With California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new budget plan released last Tuesday, I have been trying to wrap my head around the impact of these massive budget cuts. Per the usual, the most vulnerable will feel the biggest squeeze. California will become the only state without a welfare program with the proposed elimination of Cal-Works, one [...]

[Read more →]

The New Times Media regularly visits this blog, and worth noting is a piece that their LA Weekly paper published this week on the Esteban Nuñez case. The picture painted makes the California political power structure (including key Latino players) look most out of touch in having any sympathy for the slain victim, Luis Santos. [...]

[Read more →]

Oh happy day mi gente! President Barack Obama delivered what we had hoped President Clinton would give us, a Latino nomination for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. I don’t have much to add, but I have blogged about Judge Sotomayor before here on another site. As noted, she endured a whisper campaign to discredit [...]

[Read more →]

As I predicted on Gustavo Arellano’s Four O’Clock Tuesdayhour on KPFK yesterday, Gil Cedillo effectively shot himself in the foot with his campaign spending and negative mailers, costing him the election to Judy Chu. Chu will face a runoff for the Congressional seat once held by now Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. So much for Congressman [...]

[Read more →]

There is a saying in Spanish that I often hear repeated in political circles, “Dime con quien andas, y te diré quien eres,” translated as, “tell me with whom you walk, and I will tell you who you are.” Caroline Valdez, a former executive assistant to Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, pleaded guilty today to theft. In [...]

[Read more →]

Sometimes Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez’s logic doesn’t fly. We saw this last summer when after then candidate Barack Obama had secured the Democratic nomination, Rep. Sanchez was still insisting on a casting her super delegate vote for Hillary Clinton. It was as if Congresswoman Sanchez did not want to accept the reality of the situation. A [...]

[Read more →]

Many pundits have been saying that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been a disappointment. Sure, he has the challenge of serving in very dismal economic times, but he really hasn’t lived up to the hype, even setting aside his personal drama. Villar looks good in a suit, speaks well when scripted, and does have that [...]

[Read more →]

While this is not directly related to a Latino political issue, or maybe you can say that it is since we constitute a substantial percentage of our people served in the armed forces, I do think it is worth noting that on Sunday, the oldest Army soldier, a 60 year old Vietnam War veteran was [...]

[Read more →]