Los Angeles Times

"In the middle is a sweet, tired town of roughly 35,000 people, three-quarters of them Latino and more than half considered low-income under county standards," writes Scott Gold in the Los Angeles Times of Aug. 22 in a story titled, "In Santa Paula, a white minority blames the poor for the town's problems."

"For several years," the article continues, "there has been a tide of sentiment that Santa Paula has missed out, that it has become a dumping ground of sagging roofs and 99-cent stores while neighbors like Moorpark and Camarillo have prospered. And some critics -- many of them members of the white minority -- have decided that the poor are the problem."

Come on! Ya gotta love the complete ineptitude being exhibited by government in the management of the state's financial matters. Love it or cry is what I say. That was my attitude as I lounged next to the pool in Coronado last week and read this headline that could be found only in the San Diego Union-Tribune: "Voter-backed gaming deal with Sycuan in jeopardy."

Remember that whole deal?

Over on the TellZell blog, an image of the newly redesigned Orlando Sentinel has been posted. A People magazine version of the Los Angeles Times can't be that far behind.

UPDATED: Hear Los Angeles Times owner Sam Zell talking (in his own way) to his Washington bureau.

The Los Angeles Times wrote their obligatory story last week about the fundraising in the race for the open 2nd Supervisorial District, but, as is fairly typical with the Times, they missed the bigger story.

While the Times reported accurately that former Police Chief and current Councilman Bernard Parks outraised former Councilman and current State Senator Mark Ridley Thomas, the Times reporter neglected to pull the public campaign reports of the Independent Expenditure Committees that have been formed to support Thomas. These reports show that the IE campaign, funded by unions has amassed $2.7 million to spend against Parks. This is more than double the combined amount that both candidate’s official campaign committees have raised.  The Deputy Sheriffs Union has kicked in $500,000 and the Firefighters Union has also given $350,000 to the effort. Virtually every Union in the County has thrown big money into the IE campaign.