian Saez, San Francisco

State Assemblymember Mary Salas, Chula Vista

State Assemblymember Jose Solorio, Anaheim

Hon. Irene Flores, Garvey School District, Garvey School District

Mayor Elba Guerrero, Huntington Park

Mayor Manuel Lozano, Baldwin Park

Mayor Ray Soleno, Reedley

Mayor Robert Fierro, Commerce

Mayor Ray Luna, Santa Paula

Mayor Daniel Furtado, Campbell

Former Mayor Joaquin Gonzalez, Hanford

Former Mayor Leticia Vasquez, Lynwood

Former Mayor Ofelia Hernandez, Huntington Park

Former Mayor Juan Noguez, Huntington Park

Former Mayor Frank Quintero, Glendale

Former Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez, San Jose

Former Mayor Emelina Pedras, Lynwood

Former Mayor Diane Martinez, Paramount

Rosalie Alvarado, National School District, San Diego

Mayor John Huerta, Greenfield

Former Mayor Maria Davila, Southgate

George Aaron Aguilar, San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District

Even in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's supposed era of post-partisanship, lawmakers once again will not approve a state budget by today's constitutional deadline.Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers said Friday they are still stuck over several key issues, including cuts to public transportation and social services and early repayment of state debt.

Though lawmakers approved a $140 billion budget out of a conference committee, Republicans voted against it, saying they were about $2 billion apart and suggesting the differences could lead to protracted budget negotiations.

"It's important to know that we are ready to approve a budget that's balanced," said Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula, the ranking Republican on the Senate budget committee. "Unfortunately, this falls short of that goal."

Democrats said they produced a balanced budget by cutting at least $1 billion beyond what they would have liked, not raising taxes or creating new social programs, and keeping Schwarzenegger's $2.1 billion reserve intact — while restoring welfare funding for children and the elderly, blind and disabled.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. beset with problms over issues related to his wife's driving of his car, became the latest public official facing a recall threat.

Former county employee Andrew Ahlering — who is also organizing the effort to recall Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca — said Friday he has started a Web site: www.recalldelgadillo.com.A recall drive also has been launced against Councilman Jack Weiss by unhappy residents in his district.

Delgadillo admitted last week that he allowed his wife, who had a suspended license, to drive his city-owned SUV. She damaged the vehicle in 2004 and Delgadillo had it fixed at city expense and only reimbursed the city $1,222 for the repairs last week after questioned by reporters.

The Los Angeles County Grand jury on Friday blasted county departments for failing to fund an abuse-prevention program and share crucial information on children in county custody even as the number of slayings of abused children more than tripled.Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Despite efforts to reform the child protective system, jurors wrote in their report that they are profoundly concerned that the number of slayings soared from 15 in 2003 to 53 in 2006.

"The Grand Jury concludes that the threat to abused and neglected children within the county remains a serious concern," jurors wrote.

"It recognizes the efforts ... to provide care and security for such children, but it has determined that the existing system of information exchange is not adequate, and, indeed puts some children unnecessarily at risk."

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is off this weekend on another quick trip -- this time to Philadelphia to address members of the National Education Association, kicking off the organization's minority community outreach campaign during a keynote address.

The NEA Grassroots and Media Minority Community Outreach Campaign is designed to engage minority communities in support of public education. Villaraigosa will headline the official launch of the new initiative, aimed at efforts to reach out to the American Indian, Alaska Native, AsianPacific Islander, African-American, Latino, Carribean and African populations in cities across the United States.

Since taking office, Villaraigosa has made education reform a top priority. Even though legislation giving him broader powers in the school district was invalidated by the courts, he supported a number of candidates who agreed with him on educational issues and who are taking control of the Los Angeles Board of Edudation.

MSNBC correspondent Mika Brzezinski is shaking up broadcast journalism this week by refusing to lead the newscast on the sunrise show "Morning Joe" with yet another story about Paris Hilton checking out of the Graybar Hotel.

Her Washington pedigree -- she's the daughter of President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, Zbignew Brzezinski -- shown through as she refused to pander to the increasingly poor judgment of her own producer and news managers everywhere and instead tried to advance to the second story in her queue, the one about prominent Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana calling on President Bush to rethink his Iraq war strategy.

"Why is she such a journalist?" host Joe Scarborough wondered aloud while she attempted to torch the Hilton pages, then ripped them and later fed another copy into the shredder behind her. The question, Joe, is why aren't there more like her on television?

Not many will have seen Mika's furor as it aired live before 6 a.m.., but it's all over You Tube.

The Los Angeles County Grand Jury released its annual report today, finding continuing problems with the children welfare system, medication errors at public hospitals, a "lack of any sense of urgency" to prepare for terrorist attacks or other disasters and other problems with county government.

Some of chapter titles include:
- Avoiding Code Blue -- Safeguard for Patient Medications
- Juvenile Custodies: Are We Paying Twice
- Crisis in Communication -- Preventing Child Fatality and Maltreatment
- Emergency Rooms and Clinics -- Who Pays?
- Triple Jeopardy-- Abandoned, Neglected and Abused Children of LA County
- LAHSA -- the Struggle to Serve
- Sanitation Districts of LA County -- From Problems to Progress
- Solar and Alternative Energy - An Idea Whose Time Has Come.

In a move expected to spur Los Angeles Unified and other districts across the country to re-evaluate racial-integration programs, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday restricted the use of race in assigning students to schools. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The 5-4 ruling from Washington, D.C., leaves the door open for the limited use of race to achieve diversity in schools, but some decried the decision as a step toward weakening landmark integration reforms of five decades ago.

Analysts also said the sharply split decision in two cases, affecting students assigned to schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, could imperil similar plans in hundreds of districts nationwide.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials said they are still reviewing the cases with outside legal counsel but believe the decision should have no immediate effect on the district's current court-ordered integration plan.

LAUSD General Counsel Kevin Reed said the district is operating under a court-ordered integration plan, dating back to 1982, that has already been upheld by the U.S. Suipreme Court.

Class is in session. Capitol Notes.

Remember this rule: the one who seals a controversial political deal, and then gets it...

* Quickly into print as a bill...

* Approved by a hurriedly convened committee...

* Moved from the floor of one chamber to the next...

* And all done fast enough to keep interest groups from taking whacks at the deal.

The Los Angeles Unified school board unanimously adopted a $6.2 billion budget Thursday that eliminates hundreds of administrative positions, mostly from the district's downtown headquarters.Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

Superintendent David Brewer III said his goal for the 2007-08 fiscal plan, his first, was to keep the focus on teaching while trying to make up for a $95 million shortfall and find money for his plans to reorganize and transform the district.

Meanwhile, over at the MTA:

Featuring eight more Rapid bus lines and 100 new 60-foot buses, Metro's $3.1 billion budget was approved Thursday by its board for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins Sunday. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Sunday is also the start of fare increases on Metro's buses and rails — a hike that some groups this week unsuccessfully challenged to stall in court with a restraining order.

The Los Angeles anning Commission adopted a "mansionization" ordinance Thursday that limits the size of prospective "McMansions" and mini-palaces in most communities. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

While some residents complained that the rule would still allow new houses to tower over their bungalow and ranch neighbors, planning commissioners said the law would balance the demand for big homes with the need to preserve neighborhood character.

"Los Angeles has an excellent, diverse heritage, socioeconomically, culturally and ethnically," said commission President Jane Usher. "We are all looking to this ordinance to help us preserve that richness."

The proposed ordinance now goes to the City Council for review.

Called the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance, the new rule would limit house size based on the lot size and zoning. For example, on a typical 5,000-square-foot lot, a property owner can now build a 7,000-square-foot house. The proposed ordinance would allow a house on that lot size to range from 2,500 to 3,000 square feet.

With the state Assembly joining in approval of compacts for Indan gaming, the Los Angeles labor movement -- one of the most powerful in the state -- is focusing its anger on some key members with long ties to them and sounding a warner shot.

“I hope that our leaders can begin to understand the ramifications of granting the casinos the right to the largest expansion in the history of our state with no worker protections for at least 23 years. I hope that they can begin to comprehend that our middle class is shrinking and not thriving. For some proof of this, I invite them to visit with some of our casino workers – meet with them at one of the two jobs they have to work at just to make ends meet. Maybe then they will realize that they have the sovereign responsibility to protect California’s workers and not just the number of slot machines found in the casinos.”

Among those the union had targeted for support was Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, who once served as political director of the organization.

Sen. Ted Kennedy showed some protective family spirit this morning when colleagues tried to rope his niece’s husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, into a debate on social security benefits paid to illegal immigrants.

Blasting an amendment that would have restricted the receipt of such benefits, Kennedy said the measure written by Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign would have required the Social Security Administration delve into the work history of every immigrant to the U.S. – legal and illegal.

“It would have them investigate Henry Kissinger and possibly Tom Tancredo’s parents,’’ Kennedy said, referring to the famously hard-line lawmaker whose parents immigrated from Italy.

``And Schwarzenegger!” another senator in the room chimed in.

``Now you’re getting personal,’’ Kennedy retorted.

The amendment was prevented from coming to the floor, and Ensign opposed the overall bill, helping to lead to the immigration overhaul’s death later in the day.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, a child of the Los Angeles labor movement, is getting some heat from his former bosses.
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, where Nunez once served as political director, is putting pressure on him to oppose the measures approving several Indian gaming compacts because they lack enforceable worker protections.
The labor unions long have been trying to organize the casino workers.
The Assembly is scheduled to vote today on four measures.
Union leaders say none "have had a public hearing, no opportunity for worker representatives to publicly express their strong concerns with them. These compacts lack enforceable worker protections, will leave a generation of workers in California’s fastest growing service sector without the protection of state and federal laws or a union contract. "

Former Lt. Gov. Mike Curb, who had a brief fling in politics after building a career with what was known as bubble gum pop music, is getting his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Curb will receive the 2,341st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday, honoring his work as a songwriter, producer and record company owner.
Singer Pat Boone and disc jockey Casey Kasem will join Curb in speaking in the late-morning ceremony in front of Capitol Records.

Curb will receive his star on the day Curb Records releases the soundtrack for the film "Evan Almighty," last weekend's box office champion.

Born Dec. 24, 1944, in Savannah, Ga., Curb began performing with his own bands as a student at Grant High School in Van Nuys.

As a freshman at what is now Cal State Northridge, working in the practice rooms of the Department of Music building, Curb wrote, "You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda," which help boost its motorcycle sales.
Curb was lieutentant governor ujnder former Gov. Edmung G. (Jerry) Brown and sparked controversy for, among other things, trying to make judicial appointments when Brown traveled out of the state.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants reporters to know he's nothing if not discreet.

About his lobbying efforts, of course! Why? what did you think we were talking about?

In Washington D.C. to tout immigration reform, Villaraigosa acknowledged he will be meeting with Democratic senators still on the fence about the bill. But with whom exactly is Villaraigosa meeting?

"I don't want to kiss and tell,'' the mayor said. Ok, then.

In a tense exchange with county supervisors, Sheriff Lee Baca defended his handling of celebrity heiress Paris Hilton on Tuesday and said Hilton's 23-day prison stay was longer than most inmates with similar sentences. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The confrontation came little more than 12 hours after Hilton strode out of jail, renewing public criticism about Baca's defiance of a judicial order earlier this month when he let the celeb go after serving just three days of a 45-day sentence for driving offenses.

An angry judge ordered Hilton returned to jail, where she stayed until Tuesday just after midnight.

But Baca vehemently denied any favoritism Tuesday and said he feared for Hilton's life when he released her early.

He also cited data that show an overcrowded prison system in which many inmates serve far less time than their actual sentence.

"The data shows there wasn't any preferential treatment," Baca said. "In fact, the preferential treatment given to Paris Hilton is that she served more time than anyone else for this offense."

OK, so City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has taken some hits lately. There was his wife's suspended license, his year-long lack of car insurance and city staff baby-sitting his kids. But the clouds parted briefly for him on Tuesday when filmaker and provocateur Michael Moore gave Rocky a big shout out for prosecuting Kaiser Permanente for patient dumping on Skid Row.

During a press conference on the steps of City Hall to promote the release of his documentary, Sicko, on the nation's health care crisis, Moore singled out Delgadillo's effort to penalize medical providers for dropping homeless patients (some still wearing their hospital gowns) downtown.

"I'm so proud of the city attorney of this city for going after (Kaiser) on criminal charges," Moore said. "These are large million-dollar and in some cases billion-dollar hospital corporations, and to treat people like that, well, it's not the way we were raised was it?"

Under a settlement with Delgadillo's office, Kaiser agreed to establish new discharge rules and protocols for handling the release of homeless patients.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is traveling to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to urge Congress to adopt bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

Villaraigosa will join Senators Ted Kennedy, Mel Martinez, Arlen Specter, Dianne Feinstein and Ken Salazar, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Arizona Gov.Janet Napolitano for a press conference to support the legislation.

The Senate is considering a bill that secures the border, restores the rule of law and offers a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already living and working in the United States.

Mayor Villaraigosa will urge Senators to support this proposal and address the challenge of illegal immigration with tough, fair and practical measures.

City Ethics Commissioner Bill Boyarsky talks about the eduction he is receiving constantly in his role as a city Ethics Commissioner as well as being on the other side of the news business. He writes on his blog:

The Rocky Delgadillo story is another milestone in my education as an ethics commissioner. We have a rule on the commission: We five commissioners are not supposed to comment
publicly—maybe even privately—on alleged violations that may come before us for a vote.
No other city commission is so restricted. We’re supposed to be like judges. "

Here he is on the cover of Time magazine. There he is in Europe, meeting with world leaders. Next, he'll be popping up in India.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, never known for his low profile, is once again receiving attention on the world stage this week, both as he visits Europe and as bizarre speculation simmers about the possibility of a vice-presidential bid. Harrison Sheppard reports on the governor's travels.

Schwarzenegger visited his hometown in Austria with his daughter Katherine over the weekend and then met with new French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday to talk about trade and global warming, and lay the groundwork for a more extensive European trade mission next year. Today he is meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Since taking office in 2003, Schwarzenegger has also traveled to Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan and Mexico, mostly to promote trade and tourism.

He is also planning a trip to India later this year and a trade mission to Europe next year. He has also signed agreements on climate change with leaders of foreign nations and provinces.

A majority of California voters favors the proposed ballot measure altering legislative term limits, according to a new poll by the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University.
When read the official ballot language describing the measure on term limits, 56% of
voters said they favor the term limits initiative, 28% are opposed and 15% were undecided. This
represents an increase from 51% in favor and 36% against, recorded by SPRI in March 2007
when the measure was summarized for respondents because official ballot language had not been
released.

If the grocery union's vote to authorize a strike against the chain markets has you running out to stock your pantry, breathe easy. Julia Scott in the Daily News.

The strike vote passed overwhelmingly Sunday, according to a United Food and Commercial Workers spokesman, but a strike against Vons, Ralphs and Albertson's is not imminent. Neither is a worker lockout.

Both sides have many ways to up the ante without locking out workers or striking.

The unions can:

Call for a sick-in.

Disrupt the work flow by following job descriptions to the letter of the law. Baggers could meticulously sort goods before packing items and stockers could spend so much time aligning canned goods that the shelves would be half empty.

Cancel the contract, but not strike. This worked for Dallas and Houston grocery unions, which got a contract after canceling the deal, according to a union Web site www.respectufcw.com.

The chains can:

Make workers nervous by hiring new, nonunion workers. Boosting the ranks is important because unemployment is so low the chains will have a hard time finding replacement workers at a moment's notice.

Stockpile goods so the flow of deliveries is not affected by a job
Advertisement
action.

In the wake of Sheriff Lee Baca's decision to defy a judge's order and let Paris Hilton
out of jail early, a poll released Monday found more than 50 percent of Los Angeles County residents are dissatisfied with the sheriff's leadership, management and judgment. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The KRC Research poll of 303 adults from June 12-14, conducted at the behest of the 8,000-member Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, found 68 percent thought he showed poor judgment in releasing Hilton to home confinement and 80 percent believe people with money, power or celebrity get better treatment from the Sheriff's Department than the average citizen.

The survey follows a similar one taken prior to the Hilton brouhaha in which nearly 70 percent of sheriff's deputies said they disapproved of Baca's management of the department and only 14 percent said they would support the sheriff for re-election.

"Taken together, these surveys are disturbing," ALADS President Steve Remige said. "The message to the sheriff from the people he serves and from the deputies who serve under him is that he needs to do a lot better. We are willing to work with the sheriff to help improve the department and rescue his reputation."

The survey surprised political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe. Baca was re-elected to his third term last June with 67 percent of the vote.

"When it's a private poll, I'm very skeptical of taking the results at face value," Jeffe said.

Hoping to eliminate the need for hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes to bail out state pensions and health care benefits, former Assemblyman Keith Richman will ask voters to raise retirement ages for teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public employees. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Warning that continued inaction will bankrupt the state, Richman said Monday his plan would save $500 billion over 30 years.

"If we just keep going the way we are going, not only are some government entities going to go bankrupt and cut services, but in all likelihood there will be the need for billions of dollars in new taxes throughout the state of California," he said.

Richman's Public Employee Benefits Reform Initiative, which he has filed with the state, needs about 700,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Under the plan, all new public employees except those in public-safety jobs would have to work until age 65 to 67 - and police officers and firefighters would have to work to age 55 - to receive full pension benefits. Depending on years worked, some safety agencies in the state have a lower age for full retirement.

Richman's plan would apply to all new employees in state and local government, special districts, school districts, and the California State University and University of California systems beginning July 1, 2009. If enough signatures are collected, the initiative would go on the November 2008 ballot.

Outgoing school board member David Tokofsky will be honored Tuesday by the Board of Education for his years of service to the district. Tokofsky decided against seeking re-election this year and he is being succeeded by Yolie Flores Aguilar.

Tokofsky, whose district stretches from Atwater, and Los Feliz, to Highland Park, East Los Angeles, and South Gate, was elected to the Board of Education in 1995. He is a former high school history teacher who led Marshall High School to national victory in the 1987 U.S. Academic Decathlon.

During his term, Tokofsky initiated policies that resulted in the establishment of Full-Day Kindergarten, creation of an Inspector General's Office, the creation of a Citizen's Bond Oversight Committee and creation of the Human Relations Commission. Additionally, Tokofsky advocated on behalf of the District to secure $1 billion dollars for
state textbooks, and $50 million dollars of Measure K funding for Early Childhood Education Expansion.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has visited his Austrian home city Graz for the first time since it removed his name from its main football stadium in December 2005. BBC.

City officials were angry with the California governor for refusing to grant clemency to a death row inmate.

But in a sign of thawing relations, Schwarzenegger has made a private visit to the city.

He met politicians and 84-year-old Alfred Gerstl, a friend who helped him early on in his bodybuilding career.

During the dispute, Mr Schwarzenegger's name was erased from the city's main website as well as the football stadium. He then made clear he wanted nothing more to do with Graz and returned a Graz "ring of honour" that had been given to him.

A new poll from the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University ahows that Sen. Hillary Clinton, with overwhelming support among women and non-white voters, holds a commanding lead in the California Democratic Party primary, while former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Illinois Sen. Barak Obama are tied in a distant second.

Amid a more divided field, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani leads in the
California Republican Party primary while actor and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, not
yet formally in the race, has edged his way to second place, with a statistically insignificant lead
over Arizona Sen. John McCain. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney trails far behind.

Meanwhile, President George Bush’s approval rating among Californians remains near
historic lows, driven by corrosive dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq, a staggering lack of
credibility and deep pessimism about the direction the country is headed. For GOP candidates in
California, Bush is no asset.

Southern California grocery workers voted Sunday night to authorize a strike against Vons and Ralphs, six months after contract negotiations with three major chains began, according to union leaders. Daily News.

"The vote was a mandate to authorize a strike," said Rick Icaza, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770. Icaza called the results "preliminary" and did not release specific tallies. Turnout was about 50 percent, Icaza said.

The union already authorized a strike against Albertson's. The vote gives union leaders and negotiators the power to call a strike at any time. The chains agreed to lockout all workers if one market is targeted for a strike.

Members also voted down a contract proposal from the markets Sunday.

Both sides have been bargaining since before a three-year contract covering almost 70,000 grocery clerks expired March 5.

The union members were also voting on some of the markets' contract proposals for pay and health coverage.

Most of the vote count was expected to be completed by late Sunday, although some workers in inland areas were scheduled to vote early Monday.

It happens every day in the hectic metropolis of Los Angeles, and all signs are that it's getting worse.

Someone cuts you off on the freeway.

Someone's curt on the phone, at a store, at work.

Someone speaks loudly on a cell phone in a restaurant, sharing details of a life you don't care to hear about. Or smokes upwind of you on the patio of a coffee shop.

Rudeness is part of life in many big cities but Los Angeles surely ranks near the top - from road rage to the cold indifference of government bureaucrats when dealing with the public.

Now the Los Angeles Unified School District is taking aim at its own surly workers with new programs to boost "welcome-ness" - inspired by a position created at other school districts as the "director of first impressions." Naush Boghossian n the Daily News.

It's the brainchild of new Superintendent David Brewer, who wants all parents who walk in the front door of a school to feel "welcome and respected."

And he hopes to accomplish that broad task with Los Angeles-area business relaying their customer-service training to all school office personnel, administrators and teachers.

After disclosures that the Los Angeles city attorney and his wife were lax about getting car insurance and paying parking fines, the Department of Motor Vehicles might want to consider creating the Rocky and Michelle Delgadillo Trust Fund for unpaid tickets.Tipoffs in the Daily News.

With the city attorney continuing to draw heat over his wife's driving problems and the couple's failure to carry mandatory liability insurance - or apparently to keep up with business taxes - other officials in City Hall and their staffs have been scrambling to ensure their own driving records are clean.

"Everyone is joking about it, but you know we are all checking to make sure we don't have anything that could embarrass us or our boss," one aide said.

There is something wrong with our politicians, and it could be spreading. Mariel Garza takes a look at the latest political fever in the Daily News.

Did Rocky Delgadillo imagine that his job as the top law enforcer for Los Angeles exempted him from the rules that he applies to everyone else?

Did Sheriff Lee Baca honestly think that he could give special treatment to another celebrity and no one would notice?

Did Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa truly believe that the public wouldn't assume Corina filed for divorce and moved out of Getty House because he was fooling around?

And does Ed Jew really believe that he could live outside his district and it wouldn't get found out?

You might not know who Ed Jew is, but you should. He's a San Francisco supervisor under investigation by the FBI for shaking down businesses in his district for thousands of dollars. His very job is in jeopardy as the San Francisco city attorney tries to force him out for not living in the district - or even in the county.

But more importantly, he is one of those who have been infected in an outbreak that's raging through

The public frenzy swirling around the impending release from jail of Paris Hilton has again put Sheriff Lee Baca's ties to Tinseltown in the spotlight. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.
Long known for his penchant to hobnob with the rich and famous, the jet-setting Los Angeles County sheriff has repeatedly been described as starstruck and accused of giving preferential treatment to celebrities.

Baca faces what is expected to be a tough grilling this week by the Board of Supervisors over his handling of the Hilton case, especially his decision to send her home in defiance of a judge's direction after she had served just three days of her 45-day sentence over driving offenses.

The scrutiny comes as campaign contributions to Baca from Hollywood hotshots hit more than $90,000 last year - nearly 14 percent of all his campaign donati

After more than two hours of debate, the Los Angeles Unified School District board voted to renew the charter for Discovery Prep in Pacoima for a year. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

Then, a short time later, frustrated, tired and confused, the board negated its vote and postponed a new decision until later.

Charter renewal for Woodland Hills' Ivy Academia was next on the agenda and got a one-year extension after 20 minutes of discussion.

The trouble is Ivy - LAUSD's highest-performing independent charter school - lost out on a $1.2 million state grant that required a longer extension.

Those are just examples of issues facing LAUSD as it deals with the booming charter school movement.

The school board lacks a coherent policy toward charters so its actions are often arbitrary even as the debate on education reform becomes increasingly politicized.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's troubles mounted again Friday when state tax officials disclosed they suspended the license for his wife's consulting business and have no record that she paid taxes on it.

The disclosures prompted Michelle Delgadillo to write a check for an undisclosed sum to the city for failing to pay back taxes, saving her husband the embarrassment of having to pass the prosecution of her case over to the District Attorney's Office.

City Ethics Commission records show Michelle Delgadillo earned between $10,000 and $100,000 a year from her home business from 2002 to 2006.

The California Franchise Tax Board said it had no tax records for her business and suspended the license for her corporation, CRD Inc., in February 2005.

In a statement, Delgadillo's office said Michelle Delgadillo, 36, "reported and paid income taxes" on all of her home-based business income. The city attorney was not available to comment directly and the nature of her clientele was not disclosed.

California Franchise Tax Board spokeswoman Theresa Gray said the business is breaking the law if it is continuing to operate.

"They can't legally do business in the state of California. They need to file forms and come back into compliance," she said.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles sought unsuccessfully Friday to extract an assurance from Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman that the agency would conduct thorough environmental assessments of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.

In a letter to Bodman, Waxman said he was concerned and confused when the Energy Department moved forward in May with the demolition of some buildings at the site, despite a court order to conduct an Environmental Impact Study of the cleanup site.

The demolition was suddenly aborted, but the agency continues to sidestep further studies.

Energy Department spokesman Megan Barnett said they agency was juggling conflicting orders from the state, the federal government and the U.S. District Court.

``We plan to comply with the court order,’’ Barnett said, but indicted that might not mean completion of an environmental study.