[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

John Lobertini of KPIX-TV, who's covered state government and politics for years, is among 14 news reporters, producers, and others in the San Francisco station's newsroom who got the hook from the station yesterday.
 
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the layoffs at the CBS affiliate were done for economic reasons.
 
Lobertini is a solid reporter, one of the best of putting the inner workings of state government into laymen's terms. He also isn't shy about putting state leaders on the spot with tough questions, as Gov. Schwarzenegger (and Gov. Davis) found out the hard way on several occasions. I'm sure he'll land a spot somewhere, but it's sad to be reporting nearly weekly on the further decline of veteran Sacramento reporters.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Thunderous applause and standing ovation at Barbara Boxer fundraiser--Before the Nobel Prize

Petitions on the street to place him on the California ballot

By Frank D. Russo

At last night's Barbara Boxer fundraiser in San Francisco, the St. Francis Hotel was thick as thieves with reporters. Before Boxer arrived to hold an impromptu press conference with these reporters, the questions being bandied about amongst the press were all about Al Gore. Would he run for President? Would the Nobel Peace Prize, if he won it, give him a boost to run for President? And could he win by getting in at such a late date.

I joined in and made a few comments about the pros and cons to some of the news folks I knew and before I knew it, the cameras lit up and I was being asked these questions by two TV news reporters and another political writer for a newspaper.