Absentee voting begins this week
The Press Enterprise Editorial Board has announced its endorsements because absentee voting for the June 3 election begins this week.
For District One, the board endorsed incumbent supervisor Bob Buster over challenger, Frank Schiavone.
(excerpt)
Riverside County supervisor, 1st District: Bob Buster has earned another term. He has been a strong advocate of the county's multi-species habitat conservation plan, and helped craft the county's transportation fee to ensure that developers contribute to road improvements.
Buster also spearheaded a review of county fire safety policies after the 2006 Esperanza fire, and advocates such steps as restricting development in fire hazard areas. And he has a solid record of serving his district, from pushing efforts to curb illegal dumping to reopening closed public parks.
Another contentious county supervisor race is taking place between the former police chief and the former religious teacher.
The Riverside Renaissance is steaming forward and City Hall said that that includes the park projects
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
"We've been behind for so long," Councilwoman Nancy Hart said. "I am very, very thrilled to see it happening."
Most parks will receive some type of improvement that could include refurbished parking lots or improved lighting.
"We are seeing the parks going from colored maps to actual projects," Mayor Ron Loveridge said. For years, the city didn't have enough parks, he said.
The most recent figures show Riverside has 444 acres of developed parkland. Renaissance projects will add another 200 acres on city land, principal park planner Bob Johnson said.
The new parks -- Andulka, Tequesquite, Doty-Trust, Mission Ranch and Arlington Heights -- will bring Riverside closer to the state standard of 3 acres of developed parkland per 1,000 residents. The city needs to develop another 219 acres to meet the standard based on the 2006 population.
"When a community grows as quickly as Riverside has grown, there is definitely additional demand," Parks and Recreation Director Ralph Nuñez said.
The city's praising itself for all this and why some of it is due, it should also remain cognizant of the fact that what city residents haven't liked is when it's tried to sell off park land to developers which nearly happened to Tequesquite Park and still might be a factor to portions of Fairmount Park which remain under development's control.
Will the city truly gain park land in the next decade or will it lose it? Pay close attention to what happens and keep attending those meetings for both the task forces currently addressing the futures of two parks and the Park, Recreation and Community Services Commission.
The struggle has begun over the fate of the Fox Theater Plaza project.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
David Leonard, president of the Old Riverside Foundation, sent the e-mail to his board and to Councilman Mike Gardner, whose ward includes downtown.
The e-mail was circulated among elected officials and architects, and a copy was forwarded to The Press-Enterprise, though Leonard said Friday that he had not intended the matter to go public.
In the e-mail, Leonard said he had received information that the city had renamed the project the Fox Facade Retention Project because it was scaling back the work and had dismissed the historic preservation consultant and architect, and was rejecting national preservation standards as a way to cut costs.
On Friday, he declined to identify his source. In a phone interview, Leonard clarified that by "dismissed," he meant the experts were no longer being consulted.
When the city promised that there would be no employee layoffs during the fiscal budget crisis, it forgot to mention that it was cutting 30 part-time positions at the libraries.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
"We're going to try to have it so there is not any noticeable difference," Custen said.
The city this week notified the pages their positions were being cut as a money-saving measure.
Because of the economic downturn, Riverside, like most cities, is facing lower revenues in 2008-2009 compared to the past few years.
Cutting the pages' positions will save the city about $242,000, or 3 percent of the library's $8 million expected budget for 2008-2009.
The city has no plans to lay off full-time employees as it goes through its belt-tightening to ensure a balanced budget, city spokesman Austin Carter said.
The announcement of these layoffs after city officials and management peeps have said there would be none, just hiring freezes makes you wonder who will be next. You might want to pay attention to the fates of the city's community service representatives during the current budget cycle. It's also important to pay attention to what is going on in the hiring side despite this purported hiring freeze. Rules are made to be broken after all, some might say.
Open season in the Moreno Valley city council races has begun.
And way up at the Court of Appeals, the Riverside County District Attorney's office is spending thousands of dollars of county residents' money in order to avoid paying a $5 fine that one of their prosecutors received from a judge after being late to court.
Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein recommended the following advice, which makes sense.
(excerpt)
There might have been a time when a DA would have invited a judge to coffee and asked, "Can't we work this out?" (I called the DA's office to see if they tried to play it that way, but got no call back.)
So, now The People have gone to court to nullify a $5 fine. The Court of Appeal has asked the RivCo Superior Court to weigh in. This could go on for a while. On our nickel, of course. Make that thousands of nickels.
I wish the DA hadn't dragged The People into this. Speaking for this People, I wish the DA would just tell his People to show up in court on time.
More problems with the legal strategy of former Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona in his ongoing corruption case. Taped conversations can be played in court.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
In those conversations, Carona and the aide allegedly plotted to cover up illegal cash payments and gifts.
U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford also denied Carona's motion to dismiss the six felony charges against him, including two witness-tampering counts that accuse Carona of trying to dissuade former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl from testifying before a grand jury. It was Haidl who recorded the conversations with Carona.
And in a ruling that changes the complexion of the case, Guilford granted Deborah Carona's motion to be tried separately from her husband, sparing Carona the awkwardness of further courtroom appearances with both his wife and his former mistress, who also is accused in the corruption case.
Deborah Carona wanted a separate trial because she might need to make incriminating statements about her husband to defend herself. That would force her to give up protections that allow a married person to decline to testify against a spouse. If tried after her husband, she could testify without fear of implicating him.
"We appreciate the court's thoughtful order regarding severance and sincerely hope for a favorable outcome for the co-defendants in the first trial," said her attorney, David W. Wiechert.
A search is on for Carona's replacement. Judging by all the scandals taking place involving this law enforcement agency, any replacement would have his work cut out for him or her.
Family and friends of the missing Stacey Peterson have protested her husband, former Bolingbrook Police Department Sgt. Drew Peterson's decision to offer a reward for information on his missing wife.
(excerpt, FOX-News)
Stacy's neighbor Sharon Bychowski, who with a group of the young woman's friends has put out a separate reward for $35,000, denounced retired police officer Peterson's latest move.
"We know that it’s another publicity stunt," Bychowski told MyFOXChicago. "Everything Drew does is not about finding Stacy, ever."
Protests of the verdicts in the Sean Bell case will begin on Wednesday, while political watchers wonder how the trial and its aftermath will impact current New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly's run for mayor.
Eight Belles gr f, by Unbridled Song-Away by Dixieland Band
(2005-May 3, 2008)
Associated Press shows Big Brown and Eight Belles running one-two to the finish line.
And it's run for the roses
As fast as you can
Your fate is delivered
Your moment's at hand
It's the chance of a lifetime
In a lifetime of chance
And it's high time you joined
In the dance
It's high time you joined
In the dance --
---Dan Fogelberg
For District One, the board endorsed incumbent supervisor Bob Buster over challenger, Frank Schiavone.
(excerpt)
Riverside County supervisor, 1st District: Bob Buster has earned another term. He has been a strong advocate of the county's multi-species habitat conservation plan, and helped craft the county's transportation fee to ensure that developers contribute to road improvements.
Buster also spearheaded a review of county fire safety policies after the 2006 Esperanza fire, and advocates such steps as restricting development in fire hazard areas. And he has a solid record of serving his district, from pushing efforts to curb illegal dumping to reopening closed public parks.
Another contentious county supervisor race is taking place between the former police chief and the former religious teacher.
The Riverside Renaissance is steaming forward and City Hall said that that includes the park projects
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
"We've been behind for so long," Councilwoman Nancy Hart said. "I am very, very thrilled to see it happening."
Most parks will receive some type of improvement that could include refurbished parking lots or improved lighting.
"We are seeing the parks going from colored maps to actual projects," Mayor Ron Loveridge said. For years, the city didn't have enough parks, he said.
The most recent figures show Riverside has 444 acres of developed parkland. Renaissance projects will add another 200 acres on city land, principal park planner Bob Johnson said.
The new parks -- Andulka, Tequesquite, Doty-Trust, Mission Ranch and Arlington Heights -- will bring Riverside closer to the state standard of 3 acres of developed parkland per 1,000 residents. The city needs to develop another 219 acres to meet the standard based on the 2006 population.
"When a community grows as quickly as Riverside has grown, there is definitely additional demand," Parks and Recreation Director Ralph Nuñez said.
The city's praising itself for all this and why some of it is due, it should also remain cognizant of the fact that what city residents haven't liked is when it's tried to sell off park land to developers which nearly happened to Tequesquite Park and still might be a factor to portions of Fairmount Park which remain under development's control.
Will the city truly gain park land in the next decade or will it lose it? Pay close attention to what happens and keep attending those meetings for both the task forces currently addressing the futures of two parks and the Park, Recreation and Community Services Commission.
The struggle has begun over the fate of the Fox Theater Plaza project.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
David Leonard, president of the Old Riverside Foundation, sent the e-mail to his board and to Councilman Mike Gardner, whose ward includes downtown.
The e-mail was circulated among elected officials and architects, and a copy was forwarded to The Press-Enterprise, though Leonard said Friday that he had not intended the matter to go public.
In the e-mail, Leonard said he had received information that the city had renamed the project the Fox Facade Retention Project because it was scaling back the work and had dismissed the historic preservation consultant and architect, and was rejecting national preservation standards as a way to cut costs.
On Friday, he declined to identify his source. In a phone interview, Leonard clarified that by "dismissed," he meant the experts were no longer being consulted.
When the city promised that there would be no employee layoffs during the fiscal budget crisis, it forgot to mention that it was cutting 30 part-time positions at the libraries.
(excerpt, Press Enterprise)
"We're going to try to have it so there is not any noticeable difference," Custen said.
The city this week notified the pages their positions were being cut as a money-saving measure.
Because of the economic downturn, Riverside, like most cities, is facing lower revenues in 2008-2009 compared to the past few years.
Cutting the pages' positions will save the city about $242,000, or 3 percent of the library's $8 million expected budget for 2008-2009.
The city has no plans to lay off full-time employees as it goes through its belt-tightening to ensure a balanced budget, city spokesman Austin Carter said.
The announcement of these layoffs after city officials and management peeps have said there would be none, just hiring freezes makes you wonder who will be next. You might want to pay attention to the fates of the city's community service representatives during the current budget cycle. It's also important to pay attention to what is going on in the hiring side despite this purported hiring freeze. Rules are made to be broken after all, some might say.
Open season in the Moreno Valley city council races has begun.
And way up at the Court of Appeals, the Riverside County District Attorney's office is spending thousands of dollars of county residents' money in order to avoid paying a $5 fine that one of their prosecutors received from a judge after being late to court.
Press Enterprise Columnist Dan Bernstein recommended the following advice, which makes sense.
(excerpt)
There might have been a time when a DA would have invited a judge to coffee and asked, "Can't we work this out?" (I called the DA's office to see if they tried to play it that way, but got no call back.)
So, now The People have gone to court to nullify a $5 fine. The Court of Appeal has asked the RivCo Superior Court to weigh in. This could go on for a while. On our nickel, of course. Make that thousands of nickels.
I wish the DA hadn't dragged The People into this. Speaking for this People, I wish the DA would just tell his People to show up in court on time.
More problems with the legal strategy of former Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona in his ongoing corruption case. Taped conversations can be played in court.
(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)
In those conversations, Carona and the aide allegedly plotted to cover up illegal cash payments and gifts.
U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford also denied Carona's motion to dismiss the six felony charges against him, including two witness-tampering counts that accuse Carona of trying to dissuade former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl from testifying before a grand jury. It was Haidl who recorded the conversations with Carona.
And in a ruling that changes the complexion of the case, Guilford granted Deborah Carona's motion to be tried separately from her husband, sparing Carona the awkwardness of further courtroom appearances with both his wife and his former mistress, who also is accused in the corruption case.
Deborah Carona wanted a separate trial because she might need to make incriminating statements about her husband to defend herself. That would force her to give up protections that allow a married person to decline to testify against a spouse. If tried after her husband, she could testify without fear of implicating him.
"We appreciate the court's thoughtful order regarding severance and sincerely hope for a favorable outcome for the co-defendants in the first trial," said her attorney, David W. Wiechert.
A search is on for Carona's replacement. Judging by all the scandals taking place involving this law enforcement agency, any replacement would have his work cut out for him or her.
Family and friends of the missing Stacey Peterson have protested her husband, former Bolingbrook Police Department Sgt. Drew Peterson's decision to offer a reward for information on his missing wife.
(excerpt, FOX-News)
Stacy's neighbor Sharon Bychowski, who with a group of the young woman's friends has put out a separate reward for $35,000, denounced retired police officer Peterson's latest move.
"We know that it’s another publicity stunt," Bychowski told MyFOXChicago. "Everything Drew does is not about finding Stacy, ever."
Protests of the verdicts in the Sean Bell case will begin on Wednesday, while political watchers wonder how the trial and its aftermath will impact current New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly's run for mayor.
Eight Belles gr f, by Unbridled Song-Away by Dixieland Band
(2005-May 3, 2008)
Associated Press shows Big Brown and Eight Belles running one-two to the finish line.
And it's run for the roses
As fast as you can
Your fate is delivered
Your moment's at hand
It's the chance of a lifetime
In a lifetime of chance
And it's high time you joined
In the dance
It's high time you joined
In the dance --
---Dan Fogelberg
Labels: Budget 2008 Watch, City Hall 101, corruption 101, Election 2008, officer-involved shootings, public forums in all places
posted by Five Before Midnight | 7:55 AM
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