June 2010 Archives

Thousands of government workers throughout Los Angeles could begin losing their jobs this week with the start of the new fiscal year, even as officials make last-minute bids to save positions through further service cuts, tax hikes and union concessions.Daily News,

Up to 4,300 jobs could be cut next fiscal year from local government agencies, including the city, county and schools, if officials and unions fail to reach deals to slash spending.

Los Angeles Unified School District alone could shed up to 2,500 jobs this year, although that number is expected to fluctuate through the fall as officials negotiate with unions and monitor the state revenue picture.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to draft a ballot measure for a $39 a year parcel tax to support libraries, but held off on whether to place it on the November or March ballot. Daily News.

Putting it on the November ballot will cost an additional $4.1 million.

The council voted 9-1, with Councilman Dennis Zine in opposition, to draft language for the ballot measure.

"We have been cutting their budget year after year and they are asking us to put this before the voters," said Councilman Tom LaBonge, who favors the November election date. "I think it's the least we can do."

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to take a series of steps to help the new chief probation officer reform the long-troubled Probabtion Department.Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The vote gives newly appointed Los Angeles County Chief Probation Officer Donald Blevins maximum flexibility to hire the best possible management team - including people from outside the department - to reform the 6,000-member department that oversees 80,000 youth and adult probationers in the county.

"The clear message from the Board of Supervisors is that I clean up this department and these motions will assist me in accomplishing that," Blevins said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to boost annual taxpayer contributions to its retirement system by $200 million next fiscal year.Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The move will take annual contributions to nearly $1 billion, a figure which might have to double over the next five years to keep up with funding requirements.

Stung by an $8 billion pension fund loss last year, Los Angeles County supervisors will be asked today to spend an additional $200 million to shore up its wilting retirement system. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

If the additional funding is approved, the taxpayer tab for county employees' pensions would soar in the fiscal year beginning Thursday from $787 million to $987 million.

And officials warned that additional increases would be needed in future years - with the price tag for taxpayers reaching $2 billion by 2015 - to cover investment losses in addition to enhanced pensions for the legions of county-employed baby boomers reaching retirement age.

CHP Officer Joseph Rodriguez cracked open the door of his patrol car on Monday, squeezing between his black-and-white and the traffic whizzing by. Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

He passed the telltale scratches on the fender, like those found on most CHP patrol cars, made by officers' equipment belts as they cling to their vehicles for safety.

"On the freeway, it's definitely a different monster," said Rodriguez, 27, of the West Valley station in Woodland Hills, whose car No. 608 patrols the San Fernando Valley.

The number of Los Angeles parks included in an anti-gang program credited with helping the city record its safest summer in 40 years will be expanded from 16 to 24, officials announced today. Daily News.

The two dozen parks -- in Los Angeles' most troubled neighborhoods -- will be open until midnight this summer, to provide sports and recreational activities aimed at luring youths away from gangs.

One gubernatorial campaign employs nearly 70 people and contracts with dozens of others as it spares no expense finding new ways to craft and broadcast its messages. Sacramento Bee.

Another relies largely on the spontaneity of its candidate with minimal infrastructure and almost nothing in the way of marketing dazzle

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/28/2853549/whitman-brown-offer-contrasting.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics#ixzz0s9iegVF3

Tipoff: The Studio City car wash gets a song; Jane Usher decides not to run for couincil

Dissatisfied with the pace of reform at local schools, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pleaded directly to Los Angeles Unified school board members Thursday to stop "biting at the edges" of reform and take bolder action.Conniei Llanos in the Daily News.

Villaraigosa is pushing for the district to overhaul its School Choice plan that allows nonprofits, teacher groups and charters to bid to run some of the district's newest or lowest-performing schools.

The mayor, who helped elect a majority of the school board, said he was appealing directly to board members because Superintendent Ramon Cortines had "summarily dismissed" his recommendations.

Under fire for receiving free tickets to scores of high-profile special events, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he has done nothing improper and will release documents today relating to all the activities he's attended over the last five years.Daily News.

He maintained that he attended the concerts, awards shows and sporting events in an official capacity as mayor, and did not consider the free tickets to be gifts that must be reported on financial disclosure statements.

"This is my job," Villaraigosa said during a City Hall news conference on education reform issues.

"This is the entertainment capital of America, and I have the job of promoting the city, and this is part of my job."

Los Angeles officials on Wednesday sought a first-of-its-kind court injunction against a tagging crew blamed for an "epidemic" of graffiti, including vandalism on a stretch of the L.A. River that cost nearly $4 million to remove. C.J. Lin in the Daily News.

The request filed by the City Attorney's Office seeks to restrict the activities of the Metro Transit Assassins, who officials blame for some 500 separate incidents of graffiti.

"This is one of the most prolific and destructive graffiti or `tagging' crews" in L.A., said Frank Mateljan, spokesman for the city attorney.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday granted an exemption to its boycott of Arizona to keep the photo red light enforcement program operating, even as some members questioned its cost to the city.Daily News.

The red light program currently generates about $3.6 million in ticket revenue for the city, but costs about $3.9 million to operate.

"It just seems to me it's wrong when the state is making money, the county is making money and it's costing us money," Councilwoman Janice Hahn said.

Despite the pleas and protests of hundreds of employees, Los Angeles Unified officials Tuesday approved a 2010-11 budget that includes thousands of layoffs of teachers, custodians, office workers and other staff.Connie LLanos in the Daily News.

The school board also approved hiring John Deasy as the district's new deputy superintendent, seen as a potential successor to Superintendent Ramon Cortines, who is rumored to be eyeing early retirement. For now, Deasy, currently a deputy director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, would advise Cortines and stand in for him in his absence.

LAUSD faced a deficit of some $640 million for the 2010-11 school year and officials had initially looked at raising class sizes at grade levels through middle school and cutting some 6,300 jobs.

Even as more cities and counties join the fight against tobacco, the number of smokers in Los Angeles County has remained steady since 2002, according to a new study. Read the report. Susan Abram in the Daily News.

A first-of-its-kind report by the county Department of Public Health found about 14 percent of county residents smoke, but researchers are still trying determine why rates remain higher in selected communities and demographic groups.

The data were collected in 2007, just when some of the strictest bans in the nation began to take effect. While overall smoking rates in the county had been studied previously, this was the first to break down along geographic and demographic lines.

Los Angeles city officials began Tuesday probing the Department of Water and Power's attempt earlier this year to push through a rate hike by threatening the city with financial penalty if it was rejected.

A recent city audit found that the DWP's threat to withhold $73 million from city coffers if it didn't get the rate hike was not justified by the agency's finances and critics have compared the move to an extortion attempt.

In the end, the City Council approved a lower hike than the DWP had sought.

A Los Angeles city panel today recommended asking voters to pay a $39-a-year parcel tax to keep libraries open six days a week, but had questions on when it should go on the ballot.

The City Council's Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee supports the measure that would generate an estimated $30 million annually, but balked at the $4.6 million cost to place it on the county ballot in November.

"It is a county election and this is the cost they have to place a measure before voters," said Assistant City Clerk Holly Wolcott, adding that the cost for the city to conduct its own election would be $18 million.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's acceptance of free tickets to major entertainment and sports events is the subject of an inquiry by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, a prosecutor said Tuesday, but the mayor insisted he has not done anything wrong. Daily News.

David Demerjian, head deputy district attorney in charge of the D.A.'s Public Integrity Division, said the goal of the inquiry was "to determine if a crime was committed."

"We decided to look into it because we received a complaint," Demerjian said. "There's nothing special about this one."

The highway surgeons of the Sepulveda Pass lace up their boots, pull on gloves, adjust their hard hats and fasten their safety goggles, then get to work just as most Angelenos are crawling into bed. Susan Atkins in the Daily News,

On a recent late night, towering spotlights parked alongside the 405 Freeway illuminated the fog-shrouded hillsides where a growling backhoe chewed through mounds of dirt, creating a new freeway lane one bite at a time.

"We've got to be careful, and watch out for everything and everyone, because this is the time of night when drunk drivers like to crash into us," said Robert Stormo, a safety manager who works from sunset 'til sunrise.

Tipoff: New Animal Services Director Brenda Barnette learning pitfalls of job.

After a year-long search, the CEO of the Seattle Humane Society was tapped Thursday to lead Los Angeles' Animal Services Department, becoming the sixth executive in a decade to head the embattled agency. Daily News.

During a tour to a shelter near downtown, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the nomination of Brenda Barnette to the post - one that has frequently been targeted by activists who accuse the department of destroying too many animals.

Five people have either quit or been forced out of the job in the last 10 years, including one who was hospitalized with seizures related to job pressures.

With budget cuts forcing libraries to close two days a week, the city Board of Library Commissioners asked Wednesday that a $39-a-year parcel tax be placed before voters on the November ballot. Daily News
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Although voters this month shot down a $100 parcel tax to fund Los Angeles schools, the library panel said surveys indicate strong support for its plan.

If approved by two-thirds of voters, the parcel tax of $3.25 a month would generate $30 million a year to help fund library programs.

Conditions among the poor in California, especially among children, have worsened significantly during the recession and a full-time job no longer ensures not living in poverty, according to new statistics. Daiily News.

Every 35 seconds a child in California is born into poverty, with more than one-fifth of the state's children now living in impoverished conditions - up from 17 percent in 2006.

Those statistics were released in connection with the third annual MENDing Poverty Conference Wednesday in Pacoima that attracted almost 200 officials and advocates from regional antipoverty agencies and social service nonprofit groups.

Los Angeles Unified officials approved Tuesday a largely symbolic plan that seeks to block the practice of basing layoffs only on seniority while making it easier to fire bad teachers.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

The district is expected to negotiate the proposal with union leaders, who oppose the resolution.

The measure also urges the district to support proposed state legislation to eliminate "last hired-first fired" rules for layoffs.

New companies that open in Los Angeles would be granted three-year exemption from paying the city business tax under a proposal unveiled Tuesday. Daily News.

If approved by the City Council, the business-tax holiday will exempt new companies from having to pay the city's gross receipts tax for three years. Officials say any loss in revenue would be offset by new companies and their employees purchasing goods and sevices from existing firms, which, in turn, pay business taxes.

The Marshall School of Business at USC estimated the holiday could result in the creation of 55,000 new jobs.

The city agency that oversees neighborhood councils on Tuesday was granted a six-month reprieve as officials vowed to continue efforts to save it from elimination. Daily News

The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment had been slated to be consolidated with another department as a money-saving move during the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Instead, DONE will remain intact for six months while officials study ways to save money while still retaining it as a separate agency.

A trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles is normally about as fun as a long, rush-hour commute on a busy L.A. freeway. C.J. Lin in the Daily News.

But these days, heading to a DMV on most Mondays is like getting stuck behind a four-car pileup on a holiday weekend.

Thanks to furlough Fridays - which close many state offices three Fridays a month to save money ndash; lines at most DMV offices on Monday overflow with motorists, desperate to renew licenses or register their vehicles before getting fined

A teary Silvia Lopez hugged Plummer Elementary School principal Angel Barrett tightly Monday, thanking her in Spanish for being "a gift from God."Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

"I thank God so much that you are here," Lopez said, kissing Barrett on the cheek and then wiping tears from her own cheek. The mother of three has two students attending Plummer Elementary.

Keeping DWP bills comparatively low over the long run means Los Angeles residents will have to pay higher water and electric rates for at least the next two years. Daily News.

That's the message Interim DWP chief Austin Beutner sent to a skeptical public ahead of his presentation today to the City Council on the future of the city-owned utility.

"Our rates are below comparable utilities and we want to keep them there," Beutner said in an interview Monday with the Daily News. "But to do that will require a certain investment now."

Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich wants to punish the investigators who took too long to complete reports on 31 probation officers accused of misconduct and who will now escape discipline.Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Staffers for Antonovich and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky were working Monday on a motion that would not only punish the investigators, but also create a system that would ensure investigations are conducted in a timely fashion.

Existing rules require officials to investigate and discipline probation officers within one year of being accused of an offense.

"We are looking at improved, strengthened and enhanced Internal Affairs and Child Abuse Special Investigations units," said Anna Pembedjian, Antonovich's justice deputy.

Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs has chosen Los Angeles and Long Beach for the next stage of its effort to help small business entrepreneurs expand and create new jobs in a $500 million program to be announced today. Daily News.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster welcomed the program that will work with local colleges and community groups to identify local companies as part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Initiative.

Tipoff: Jack Kyser announces retirement plans.

A husband-and-wife team that run a high-performing West Valley charter school were charged Thursday with 38 criminal counts alleging misuse of public funds, embezzling, money laundering and other crimes.Conniei Llanos in the Daily News.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Public Integrity Division alleges that Eugene Selivanov, 38, and his wife, Tatyana Berkovich, 32, who operate Ivy Academia Charter School, misused the school's public funds, at times shifting them to a private school the couple operates and at other times putting them to "personal use."

Ivy Academia Charter School is publicly funded and serves 1,100 students on four campuses in Woodland Hills, Winnetka, West Hills and Chatsworth from kindergarten to 12th grade.

The DWP deceived Los Angeles officials when it threatened to withhold $73.5 million from the city during a protracted rate-hike battle, says an audit released Thursday Daily News,

During a news conference in front of DWP headquarters, City Controller Wendy Greuel the utility's intransigence created "a fiasco (that) left both the city and the DWP with a black eye."

"It was one of the ugliest times in city history," Greuel said. "There were no winners in this."

Layoffs at Los Angeles' libraries will force their closure for a second day each week, beginning July 6, officials announced Thursday.Daily News

The Board of Library Commissioners reluctantly approved the new schedule, which reflects the loss of librarians under the city's $6.7 billion budget for 2010-11.

A comparison of Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman on their runoff election. Kevin Modesti in the Daily News

Los Angeles Unified's $100-per-parcel tax measure failed to get the necessary two-thirds approval at the polls, but district officials Wednesday said they were encouraged that a majority of voters still supported the tax.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Nearly 53 percent of local voters approved LAUSD's Measure E, which would have raised $92 million a year for the next four years to cover 1,200 arts and music teachers, librarians, custodians and school police officers at LAUSD.

The parcel tax was the district's first attempt at using property taxes to fund teacher and other employee salaries, after successfully passing five construction bonds since 1997.

Los Angeles took steps Wednesday toward laying off 246 of the initial 761 workers to be cut under the $6.7 billion city budget taking effect July 1.

A list of layoffs - affecting libraries, animal services and child care services in parks - was presented to the unions this week as part of the budget balancing plan.

But union leaders said the job cuts will ultimately result in only $13 million in savings because of a previous deal agreed to defer pay increases if the city agreed to no layoffs. Now that the layoffs are moving forward, they noted, the city will have to pay about $54 million in deferred wage hikes.

Democrat Mike Gatto easily won election over Republican Sunder Ramani in early vote-counting Tuesday in the runoff election to fill a vacant Assembly seat in the east San Fernando Valley. Kevin Modesti in the Daily News.

The two candidates are contesting the Assembly's 43rd District, which covers Glendale, Burbank and North Hollywood.

Gatto, an attorney and former aide to Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, and Ramani, owner of an interior-construction company, were vying to serve until Nov. 30 in the Assembly seat that Paul Krekorian gave up in January after being elected to the Los Angeles City Council.

A ballot measure that would add $100 per parcel to property owners' tax bills to save Los Angeles Unified jobs failed to ge the two-thirds voted needed for passage, according to early returns Tuesday night.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Ballot Measure E has to receive approval from two-thirds of all voters to be succesful. Based on early returns, the measure had a little over half the vote.

Laying the groundwork for rate hikes to fund next year's $4.3 billion budget, interim Department of Water and Power chief Austin Beutner promised Tuesday to bring more transparency to the agency.Daily News.

In an hour-long presentation to the City Council, Beutner said he will present detailed proposals next week to create a ratepayer advocate post, design new utility bills that would show how rates are being spent and draft a long-term resource plan.

Two Silicon Valley veterans, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, looked to become the Republican Party's standard bearers in 2010, moving easily to the front of the pack in early election returns.
Whitman, the former head of e-Bay, held a wide lead over Insurance Commisisoner Steve Poizner in the race for the nomination for governor, to face Democrat Attorney General Jerry Brown in November.
In the race for the Senate nomination, Fiorina, the former head of HP, was easily leading over former. Rep. Tom Campbell for the right to face Democratic incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer.
In other top races, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was trailing Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn in Los Angeles returns in the race for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. However, Newsom was leading statwide Appointed Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado was easily winning the GOP nomination.

Candidates were making a final push for votes on Monday ahead of a primary election in which Republicans could propel two women to the top of their party's ticket for the first time.
AP in the Daily News,

Billionaire former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina were campaigning in Southern California, as was Whitman's gubernatorial rival, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.

HOLLYWOOD -- Holy citation Batman! Susan Abram in the Daily News.

Superman, Wonder Woman and Spider-Man have fought the world's most menacing foes to ensure good triumphs over evil.

But dozens of their likenesses who pose for photos with tourists for tips on Hollywood Boulevard haven't been true to their superhero characters.

By traditional measures, 2009 was a good year for sports in the Los Angeles area, with the Lakers earning another championship and seven of the region's nine major-league teams winning more games than they lost. Kevin Modedsti in the Daily News.

On the financial scoreboard, though, last year marked the end of a long winning streak for the Southern California sports industry.

A report released Monday shows an 18 percent decline in revenue from sports-related activities in 2009 compared with a study conducted two years earlier, said the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles Sports Council.

Postponing decisions about possible layoffs and further cuts in public services, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors gave final approval Monday to a $23.2 billion budget for 2010-11.Troy anderson in the Daily News.

Although the budget benefited from an extra $44 million in sales tax and vehicle license fee revenues, Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka said the county still faces enormous financial uncertainties. The biggest is the potential loss of $1.25 billion in state funding when lawmakers finalize California's budget in the late summer or early fall.

"This year continues to be a strong challenge," Fujioka said. "We are dealing with the uncertainty in both the federal budget and state budget. We have a number of concerns of what is happening at the state level."

The day both welcomed and dreaded by the medical marijuana community finally arrived Monday, when the law regulating clinics in Los Angeles took effect.Daily News.

A steady parade of operators filed into Los Angeles City Hall and paid $324 in application fees, which placed them on a list of clinics that will be notified in a month if they are eligible to continue operating.

Elsewhere, however, owners kept their dispensaries shuttered, not willing to take a $2,500-a-day risk by flouting the law.

"Sorry! We are closed for the time being," said a makeshift sign taped to the locked front door of the Green Joy dispensary in Woodland Hills.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday praised the work of Los Angeles Unified school board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, who announced last week that she will not seek another term in November. Daily News.

Three years ago, Villaraigosa encouraged Aguilar to run for the school board, where he said she has acted as a change agent.

"We are going to have to draft someone, or see if someone steps forward, who can do the same work she has done," the mayor said.

A runoff between Democrat Mike Gatto and Republican Sunder Ramani to fill a vacant Assembly seat representing the east San Fernando Valley is one of the few elections on California primary ballots Tuesday that will put someone right into office. Kevin Modesti in the Daily News,

It sounds simple, but little about the Assembly's 43rd District contest has ever been simple.

Ramani and Gatto, both first-time candidates, advanced to the runoff after they were the leading vote-getters in an April special election, although neither received an outright majority.

Lorenzen Mortuary will be relocating soon from the building it's occupied for nearly 60 years, making way for the planned expansion of the Los Angeles Jewish Home.Gregory J. w
Wilcox in the Daily News.

It's a move that owner Jon Robert Lorenzen never thought he'd have to make. But a complicated legal case gifted the property to the neighboring Jewish Home, and Lorenzen now accepts that he will be losing the building and the home where he's worked and lived most of his life.

Tipoff" Council vs. Trutanich in lobbying Sacramento.

Worried about visual blight and potential health hazards, a group of Lake Balboa residents is waging an admittedly uphill fight to block a 45-foot cellular phone tower from being erected in their neighborhood.Tony Castro in the Daily News

The battle typifies the struggles erupting around Los Angeles, pitting underfunded bands of neighbors against telecommunications giants.

Residents opposed to the tower have been holding weekly protests in the long-odds hope that officials will heed their concerns about radiation emitted from the powerful signals and the impact on property values from the potential eyesore.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday signed off on a $6.7 billion city budget that slashes city services, raises fees and could lead to up to 1,700 layoffs. Daily News.

Villaraigosa made only one minor line-item veto to the spending plan, rejecting the City Council's effort to assert partial control over anti-gang programs that now operate out of the mayor's office.

Villaraigosa told the council he appreciated the work it had done to balance the budget in difficult economic times, and he agrees with most of the changes it had made to his original proposal. He noted that the plan maintains officer staffing levels at the Los Angeles Police Department.

Some 405,000 Los Angeles County homeowners will have up to 1,800 reasons to smile this year following the latest reassessment of property values. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The average annual tax bill for affected homeowners will fall between $1,500 and $1,800, LA County Assessor Robert Quon said Wednesday after reviewing 405,000 homes.

Similar reviews done last year and in 2008 resulted in lower property taxes for more than 330,000 homeowners.

Two Los Angeles governing boards Tuesday officials joiined a list of cities, counties and community groups that have slammed Arizona's tough new immigration law.Troy Anderson and Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

In a split vote along party lines, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed to suspend all travel to Arizona for county business unless the travel is considered imperative, ban county investments in Arizona securities, and review all contracts with Arizona-based or headquartered companies and report on how those contracts can be terminated.

The county does some $27 million in business with Arizona, but it wasn't clear how much would be affected.

The Department of Water and Power wants customers to pay up to 8 percent more for water to fund millions of dollars in improvements to the utility's aging water pipes and pumping stations under a budget presented Tuesday.Daily News.

The proposed rate hike, which could be blocked by the City Council, comes on top of a 4.5 percent hike approved by the City Council in April following weeks of public opposition to the plan.

Even in April, the DWP warned that it would be back asking for more money to cover the cost of replacing miles of outdated water pipes and bringing its energy systems into compliance with modern regulations.

With a pink tarp shrouding the 64-foot-long mural at the Studio City Car Wash, two City Council panels opened debate Tuesday on reviving a public arts program that would promote and preserve fine-art murals.Daily News.

The committees are trying to find a way to distinguish between commercial signs and fine-art murals and to work within the specific plans enacted by various communities.

A long-time Republcan political operative, known as much for his sharp tongue as his strategy, has been named by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to head the Fair Political Practices Commission
Dan Schnur, who has been director of USC"s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, will take on the job being vacated by Ross Johnson, who is leaving for health reasons. The job pays $132,00 and does not require confirmation by the state legislature. Schnur will be eligible to serve on a term through 2011 and then will be eligible for a second term.
Schnur,was closely allied with former Gov. Pete Wison in his last campaign for governor and his brief presidential campaign. Schnur also worked on 2000 presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain,R-Ariz.
"The people of California deserve a political environment that is fair and puts their needs first," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "Dan Schnur has spent years teaching and advocating for equality in California politics and I am grateful that he will continue his service to our state in this new role."
Schnur, 46, said he would recuse himself from any cases involving Wilson or McCain.

On a Memorial Day in which he called for peace while remembering fallen American troops, the future leader of the nation's most populous Roman Catholic archdiocese got a rock-star welcome in the San Fernando Valley. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrated the Memorial Day Mass at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery and Mausoleum where he asked more than 1,000 faithful to pray for his ministry.

"It is not that this just feels like home - it is home," said Gomez, who, when he succeeds retiring Cardinal Roger Mahony next year, will become the first Hispanic archbishop of the Los Angeles archdiocese.

Gomez was such an attraction in his first Valley visit that, with an unexpected multitude lining up to take Holy Communion specifically from him, there were several brief delays while he was given additional communion wafers from priests and deacons who were assisting in the distribution.