Eagle eye

Aug 12, 2009

The Bee's Peter Hecht previews one of the many deals sure to real their head as the end of the legislative year approaches .

 

"California card clubs and tribal casinos, long bitter political rivals, are working together in a concerted, behind-the-scenes drive to legalize Internet poker in the Golden State.

 

The effort to create an online California "Internet poker consortium" is being led by a wealthy Riverside County tribe, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, and by card clubs including the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles County.

 

They are dispatching lobbyists to the capital and privately courting other tribes and poker rooms to build political momentum for a gambling enterprise run by a consortium of tribes and card rooms. The state's 60 card clubs and more than 100 federally recognized Indian tribes would be eligible to participate."

 

Kevin Yamamura looks at how Eunice Shriver shaped the governor's political career.

 

If not for Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger might never have become governor of California."

 

OK, stop. Meditate on that. Exhale. Continue...

 

"Shriver, who died Tuesday at age 88, pushed her celebrity son-in-law into public service roles, none greater than his successful bid for governor in 2003.

 

"As Schwarzenegger tells it, he was only going to run in the recall election if his wife – Shriver's daughter, Maria – signed off on the idea. After growing up in a political family, Maria Shriver saw Schwarzenegger as an escape from that life. She broke into tears when he raised the idea of running for governor.

 

"But the bottom line was her mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver" Schwarzenegger recalled during a May speech in San Jose. "She's an unbelievable mother-in-law. She was always very supportive of whatever I did.

 

"And so she told Maria, she said, 'Look, I know from my brothers, when they have something in their gut you can never go and stop them. You can't. You've got to be with it. You've got to be part of the team.' And she talked Maria into it, and so that's how we then went out and we ran."

 

Martin Wiscol reports Gavin Newsom has Proposition 13 in his sites.

 

Does anyone else around here appreciate the irony that proponents of Proposition 13 might have to turn to Jerry Brown as their best hope?

 

"Gubernatorial hopeful Gavin Newsom pulled few punches in laying out his vision at a town hall Tuesday night – and acknowledged that some of his ideas are opposed by the majority of Californians.

 

"The San Francisco mayor, who ignited controversy when he began marrying same-gender couples in 2004, touted his support for services for illegal immigrants, for a public component to universal health care and for reducing the two-thirds legislative majority required to approve the budget.

 

"He also made the case for removing industrial and commercial properties from Proposition 13 tax protection, although he stopped short of endorsing such a move.

 

"I'm not a poster child for playing along, for playing it safe," he told the enthusiastic, standing-room-only crowd of about 300 at Santa Ana College. "Now more than ever, we need more courage among our politicians."

 

Meanwhile, Antonio Villaraigosa seems to be making more enemies among unions in Los Angeles. Howard Blume reports, "Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Tuesday he will push the school district to allow outside operators to bid for control of hundreds of campuses, a move he described as the centerpiece of education reform for his second term.


"The proposal drew the ire of the teachers union, which has strongly criticized the mayor's own school-improvement efforts at 10 schools, including Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights. Villaraigosa, in turn, called the union "the biggest defender of the status quo."

"The mayor's goal, embodied in part in a proposal by Board of Education member Yolie Flores Aguilar, would let charter-school organizations, the mayor's nonprofit and other groups compete to run 50 new schools scheduled to open over the next four years. The school board is scheduled to take up that motion later this month."

 

And finally, from our Marblehead, Ohio bureau, AP reports, "A woman in Ohio is telling a fish story about one that got away — from a bird, and damaged her car. Authorities in northwest Ohio say the fish — a Lake Erie freshwater drum, known as a sheepshead — smashed a car windshield Tuesday when an eagle dropped its catch from a height of about 40 feet."

 

Ah, if only we were Washington Redskins fans, we could make a joke about how another eagle can't hold on to a catch...

 


 
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