Free Republic

Five years ago, California's Capitol was mesmerized by a full-blown legislative investigation into how a $100 million software contract was awarded to Oracle Corp., bypassing the usual bidding channels. .... Kennedy is back in the "horseshoe," as the governor's Capitol suite is called, as chief of staff to Davis' successor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Florez is still pursuing scandal as a state senator and chairman of the Senate Governmental Operations Committee. He now wants her or some other top Schwarzenegger aide to testify at a hearing this week on another contract that was issued under somewhat questionable circumstances, this one to...

SACRAMENTO — The Schwarzenegger administration faced a dilemma today over a bill — stemming from a clash between two Bay Area card rooms — that would let local governments allow much higher-stakes in games like Texas Hold'em at 90 card clubs statewide. If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is running for re-election, signs the measure. he pleases small business and cities that get a cut of their revenue, but goes against the wishes of 9,000 California churches that say he would be deregulating card rooms across California. The California Coalition Against Gambling Expansion that represents the churches is pleading with Schwarzenegger...

Gov. Schwarzenegger has angered Legislative Democrats, Republicans and the Department of the Interior by negotiating gaming compacts with Indian tribes to run casinos off reservation land. But with rumors in the Capitol that another major compact deal is imminent, Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, chairman of the Senate Governmental Organization Committee, is trying to stop the new compact before it is introduced. The new gaming deal with the North Fork tribe in Madera County has some powerful proponents-including Las Vegas gaming interests. Among them is Station Casinos, a Nevada gaming company that has a deal to manage the North Fork tribe's...

Watchdog Group Accuses Sen. Florez of Extensive Election Law Violations Including Questionable Payments to Wife Thu Oct 13, 1:43 PM ET To: State Desk Contact: Ken Boehm of NLPC, 703-237-1970; Web: http://www.nlpc.org Dean Florez WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In a formal complaint filed Wednesday with the California Fair Political Practices Commission, a national ethics watchdog group detailed scores of violations of California's Political Reform Act by State Senator Dean Florez of Shafter. Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), which filed the complaint, said, "Sen. Florez has filed campaign reports riddled with errors and...

<p>SAN JOSE -- This time around, Assembly Member Nicole Parra is leaving nothing to chance.</p> <p>The Hanford Democrat is determined to leave this weekend's state Democratic Party convention with an official party blessing for her re-election bid this coming November against Bakersfield Republican Dean Gardner.</p>

SACRAMENTO -- Latino lawmakers like Kern County's Assemblywoman Nicole Parra and Sen. Dean Florez seldom find themselves in a tougher political spot than they are in right now. That's one result of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's demand that the Legislature repeal the new law allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver licenses -- or face the threat of a referendum on the ballot next March. "It's a tough decision for a lot of us," said Florez, D-Shafter. It is especially tough for Parra. She is a Democrat running for re-election in a west-side district with a large Latino population, but with a...

Conduct questions up close and personal for two state politicians By STEVE GEISSINGERSACRAMENTO BUREAU SACRAMENTO -- For two state lawmakers -- one a Democrat and the other a Republican -- the issue of ethics has become very personal in recent weeks. Assemblyman Dean Florez, a Fresno-area Democrat, says he was fired from his role as head of the inquiry into the state's ill-fated Oracle software contract because he was too tough on Gov. Gray Davis' administration In another instance, Sen. Maurice Johannessen, a Redding Republican who faces term limits this year, sided with the dominant Senate Democrats on the state's...

<p>The timing of the state's Oracle software contract debacle couldn't have been better for Dean Florez.</p> <p>The assemblyman from Shafter had been chairman of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee for only a month when the state auditor's office issued its scathing report on a $95 million no-bid contract for software that state officials had signed with the Oracle Corp. -- a deal the auditor says could cost taxpayers up to $41 million more than it otherwise would have paid.</p>