California Faultline

From yesterday morning’s Newsconference on KNBC, Mayor V says he’ll back Obama if he’s the nominee but believes that voters in all states still need to be heard, and responds, albeit briefly, to Rush Limbaugh mistaking him as a “shoeshine boy” because of his “pigment.”

Here’s something I didn’t know: while a newly married woman can easily have her last name legally changed to her husband’s on a drivers license, a man would have to jump through a bunch more hurdles, including:

…a $350 fee, court appearances, a public announcement and mounds of paperwork to make a change on (driving licenses) that are routine for women who marry. [Reuters]

An L.A. resident formerly known as Michael Buday recently challenged California courts on the matter and won. He now carries is wife’s last name, and the 31 year old is now legally known as Michael Bijon.

A subsequent lawsuit led to a new California state law guaranteeing the rights of both married couples and registered domestic partners to choose whichever last name they prefer on their marriage and driving licenses.

I wonder what, if any, ramifications this could have on anyone seeking the same path Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took, whose own last name is actually a combination of his family birth name Villar, and his now ex-wife’s, Raigosa?

On Sunday morning’s “News Conference” (broadcast on the mothership, KNBC), Conan Nolan interviews developer Rick Caruso on the site of his newest venture: The Americana at Brand.

Throughout the piece, Caruso talks a lot about how the Grove, and now the Americana, have helped revitalize parts of Los Angeles, and that he’s dumbfounded at the lack of municipal rail lines around L.A… and he hints that he’d be interested in public office when the time is right.

But, he says, “it would have to be in an executive position. I’m just wired that way.”

Caruso also argues that wealthy entrepreneurs make for the best politicians, because he says they are only worried about doing a good job, not winning elections.

Above is a five minute-ish clip from the interview where he eludes to, what I think, is his suggesting that a race for Mayor, or possibly Governor, could be in his future.

NOTE: According to Total Capitol: “Caruso was a finance co-chair in the Mitt Romney for President campaign.”

…Conan Nolan has additional thoughts on Americana at Brand, or what he calls “Carusoland” at his Politics Raw blog…h/t Red Spot at Mayor Sam’s Sister…

LA Times’ Robert Greene heard a rumor that the paper’s editors were considering a new policy of keeping “the names of previous mayors out of news stories,” so he’s gone hog wild and done a recap of the city’s mayoral history.

Some factoids:

• Before Mayor V, the last Latino LA mayor was Cristobal Aguilar who left office in 1872.
• Mayor Sam Yorty (1961-1973) “began his political career as a labor-oriented and communist-supported leftist, but retired as a Republican.”
• Mayor Tom Bradley (1973-1993) was both the last Mayor to serve before term limits were put into effect, he was the first mayor since Henry Rose (1913-1915) to voluntarily leave office.
• Three years after leaving office, Mayor Damien Marchessault (1859-1860, and 1861-1865) shot himself in empty City Council chambers.

NATIONAL

Last weekend a group of progressive Democrats issued a symbolic “no endorsement” for congressman Howard Berman and Henry Waxman for not being more aggressive against “the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and efforts to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney” and votes on the Iraq war. Both incumbents are running unopposed in the June 3rd primaries. [Daily News]

STATEWIDE

A new bill introduced by state Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello would allow drug companies to purchase access to medical records so they could remind patients to refill prescriptions. [Long Beach Press-Telegram]

California Attorney General Jerry Brown is going after H&R Block for allegedly duping customers into believing they’re receiving instand refunds instead of what are actually high interest, short term loans. [KNBC]

The State of California is denying $100/day reimbursment to a Buena Park man wrongly convicted of a carjacking and sentenced to ten months in state prison because he had plead guilty in lieu of a potentially stiffer sentence. [LA Times]

LOS ANGELES

Kathryn Nack, who was Mayor of Pasadena from 1987 to 1995, passed away. [Pasadena Star-News]

On Wednesday at 4pm, ANSWER LA is coordinating a protest outside of the Military Recruiting Station at 7080 Hollywood Blvd. [LA Indymedia]

LA Times blogger Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a Q&A with Barack Obama.

A federal public integrity unit of the U.S. Attorney’s office has been disbanded in Los Angeles, possibly due to their investigation of Rep. Jerry Lewis’ ties to lobbyists. [LA Observed]

Mayor Villaraigosa encouraged the L.A. City Council to approve the increases in the  DWP’s water rates by 6.2% and electricty by 8.5% to make improvements on the crumbling infrastructure. [KNBC]

Photo the state Capitol in Sacramento by Paraflyer, used under Creative Commons.

NATIONAL

The Motion Picture Association of America voiced opposition to a pending Net-Neutrality Bill that would prevent internet service providers from selectively blocking web traffic. [CIO Today]

STATEWIDE

New rules proposed by California’s Fair Political Practices Commission would require elected state and local officials to disclose details of “gifts of overseas travel donated by nonprofits and businesses.” [LA Times]

31 of 58 California’s counties don’t meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s new health standard for smog, according to a nationwide list the EPA released. The list of violators: Alameda, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Shasta, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura, Yolo. [NY Times]

Piercing jewelry must have less than 10% lead as of March 1st, and less than 6% by mid 2009, according to a new state law. [San Jose Mercury News]

LOS ANGELES

The City of L.A. has discontinued it’s down payment assistance program for homeowners. [LAist]

Mayor Villaraigosa is upset LA City Council employees aren’t taking unpaid days off to help save the city money. If only every boss had Mayor V’s attitude. [Daily News]

BAY AREA AND CENTRAL VALLEY

Al Gore invested $35 million in hedge funds of “makers of environmentally friendly products” with Palo Alto’s Capricorn Investment Group LLC. [Bloomberg]

Health official in San Joaquin Valley are worried that budget cuts in tuberculosis prevention programs put Californians at risk. [Fresno Bee]

SAN DIEGO

American Indian students from the San Diego area endured 2 days of “political boot camp” at the Capitol in Sacramento. [San Diego Union-Tribune]

LOS ANGELES

Mayor Villaraigosa has threatened L.A. city managers with layoffs, which would be the first since the early 80s. [Daily News]

LA Weekly digs into why turnstiles will soon be installed at L.A. subway stations, and isn’t taking MTA CEO Roger Snobles reasons as fact.

USC’s Marshall School of Business has been enlisted by the F.B.I. to develop marketing plans to aid recruitment. [Daily Trojan]

SAN DIEGO

The 10.6 million-acre California Desert Conservation Area may be excluded from federally protected status just because it doesn’t have the word “national” in its name. [LA Times]

STATEWIDE

Bakersfield could be the next California community require mandatory spaying and neutering of pets. [Bakersfield Californian]

Robert at the new California High Speed Rail Blog is skeptical of the proposed “public private partnership” to build and manage the project.

Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, D-Burbank has proposed anti-piracy legislation that would increase the amount of damages copyright holders may be entitled to and would also allow prosection of anyone who helps transport pirated material. [Daily News]

LOS ANGELES

Two L.A. City Councilmembers are publicly butting heads over how to handle gang intervention funding - Tony Cardenas is vehemently against Laura Chick’s plan to pass control from Council to the Mayor’s office. [LA Times]

The City of Paramount relaunches its brand new $20,ooo website with a high tech feature unavailable since it first launched in 2001: email links to city council members. The site also has a searchable database of city laws, event listings, and news items. [Long Beach Press Telegram]

Most of the students at Pasadena’s Wilson IB Middle School are pro-Obama and are ‘”antagonistic’ toward the Bush administration.” [Pasadena Star News]

Gov. Bill Richardson keynotes and Gen. Wesley Clark headlines Tuesday’s conference “on how the U.S. should act toward ‘rogue states’” at UCLA’s Ron Burkle Center for International Relations. Other speakers include Former Foreign Minister to Thailand Kantathi Suphamongkhon, Kal Raustiala, director of the Burkle Center; Henry T. Wooster, and deputy director of the Office of Iranian Affairs at the U.S. State Department. [event info]

SAN DIEGO

The ACLU has filed a complaint against San Diego Mayor Jerry Sander, saying a Feb. 25th report on last October’s wildfire failed to address the need of minorities who didn’t understand warnings that were only sent out in the English language. [SignOn San Diego]

The controversial private military outfit Blackwater Worldwide has dropped plans to build a training base in east San Diego County after discovering gunfire tests exceeded county noise limits. [SignOn San Diego]

SAN FRANCISCO

The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce is hoping Mayor Newsom will veto a plan to “place human-shaped bronze markers” at the site of every homeless death in the city. [LA Times]

Speaking of Mayor Newson, he’s considering a run for governor in 2010, joining an anticipated race between “Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown, former state Controller Steve Westly and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.” [San Francisco Chronicle]