LA Weekly takes a look at SGV’s case of Linsanity

It’s something we’ve been talking about in the newsroom, but seems more and more apparent — GOP Assembly candidate Dr. Matthew Lin has a really good chance of taking out Dem Ed Chau of Montebello in the 49th Assembly District.

Why?

As Simone Wilson points out in a piece published in Thursday’s LA Weekly it could be as simple as Lin’s track record as an open mind on the San Marino City Council. Then again, it could be something else entirely:

Lin isn’t exactly demure about his nearly 40 years as an orthopedic
surgeon, or the praise he gets. “People tell me, ‘We don’t need more
personal-injury lawyers in Sacramento. … We need a healer, we need a
doctor,'” he says.

Weina Xiong, a young Chinese immigrant who recently began
volunteering for Lin’s campaign, agrees: “Doctor is much better than
lawyer.”

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Rep Adam Schiff condems Wikileaks as “treasonous”

Maybe it’s because his name pops up in one of the documents?

Here’s a press release from Rep. Adam Schiff’s office condemning the Wikileaks website:

“I deplore the potentially treasonous disclosure of classified and sensitive national security information, and urge the Department of Justice to bring any responsible party to justice. I also condemn the ongoing WikiLeaks release of a quarter million diplomatic documents, which will cause immeasurable harm to our diplomatic efforts, and worst of all, may expose our sources of information to great danger.

“I learned this morning that the released cables include one chronicling a private meeting I had in Islamabad with now President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari. Not only could this release cause a potential issue for President Zardari, but it will certainly inhibit his willingness — and that of other foreign leaders — to be candid in their discussions with the Administration and Members of Congress. This is not in our national interest.

“Ultimately, the Intelligence Community and the Departments of Defense and State need to strike a balance between information sharing and reasonable limits on the dissemination of and access to classified or sensitive information. There are many legitimate reasons for keeping diplomatic conversations from leaking into the public domain. Confidence breeds candor and compromise, and the current document “dump” is particularly damaging to our diplomatic relationships and security alliances that have been critical to American foreign policy, diplomacy and counter-terrorism efforts worldwide.”

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Report: Sheriff Lee Baca ordered detectives to help political supporter

This from the Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES-Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca directed detectives to launch a criminal investigation against a tenant of one of his well-connected supporters and contributors, a report published Sunday said.

The department’s investigation, prompted by a handwritten note from Baca, targeted a man in a Beverly Hills rental dispute with Ezat Delijani, a longtime Baca donor.

The sheriff sent the note with his request to his chief of detectives, who gave it a special “rush” status normally reserved for serious crimes, the published report indicated.

The note, written on a printed e-mail from Delijani’s son, read: “Chief Miller-This case involves a ‘lease forgery.’ Could you have our people investigate this.”

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Deja Vu: Pasadena’s new police chief comes from Santa Monica

The last chief Barney Melekian erned his striped in Santa Monica. Now Pasadena City Manager Michael Beck has reached out to the westside to choose Phil Sanchez as Pasadena’s next chief, sources close to the process said Wednesday,

PASADENA – Santa Monica Deputy Chief Phil Sanchez will be named the next Pasadena police chief, according to a source familiar with the hiring process.

City officials have not yet named Sanchez, but have said that the candidate for the job is undergoing a psychological exam this week, and will be revealed to the public next Tuesday.

The city manager was given the task of selecting Pasadena’s new police chief but has never released the names of the finalists for the job.

Sources close to the selection process named the three finalists as Sanchez, interim Police Chief Chris Vicino, and Covina Police Chief Kim Raney.

The 53-year-old Sanchez has served his entire career in the Santa Monica Police Department and was a candidate to become chief in that city during the last hiring process in 2006.

Read more: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_15259843#ixzz0qOI1AMLQ

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The true face of the California Assembly — Mike Duvall (R-Brea)*

* Micheal Duvall (R-Yorba Linda) brags about sex with a lobbyist representing Sempra Energy. Until a little while ago, he sat on the Assembly Utilities committee. He’s been removed by Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles). This hearing was before the Assembly Appropriations Committee on a bill dealing with SCAQMD emission credits.

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Thursday’s column (take a lesson from the Jesuits)

I’ve come up with a solution to the state budget crisis.

It’s simple really and it’s a practice that’s been in place for centuries.

Make the state Legislature do what the Jesuits do, take three vows in addition to the oath of office.

Here they are:

A vow of chastity.

A vow of poverty.

A vow of obedience.

Three simple rules. Of course that would take courage, and, quite honestly, that’s been gone from Sacramento for some time.

As of Sunday, our state ran out of money, out of credit and out of options. Our income tax refunds will be nothing more than dishonorable IOUs. Some state workers will be forced to go without pay for two days a month as a way of helping California save dinero.

Meanwhile our legislators will fly back and forth to Sacramento on your dime and drive around in taxpayer-funded automobiles. Some will cheat on their wives and husbands, while others will strap on the feed bag and feast on the finest foods lobbyists and fundraisers can put together.

Their bloated and ineffectual staffs will continue to draw a paycheck, while their constituents and the businesses they “represent” continue to lose jobs and hemorrhage dollars.

That’s where the vows come in to play.

We need a legislature that is obedient to the people of this state. We need a legislature that is chaste when it comes to dealing with the lobbyists and special interests that run Sacramento.

We need a legislature that understands poverty and how tax-and-fee-and-spend scams only hurt the poor and those of us still fortunate enough to have a job.

Unfortunately we have none of that. Instead we have a crisis. Our state is paralyzed by a Sacramento lifestyle that has imposed too many regulations, too many taxes, and too many false promises.

Fortunately there seems to be more and more anger with Sacramento among the voters. At the newspaper we’re seeing it in e-mails from readers who’ve recently lost their jobs.

One of those readers, Mike Serrano, who lives in state Assemblyman Anthony Portantino’s district, wrote about losing his job, getting no help from the state’s Employment Development Department and nothing but attitude from the staff working for his elected representatives.

“I wanted some information about training benefits. After trying to reach someone for nearly two weeks, I contacted the offices of my two elected state officials, Anthony Portantino and (state Sen.) Carol Liu,” Serrano wrote.

“To say their response was disappointing would be an understatement … these people simply don’t understand, they work for us and their job performance is lousy.”

Portantino’s spokesman Eduardo Martinez was unfamiliar with Serrano’s case, but said staff in the office is trained to deal with constituent problems.

I didn’t get a response from Liu’s office, and checking the senator’s Web site it becomes pretty clear her staff is not too interested in hearing from any of us.

I say don’t re-elect any of them until they vow to start approaching their vocation like Jesuits.

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