March, 2, 2002 archives
the chairman of univision has contributed $1.3 million to three candiates: gray davis, richard riordan, and bill jones. i'm sure he stands behind each candidate, and isn't buying influence. it's not like he has anything to gain, or there's real ideological differences between those candidates.
edward tufte (the guru of information design) is doing a series of one-day courses all over the place. only $320, and you get a copy of each of his books and a really cool poster that shows the losses suffered during napoleon's march on russia. he'll be in southern california in late april, and the bay area in december (tentatively).
there's two issues on the ballot for the city of los angeles, proposition q and amendment r.
prop. q is a bond issue—$600 million to replace, expand, and combine the 911 dispatch center, build six community police stations, replace the metropolitan jail, build two bomb squad facilities, and renovate other police and fire facilities citywide. like the two state bond measures, this is great place to be spending money. however, i'm still basically opposed to increasing the government debt, so i'll be voting no. there's no specific 'yes on q' or 'no on q' sites, and the la times says vote yes.
amendment r would change the date of the city's primary election to early in march, and the city's municipal election to mid-may. currently they're held in mid-april and early june. i don't see any reason to oppose this. there's no websites related to this amendment, and the la times hasn't issued a recommendation. the la weekly says to vote yes (on prop. q, too).
the election is in three days. i just need to go over the county measures and offices, and the rest of the state offices.
live simple is an interesting online book. i'm not sure if i agree with aiming as low as some of the tips suggest—there's no way i'd want to live in a studio apartment. and i reject the 'kill your tv' philosophy. it smacks cultural (and intellectual) snobbery. (via markpasc.)
hey look, the service provider for california republican gubernatorial candidate and spammer bill jones is no longer his service provider. looks like they weren't happy with his spamming, either.
there's three county measures on tuesday's ballot for los angeles county. (i can't find the measures online at the official site. you'll have to pull up the sample ballot.)
amendment a would establish term limits for the board of supervisors, the sheriff, and the district attorney. the limit would be three terms. since i'm opposed to term limits, i'll be voting no on this.
amendment b would establish term limits only for the board of supervisors. again, since i'm opposed to term limits, i'll be voting no.
amendment c would increase the sheriff's department by adding one assistant sheriff and four division chiefs. (the additional assistant sheriff and two of the chiefs would be non-sworn and appointed from outside the sheriff's office.) it seems odd that this is on the ballot (don't we elect a board of supervisors for this?), but i'll vote yes.
the la times says to vote yes on amendments s a and b, and hasn't taken a stand on amendment c.
in county elections, i'm already planning to ignore the superior court elections, and zev yaroslavsky is running unopposed for supervisor in my district, so that just leaves assessor and sheriff.
for sheriff, every indication i've seen is that the current sheriff, lee baca, is doing a fine job. so he'll get my vote.
the current assessor (who just served a partial term), rick auerbach, also appears to be doing a bang-up job. he's got my vote, too. (although i admire the tenacity of john lower taxes loew, who legally changed his name to include “lower taxes.”)
la weekly endorsed both baca and auerbach, and recommended voting yes on all three county measures.