Free Republic

Termed-out Sen. Sheila Kuehl has landed a high-paying job on California's waste board, securing the $132,178 per year job despite a previous report that Sen. Carole Migden would land the gig. Kuehl, who has chaired the Senate's Natural Resources and Health Committees during her tenure in the upper house, is leaving the state Senate after eight years and was appointed to the spot on the Integrated Waste Management Board by outgoing Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. Earlier in the day, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass named Assemblyman John Laird to a spot on the waste board, which has been a...

State Senate officials told Sen. Carole Migden's Capitol staff to go home for the week Thursday after the combustible San Francisco Democrat was overheard berating them. Enedina Hidalgo, the director of personnel for the state Senate, was in the hallway when she heard Migden screaming at the staff, according to a witness to the event. The source said Hidalgo later entered the office while the senator was not present on Thursday, informing the staff of their rights. Soon after, Hidalgo returned to Migden's office with Tony Beard Jr., the chief sergeant-at-arms of the state Senate. They told staff members to...

Sen. Carole Migden's Capitol staff was sent home on Thursday afternoon and told not to report to work on Friday, after the San Francisco Democrat was heard berating them from the hallway. Enedina Hidalgo, the director of personnel for the state Senate, overheard Migden screaming, according to a witness to the event. The source said she entered the office while the senator was not present on Thursday, informing the staff of their rights. Soon after, Hidalgo returned to Migden's office with Tony Beard Jr., the chief sergeant-at-arms of the state Senate. They told the staff to pack up their belongings...

San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno used an overwhelming showing in his home city Tuesday to beat former San Rafael Assemblyman Joe Nation and incumbent state Sen. Carole Migden in the Democratic primary for her three-county state Senate seat. With 81 percent of the precincts reporting, Leno had 43 percent of the vote, Nation 29 percent and Migden 28 percent. Leno beat Nation by about 25,000 votes in San Francisco and held Nation's margin of victory in his home base of Marin County to fewer than 3,000 votes. Although Leno still has to face Republican Sashi McEntee of Mill Valley in...

San Rafael, Calif. (AP) -- A state senator with Carole Migden's resume would normally cruise to re-election in the liberal San Francisco Bay area. But a wild ride on Interstate 80, a record fine for campaign finance violations and challenges from well-known members of her own party have made the San Francisco Democrat the most vulnerable incumbent on California's June 3 primary election ballot. "You have all the elements that create probably the most interesting race in the state right here in San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma counties," said Al Pross, a coeditor of the California Target Book, which analyzes...

San Francisco state Sen. Carole Migden is making the rounds, spending her evenings shaking hands, chatting with voters and asking for their support as she fights to hang on to her political career. Such campaigning is routine for many officeholders, but for Migden, never known as a backslapping pol, it shows how seriously she's taking her June 3 Democratic primary showdown with San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno and former San Rafael Assemblyman Joe Nation. In a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans 55 percent to 16 percent, the winner of the Democratic primary will probably be a shoo-in in November's general...

SAN FRANCISCO — Jose Luis Sanchez was a veteran cook at El Balazo, working at the popular Bay Area taqueria chain for eight years before a Friday immigration raid ended his career and left his family's future uncertain."My kids are sad," said the 32-year-old San Pablo resident, one of 63 illegal immigrants employed by the 11-restaurant chain who were arrested Friday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "They want to know if they're going to send me to Mexico."With an electronic surveillance bracelet attached indefinitely to his ankle, Sanchez contemplated his future Monday afternoon outside the Sansome Street high-rise building...

A top Democrat in the state Senate is being investigated for allegedly using credit cards to charge $397,000 in political expenses without disclosing who was initially paid and for what, as required by campaign finance laws. State Sen. Carole Migden (D-San Francisco), chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, said Friday that she was cooperating with the state Fair Political Practices Commission, which confirmed its investigation of her in a letter obtained by The Times. Investigators are looking at the last seven years of credit card expenses. If found in violation, Migden could face up to $60,000 in administrative fines....

Sacramento -- State Sen. Carole Migden is back on the highway after her wild ride through Solano County four months ago, but she had better keep her eyes on the road, a Department of Motor Vehicles spokesmans said today. The San Francisco Democrat had her license returned to her last week, but another moving violation could put her on the sidewalk again, DMV spokesman Mike Marando said. Migden's license was suspended following her erratic drive on May 18 that ended when she rear-ended another car with her state-issued sport utility vehicle near Fairfield. She pleaded no contest to a reckless...

State Sen. Carole Migden caused a panic among fellow drivers last May when she drove out of control in her state-issued SUV for 30 miles on Interstate 80, according to 911 tapes released late Friday. A series of callers between Berkeley and Fairfield, where Migden's wild ride finally ended after she rear-ended another car, described her as coming perilously close to hitting other vehicles, weaving back and forth across multiple lanes of traffic, and careening repeatedly off the center median barrier. One caller described motorists putting on their vehicles' hazard lights in an apparent attempt to warn others away from...

The California Highway Patrol has recommended State Sen. Carole Migden be charged with one misdemeanor count of reckless driving resulting in bodily injury, an official announced Monday. The Solano County District Attorney's Office now has the CHP investigation and can decide whether to file case, said Sgt. Les Bishop. The investigation concluded that Migden was at fault in two separate collisions May 18, including one in Vallejo. Bishop said Migden was involved in a single-vehicle accident on eastbound Interstate 80 just east of Redwood Parkway. The CHP found she made an unsafe turning movement, Bishop said, when she struck the...

SACRAMENTO - Even before her wild ride last week on Interstate 80 that ended in a collision, state Sen. Carole Migden blazed a jagged political path as a state legislator known for her fiery temper and often impertinent attitude. In one tightly wound package, Migden embodies the best and worst of liberal San Francisco politics. She is an effective lawmaker, without a doubt. But she's also a throwback emblem of political entitlement whose career has been marked with infamous moments, such as the time she pushed an opposing lawmaker's vote button - for her own bill - in the Assembly....

The California Highway Patrol announced Thursday evening that its investigation into crashes involving state Sen. Carole Migden last week has not been completed, and that no determination has been made whether to request that her driving rights be yanked. Earlier in the day, a CHP spokesman had told the Chronicle and other news media outlets that Migden was at fault for two accidents Friday, including one that injured another driver. CHP spokesman Sgt. Wulf Corrington also said that the CHP was going to ask the Department of Motor Vehicles to evaluate whether Migden's driving rights should be suspended. A story...

A looming battle between two of San Francisco's best-known gay and lesbian officeholders already is splitting the Bay Area's Democratic faithful more than a year before their June 2008 face-off. Assemblyman Mark Leno, 55, is taking on state Sen. Carole Migden in her bid for re-election, and plenty of Democrats are unhappy at the prospect of two powerful progressives duking it out in a bloody party primary. In a statement after Leno's public announcement earlier this month, state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, urged Leno to reconsider. Or else. "I am disappointed by Mark Leno's challenge of a...

Monday December 04, 2006 By SAMANTHA YOUNG and DON THOMPSON Associated Press Writers SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California's newly sworn Legislature on Monday picked up where the old one left off, introducing an emotional bill to legalize gay marriage and delving into a power struggle over Central Valley flooding. While legislative leaders struck a bipartisan tone for the session that gets under way in January, rank and file members revived bills that have divided the Capitol. Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, reintroduced legislation that would allow gay couples to marry in the state of California. And Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco,...

The new California law that requires registered domestic partners to file their state taxes like married people is a symbolic victory for gay couples. But the financial impact won't always be positive, and most will face new tax-filing and planning headaches when the law takes effect next year. Under SB1827, signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger last weekend, registered domestic partners can no longer file their state tax returns as single or head of household. For tax year 2007 and beyond, they can choose married filing jointly or married filing separately, the same options married couples generally have. However, domestic partners must...

In a move that could bring a merlot low - and make a chardonnay shudder - a state lawmaker is proposing making zinfandel the official wine of California. State Sen. Carole Migden introduced the bill this week, saying the heady varietal is a "quintessential" California wine dating back to Gold Rush days and versatile enough to stand up to the spicy diversity of California cuisine. "It's about time we give it the recognition it deserves," ... Preliminary figures for the 2005 grape harvest put zinfandel at 10.4 percent of the crop, behind cabernet sauvignon's 12.5 percent. Chardonnay was the harvest...

WHY DID Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sign a bill Oct. 7 that requires manufacturers of cosmetics to disclose any ingredients that could cause cancer? This state has so many consumer warnings that people don't even notice them any more, and it's not as if folks don't know there are chemicals in beauty products. Then there's the fact that the bill's author, state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, tried to pass the measure by pushing a "yes" button at the desk of a Republican Assembly member who opposed the bill. (She later apologized, and her voted was pulled.) The point is: Any...

Bowen punished by her own party South Bay state senator refused to blindly back a spending bill, prompting retaliation by Democrats. SACRAMENTO -- South Bay Sen. Debra Bowen has been dumped from a powerful committee that oversees spending measures, apparently for refusing to commit blindly to bills pushed by Democratic Party leaders. Little is being said officially about the punishment, which could dampen the Redondo Beach Democrat's fund-raising efforts but burnish her independent credentials in a looming campaign for secretary of state. In a twist, Bowen also had to cast a vote on her own fate as well. The rebellion...

California Success Splits Gay Activists Monday, 16 September 2002 SACRAMENTO -- California's Gov. Gray Davis last week signed into law a measure extending inheritance rights to registered same-sex partners, capping what many consider to be a banner year for gay civil rights in the country's most populous and powerful state. Of eight gay civil rights proposals put before the Democratically- controlled Assembly this year, six were passed and Gov. Davis has so far signed three into law. All of the new measures grant new rights to registered same-sex partners who suffer the loss of a partner. He is still considering...