OC Blog News Roundup -- January 8, 2006
Today's top stories and commentary from behind the Orange Curtain:
Name names! OCR UnSpin by Greenhut on your average local government boondoggle: Nothing like a weekend at the lake for better government.
OCR's Greenhut reminds us that "all politics are local" in The land of ungracious central planning. He attributes OC Blog for turning up Moonbean/Hayden connection and suggests a recall's in order for some YL council members.
OCR: Batter up! City, team will make pitches to jury. Did $2.1 million go to the same lawyers that missed not specifying to Moreno that the team name should simply be the "Anaheim Angels" and not the gobbledy gook that ended up in the contract? Related: Mayor sees simple case of contract breach with Pringle Q&A.
OCR's Bunis with more on Abramoff, Rohrabacher: Abramoff scandal puts Hill in a tizzy. Loretta and the Dems took a fews bucks too.
OCR: Desalination decision. Note this comment about Poseidon that was left here last September:
Poseidon has negotiated a PLA with the Orange County Building Trades Council on this Desal plant. Poseidon did the same thing in San Diego. They are teaming up with the unions in the hopes of expediting approvals. The Unions threaten developers like Poseidon into agreeing to PLAs or else they will throw up environmental roadblocks to stall the projects. This is the kind of Blackmail or "Greenmail" that Unions are using to get work. If this is approved we are going to have a Large PLA in the heart of Orange County.
It's also never been clear that Poseidon was going to make any money for its operator -- and then who gets stuck for it if it fails (well, WE can figure that out). Something still smells here, and it's not the nearby treatment plant. Maybe it's just the very questionable record of HB city government and the many scandals which have plagued them, but this needs a much closer look -- especially since there's a PLA and nobody can nail down the numbers. More at http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-37,GGLG:en&q=Poseidon+site%3Awww%2Eocblog%2Enet.
Front page coverage of weeds, mice, toads that may delay toll road (OCR): Wilderness in crossfire.
And an EIR, not voters, says what's to be developed in LF (OCR): Land of opportunities.
OCR rewrite of yesterday's story on Illegal Immigration protest in LB: Immi
gration debate gets contentious in Laguna. CM Mayor Mansoor offers a Reader Rebuttal: Immigration law. And Parson pap from the LAT: Costa Mesa Policy Just Looks a Bit Suspicious.
Great Politburo can't figure it out which bid is lowest (OCR): Designers vie for park lead. See Memo to the Commissar.
OCR's Lansner on NOT the worst idea you'll hear today: Stock sale could be tollway salvation. In part,
The lure? Expanding, plump cash flows. Combined toll collections rose 27 percent since 2003. Last fiscal year, the two roads took in $200 million in total tolls, fees and fines from drivers plus taxes on local builders. Day-to-day road operations – minus debt and construction expenses - ran only about $38 million. Talk about a fat margin.
LAT on Bren: Billionaire's Plans Put Community En Garde.
Nice job by the LAT in exposing a union for a change, and somewhat explaining why the UFW has completely failed in the illegal immigration issue: Farmworkers Reap Little as Union Strays From Its Roots. Huge article, in part,
...a Times investigation has found, Chavez's heirs run a web of tax-exempt organizations that exploit his legacy and invoke the harsh lives of farmworkers to raise millions of dollars in public and private money. The money does little to improve the lives of California farmworkers, who still struggle with the most basic health and housing needs and try to get by on seasonal, minimum-wage jobs. Most of the funds go to burnish the Chavez image and expand the family business, a multimillion-dollar enterprise with an annual payroll of $12 million that includes a dozen Chavez relatives. The UFW is the linchpin of the Farm Worker Movement, a network of a dozen tax-exempt organizations that do business with one another, enrich friends and family, and focus on projects far from the fields: They build affordable housing in San Francisco and Albuquerque, own a top-ranked radio station in Phoenix, run a political campaign in support of an Indian casino and lobby for gay marriage.
longtime supporter endorsed one of Carona's opponents in next year's election. The setback followed a string of embarrassments, including the indictment of a former assistant sheriff, a state investigation into accusations that Carona sexually harassed two women (which he denied), and scrutiny over his appointment of friends and political allies as reserve officers. One reserve deputy allegedly flashed his badge and pulled a gun on a group of slow-playing golfers in Chino Hills.
