This article in Sunday's Bee made me laugh: http://sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/10129253p-11050028c.html
It's his criminal sentence, for Christ's sake! It doesn't exactly make him mother Teresa.
So back to yammering about the arena, that Marcus Breton article said exactly what I was thinking but that no one has come out to say so far, that the Maloofs must be turning the screws on the city council behind the scenes. They didn't get to be billionaires by being nice guys. It's very plausible that they present this goofy, affable public persona and then turn around and tell the mayor and the council off the record that if they lose the Kings none of them will get re-elected. That's why, in retrospect, Steve Cohn's move to at least float the idea that they pay for half seems pretty gutsy. Who the fuck do they think they are storming out of a city council meeting?
And who is this shady Richie Ross character? How can he work for the Maloofs, the mayor, and some of the city council at the same time? Aren't the Maloofs and the city council supposedly representing opposing interests in this arena issue? I'm sure the Maloofs would ask the city to pay for the entire arena project if they could, which should be at odds with the view of the city. Richie Ross seems to "consult" for just about everyone, from Cruz Bustamante to Gary Condit. I can't seem to find a picture of him so that I can give him the evil eye at the city council meeting, but I did find an interesting article from last summer that details how he was accused of "extreme lobbying" when he said an Assemblywoman was "dead, in my eyes" when she wouldn't vote for a measure he was supporting. He also serves a dual role as campaign manager and lobbyist for powerful interests. So I wonder if he is instrumental in getting a candidate elected do you think the candidate would feel obligated to give more consideration to the interests he represents? Nah, probably not.
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