Last week started badly for Inland Assemblyman Tim Donnelly and only got worse.
The Twitter-verse erupted Tuesday after security officers found a loaded handgun in Donnelly?s carry-on luggage at Ontario International Airport. Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, said he forgot he had put the gun in his briefcase and believed he was carrying his laptop computer.
Within hours, someone had created a ?TimDonnellysGun? Twitter account. ?Guns don?t kill, they?re like laptops,? wrote the unidentified author, who had 115 followers by Friday.
Big Bear Lake Mayor Bill Jahn, a Republican who is challenging Donnelly in the redrawn 33rd Assembly District, piled on.
?I?m a gun owner, too, but I know where my gun is at all times,? said Jahn, who reported last week that he had given almost $100,000 to his campaign.
The week ended with the failure of a Donnelly led campaign to qualify a ballot measure to overturn last year?s law making scholarship aid available for college students who are in the country illegally.
?Today only marks the end of one battle in a war to reclaim our voice in our legislature,? Donnelly wrote
UCR ?WASTE? DISPUTED
A study at UC Riverside that?s trying to gauge the enjoyment people get from social media is making Sen. Tom Coburn an unhappy man.
Coburn, R-Okla., is a frequent critic of what he calls wasteful government spending. And just like Santa, he makes his naughty list known in December, with the release of his annual Wastebook report that identifies the 100 most troubling uses of federal money.
?Video games, robot dragons, Christmas trees, and magic museums. This is not a Christmas wish list, these are just some of the ways the federal government spent your tax dollars,? Coburn said in a news release.
Two Inland projects made the list. UCR researchers are using $149,900 from a National Science Foundation grant to develop a video game for phones and other mobile devices that teaches children the evolutionary development of guppies. The game partners university staffers with private video game companies and includes a social media campaign, Coburn said.
Another UCR project also trades in tweets.
Two researchers were awarded $413,756 over two years to examine whether use of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook make people happy, Coburn said.
The university defended the projects, pointing out that both are led by prominent researchers in their field.
?Since hundreds of millions of people use social media it is important to know whether this helps or hurts psychological functioning,? UCR spokesman Sean Nealon said, in an email.
?If people read the proposals,? Nealon said, ?they will see the full picture and the reasons why these subjects are among many that are important to study.?
EAR FOR AN EAR
Inland Rep. Mary Bono Mack and Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney have forged a friendship over the past few years.
Romney was there for the Palm Springs Republican?s last congressional bid, headlining a Riverside County fundraiser. And Bono Mack was among Romney?s earliest supporters when he announced his 2012 candidacy.
She had his back again in recent weeks, when the Romney camp was signaling it might opt to focus on this week?s New Hampshire primary instead of trying to win the Iowa caucus.
But Bono Mack advised him not to give up on the Hawkeye State, according to her spokesman, Ken Johnson.
?She personally told him and his team that they needed to spend more time in Iowa,? Johnson said.
Of course, Romney went on to eke out a narrow victory in Iowa. And if he wins the GOP nomination and beats President Barack Obama in November, the bond between Romney and Bono Mack could benefit the Inland region, Johnson said.
?Congresswoman Bono Mack certainly has his ear,? he said.
A FRIENDLY AUDIENCE?
The Service Employees International Union Local 721 plans a town hall meeting with the three candidates seeking the District 1 seat on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.
Incumbent Bob Buster faces challenges from Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore, and retired CHP officer Mike Soubirous.
The forum is billed as an endorsement town hall, but SEIU Local 721 spokeswoman Tracy Silveria said the meeting is closed to the media. It?s for SEIU members only, she said by email.
All three candidates have been invited. But will Buster have a chance at the endorsement if he attends? History might say no.
Buster has been at odds with the union as he has pushed for employees to pay more into their own pensions and lobbied for lower retirement benefits for newly hired workers.
In December, SEIU members protested outside the Mission Inn where Buster was holding a fundraiser. Signs called Buster ?the Grinch?.
This week?s Political Empire was compiled by Jim Miller, Ben Goad, Duane W. Gang and Dug Begley. For political news all week, go to PE.com/politics and the Political Empire blog. Follow us on Twitter: @jimmiller2, @ben_goad and @duanegang
Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5719228502
one life to live blow i am legend bret michaels bret michaels the unit seabiscuit
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.