Update on 50th, or "Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated"… As a follow up to my post the other day about the rumors floating that Alan Uke has stopped spending his hard earned cash, and that conservatives are encouraging Bill Morrow out so as to not split the vote … I can say confidently that neither are true, just the expected trash floated in a race like this. Uke has no intention of being in this thing any way but big until the end, and — in fact — paid a sizable media buy within the last few days. As for Morrow, when asked about the swirl, he gave a genuine laugh and said, “If I’m being pressured to bow out, nobody’s talked to me yet."
Just WHEN did the U.S. Attorney’s office know about Cunningham?… The San Diego Reader’s Matt Potter has picked up on the Roll Call story about then-U.S. Attorney Gregory Vega knowing about Duke Cunningham’s penchant for bribes as far back as May 2000, but the office doing nada until the SDUT broke the Dukestir’s real estate deal last year:
According to Roll Call, in mid-2000 the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, a Pentagon agency, began a criminal investigation into Cunningham’s dealings with Brent Wilkes, the Poway defense contractor identified as a coconspirator in the case that sent Cunningham to prison for eight years and four months. The results, including the fact that Cunningham had taken his first bribe in May 2000, were referred for prosecution to Gregory Vega, then U.S. attorney in San Diego, but he took no action. "For what reason he declined to prosecute, I don’t know," Roll Call quoted Gary Comerford, a spokesman for the Defense Department Inspector General’s office as saying. Vega, who was U.S. attorney here from May 1999 to June 2001 and now works for the influential downtown law and lobbying firm of Seltzer Caplan, declined to comment.
Read it all, as well as some other questions about the U.S. Attorney’s office here.
Local gov’t thumbing noses at the state on sexual predators… My City, La Mesa, is one of a few that is taking state law into its own hands when it comes to Jessica’s Law. Jon may post the link on the main FR page, but I can’t resist this morning’s SDUT story on the trend. Especially this great quote, if I do say so myself:
“We are thumbing our nose at the state and personally, I am OK with that. Part of this for me is sending a clear message to the state that we are sick and tired of laws that allow sexual predators back on our streets.”
Read the entire story here.