10:53 a.m.: Autry speaks even though his lawyer advises him not to.
Autry says that ACLU has a win-at-all-costs mentality and he belleves the homeless are being taken advantage of.
Despite his reservations, Autry says he wants the settlement to go forward.
Judge Wanger asks each of the individual defendents, including police chief Jerry Dyer, if they agree with the settlement. All say that they do.
With the settlement intact, Wanger adjourns the proceedings.
10:43 a.m.: Autry is standing before Wanger.
The city lawyer says that Autry has a right to express his opinions as an individual.
Autry says that he doesn't think he is in the Soviet Union.
Wanger says he wants to get to the bottom of Autry's comments that accuse the court of wrongdoing.
The city lawyer objects to Wanger's inquiry and says the inquest violates separation of the courts and legislative branches.
10:32 a.m.: The city's lawyer says that the agreement has been approved by the Fresno City Council and individual defendents, including mayor Autry.
10:29 a.m.: Lawyers for the homeless say they are confident that the city willl honor the terms of the settlement.
10:26 a.m.: Autry is getting a dressing down from Wanger about the law and the settlement. The judge continues to emphasize that Autry criticized a settlement that city negotiated without the court's involvement.
10:20 a.m.: Wanger says he is ready to go forward with the homeless trial vs. the city of Fresno in light of Autry's statements about his disagreements with the settlement negotiated by the city and lawyers for the homeless.
10:12 a.m.: Autry is in courtroom.
Wanger describes mayor as the defendent.
10:10 a.m.: Judge Wanger estimates thirty minutes for Autry hearing.
Who had more winners in the Tuesday election, The Bee's Editorial Board or the Lincoln Club of Fresno County?
Let's go to the scorecard and tally the results.
Both organizations recommended the three Fresno City Council winners -- Andreas Borgeas, Larry Westerlund and Lee Brand.
Ashley Swearengin, recommended by the Editorial Board, made the mayoral run-off and was a close second to Henry T. Perea. The Lincoln Club's preferred candidate, Jerry Duncan, finished a badly beaten third.
The Lincoln Club stayed out of the two contested Fresno County supervisorial races, while the Editorial Board saw one of its recommended candidates, Susan Anderson, prevail in District 2. The board's other recommended candidate, Nathan Magsig, lost to Debbie Poochigian in District 5.
Jim Kelley, who wasn't recommended by either entity, led with 38% of the vote for a Superior Court judgeship and will face the Editorial Board's favorite, Douglas Treisman, in a run-off. The Lincoln Club's preferred pick, Glenn LoStracco, finished fourth in a four-candidate field.
Finally, on the two competing statewide eminent domain propositions, voters passed Proposition 99, which was recommended by the Editorial Board. Proposition 98, backed by the Lincoln Club and preferred by landlords because it would've phased out rent-control, was defeated.
All in all, you'd have to say that the Editorial Board had a better night with its recommendations than the Lincoln Club, which describes itself as "a political action committee dedicated to electing Republicans to all levels of local, state and national government."
Disclosure: I am not a member of The Bee's Editorial Board, although I sometimes sit in on the board's interviews with candidates. The Bee's newsroom and Editorial Board are separate entities.
Good night.
Or should I say, good morning?
Thanks to all the blog readers who posted their observations.
The returns produced good news for Susan Anderson in her sixth straight election
Susan Anderson survived her toughest political battle Tuesday night, fending off Brian Calhoun and Paul Dictos in the primary and sidestepping a November run-off election.
With 99% of Fresno County District 2 precincts reporting, she had captured about 53% of the vote.
It was her closest call in a political career that began in 1990, when she defeated former Fresno Mayor Dale Doig to win the country clerk's job.
Anderson captured 84% of the vote in the general election that year after Doig withdrew from the race because of difficulty raising campaign funds.
No one opposed Anderson in 1994 and four years later, she garnered about 73% of the vote while defeating Doug Vagim.
In 2000, Anderson moved onto to the Board of Supervisors, claiming a 68% share to trounce then-Fresno City Council Member Ken Steitz, who was plagued by questions about whether he really lived in the district.
Anderson ran unopposed in 2004, continuing a string of easy victories.
Winning a third term to the board and a sixth-consecutive term as a county office-holder was more difficult.
Calhoun has an established support base in northwest Fresno, which he represents on the City Council, and
criticized Anderson for failing to fix the county's well-documented financial problems.
Dictos, a candidate for a variety of local elected positions through the years, also campaigned hard on a platform of bringing financial acumen and prudence to the board.
But Anderson's name recognition, loyal support base and reputation for steady leadership helped her avoid a costly run-off and kept her undefeated.
Debbie Poochigian, left, says her maturity helped her defeat Nathan Magsig
Earlier tonight, The Bee's county reporter, Kerri Ginis, was unable to reach Debbie Poochigian, who was locked up in a nasty race with Nathan Magsig for the District 5 seat being vacated by Bob Waterston.
Poochigian -- who was leading Magsig by 8 percentage points with 92% of precincts reporting at about 10:45 p.m -- finally was reached on a cell phone at her party at Pardini's – although the cell phone wasn’t her own.
“It’s great,” Poochigian said. “We just really tried to put out the issues. As I was walking door to door talking to voters, they wanted someone with common sense, someone with maturity, who wasn’t beholden to anyone.”
Meanwhile, Magsig was ready to concede. He said he’s moving on and will continue his work on the Clovis City Council.
Magsig said he left a congratulatory voicemail on Poochigian’s cell phone.
Which Poochigian will hear when she returns home and checks her cell phone.
It's time to focus on the state Senate and Assembly.
Returns from the California Secretary of State's office show state Sen. Jeff Denham of Atwater easily fending off the recall engineered by Senate Pro-Tem Don Perata.
Perata, a Democrat, pulled the plug on the recall in early May, but it remained on the ballot and Denham, a Republican, continued to actively campaign to retain his seat.
Of about 46,000 ballots counted in the district at 10 p.m., the recall was failing by a 3-to-1 margin.
Figures for the 34th Assembly District Republican primary showed Tulare County Supervisor Connie Conway leading challengers Bob Smith and Becky Maze.
Maze is attempting to succeed her termed-out husband, Bill, for the seat.
The winner of the Republican primary is all but assured of defeating the Democratic nominee, Desmond Farrelly, in the heavily Republican district.
The Henry T. Perea for mayor party is rocking at the Public House, a pub in Granite Park at Cedar and Dakota avenues. The pub is located in District 4, not Perea's District 7.
Perea's has his cell phone on voice mail, so we've yet to hear from him.
But we can say that former District 1 City Council candidates Scott Miller and Alan Schroeder are attending. Both were beaten by Blong Xiong, who is now the council president.
Schroeder is Perea's college fraternity brother.
Perea's father, Henry R. Perea, the Fresno County supervisor, is networking with party-goers, of course.
Two well-known figures associated with San Joaquin Valley's air-quality fight are there, as well. Jaime Holt is the Valley air board's spokeswoman, and Kevin Hall has been a longtime air-quality advocate and political organizer.
This report comes from Kerri Ginis, who covers the Fresno County Board of Supervisors for The Bee:
Fresno County District 5 candidate Nathan Magsig is watching the early election returns with dozens of his supporters at DiCicco’s in Old Town Clovis.
Early returns show that he is slightly trailing his opponent community activist and businesswoman Debbie Poochigian.
But unlike Magsig, who answered his cell phone, Poochigian could not be reached for any reaction. That’s because she said on Monday that she would be “unavailable” on election night.
Poochigian said she would be at Pardini’s in Fresno, but she wasn’t planning to bring her cell phone. She also said she didn’t know how she could be reached for comment.
She finally suggested calling her campaign manager’s cell phone. A call to that number went to voice mail.
Former Fresno County Supervisor Doug Vagim, who campaigned for mayor on a platform of fiscal responsibility, has pulled ahead of City Hall gadfly Barbara Hunt and into seventh place among the 11 candidates. Hunt didn't have a platform and didn't mount a campaign, except to show up at mayoral forums. But she was the first person listed on the mayoral ballot, which by itself, produces votes.
Vagim now has 543 votes, and Hunt has 517.
I know the night is young, but Doug Vagim can't be happy with how the mayoral balloting is going.
Vagim didn't figure to beat out Ashley Swearengin or Henry T. Perea, but the former Fresno County supervisor likely never imagined trailing City Hall gadfly Barbara Hunt.
The last time Hunt ran for mayor, she received 8 votes.
This time, she's undoubtedly benefiting from being the first name on the mayoral ballot. The placement was determined by a statewide drawing held to determine the ballot order for local and state elections.
With about 18% of the vote counted, Hunt has 459 votes to Vagim's 449.
In the race you care about: Swearengin is leading Perea by 94 votes, and if the early trend holds up, they'll meet in the general election. Each has about 26% of the vote.
A thank-you to all the tipsters calling or e-mailing to say that Fresno supervisorial candidate Brian Calhoun is still serving coffee at his street-corner klatches.
You might recall that after Calhoun, a Fresno City Council member, began a campaign to stop panhandlers from hanging out on Fresno street medians, I asked county health officials whether he needed a permit to hand out free coffee on the street.
I asked because I believe that a politician panhandling on the streets for votes should be held to the same standard as other panhandlers.
The officials said a permit was needed and told Calhoun's City Council aide the same.
Though he still keeps a pot on a table, Calhoun told me and the audience at a Farm Bureau supervisorial candidates forum that there's no coffee in it because of the permit requirement.
"It's virtual coffee," Calhoun said.
And another example of a politician relying on smoke and mirrors.
The contest to determine George Bush's successor is overshadowing the Fresno mayoral race.
So it figured that Sen. Barack Obama would sew up the Democratic nomination the same day that Fresnans went to the polls to winnow the field of candidates to succeed Alan Autry.
As I write this, Obama is addressing the nation via television from St. Paul, Minn., which just happens to be where the Republicans will hold their national convention in September.
And . . . Republican nominee John McCain formally will kick off his fall presidential campaign.
Once a year, every Fresnan -- or Fresnian as the state lottery folks like to say -- gets to pile discards in front of the house. Then city sanitation crews come around and haul away whatever the scavengers haven't piled into their vans and pickups.
Right now, the Big Pickup is happening on Barton Avenue between Gettysburg and Shaw in northeast Fresno. And so is the today's election.
You can guess what's coming.
The "Polling Place" sign for the Barton neighborhood precinct is affixed to an old wooden dresser standing in front of the home where voting is going on.
Based on what colleagues tell me, I'll feel like the Maytag repairman when I show up.
The Maytag repairman?
Some readers might be too young to remember the television commercial for the appliance manufacturer. The idea was that the Maytag repairman was the loneliest guy in town because the company's washers and dryers were extremely reliable.
Anyway, voter turner appears to be living up to woeful expectations of 25% to 30% -- or may end up even lower.
It's a bit puzzling in that Fresno area media -- old and new -- are providing unprecedented access to information about the candidates and the issues through the Internet.
One of my election-day blogging traditions is to track how The Bee's and the Fresno County Lincoln Club's recommendations fare at the ballot box.
Keeping tabs should be easy today because The Bee's Editorial Board -- which has a reputation for leaning to the left -- agrees with the proudly conservative Lincoln Club on the Fresno City Council races.
I'm blogging on today's local elections this afternoon and throughout the night.
First up: Will it be Ashley Swearengin vs. Henry T. Perea in the Fresno mayoral runoff? Or is there a chance that the pollsters and pundits (including me) are wrong?
Answer: Remember the New Hampshire Democratic primary back in January?
Here is Rep. Devin Nunes' response to my May 26th column criticizing Nunes and two other San Joaquin Valley lawmakers for voting down a bill that would increase education benefits for veterans who have served since Sept. 11, 2001.
"“This letter is in response to recent reporting by The Fresno Bee, which incorrectly suggests I oppose improved GI Bill benefits for veterans.
"In an article printed on May 26, The Bee noted that 256 of my colleagues in the House and 75 U.S. Senators voted for legislation that would provide improvements to the GI Bill. However the paper failed to explain why, given both House and Senate passage of GI bill improvements, no legislation has been sent to the President or will become law.
"The answer is simple. Leaders in Congress were not trying to improve benefits for veterans. Instead, they were playing partisan political games in advance of the Memorial Day recess. Improvements to the GI Bill, as well as urgently needed funding for our soldiers in combat, are being held hostage as a result.
"This summer 490,000 active duty military troops will face the prospect of no paycheck and 300,000 military families could lose their housing benefits because Congress has not passed a clean war funding bill. Unfortunately, our local paper took the political bait related to GI benefits and missed out on reporting the complete facts.
"What really happened? Democrat leaders, with the support of specially created Marshall Law rules, did not allow Congress to vote on clean legislation to improve GI benefits or fund the war. Instead, the speaker tied these issues to massive tax increases on small businesses, an unprecedented increase in unemployment insurance spending and a requirement to withdraw troops from Iraq. Take a look for yourself online at www.thomas.gov – just pull up HR 2642. You will find three votes, as well as the rule linking them together. While it takes a little digging, you will quickly see how The Bee’s reporting was misleading at best.
"Last week, I and other Republicans voted for a clean bill to improve GI benefits (Roll Call 364). Only two Democrats voted against their party leaders and supported the proposal. Instead, as we have witnessed for the past two years, most Democrats supported the political exercise of pretending to support veterans and our soldiers, while actually doing nothing for them.”
DEVIN NUNES
Congressman, 21st District of California
Riding in honor of Chris Johnson/challenge to local firefighters
A few months ago, I sent a message to Ken Shockley, the Fresno Fire Department public information officer, asking if any firefighters would be interesting in honoring the memory of Chris Johnson by joining Team In Training for the summer season.
Full disclosure: I have been a Team In Training volunteer since 2006 and am a coach for the Central California cycling team.
Johnson, who was an engineer with Cal Fire, died in September of last year at the age of 32 after a year-long battle with leukemia. He worked at the firehouse at McCall and American Avenues and was much admired by fellow firefighters.
Jonathan Lusk, a Fresno fire captain, answered the call and will ride 100 miles around Lake Tahoe and Truckee as a member of the Central California TNT team. Riders from the team will raise about $150,000 for leukemia and lymphoma research and local patient services before they complete America's Most Beautiful Ride on June 1.
Lusk needs to raise $2,700 to qualify for the ride, but he wants to raise a total of $50,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as a way of honoring Johnson and his surviving family -- wife Rebecca and son C.J.
In addition to his cycling training, Lusk teamed with Fresno firefighter Fred Martinez and his son Max to produce an emotionally charged, six-minute video tribute to Johnson.
I challenge every firefighter in Central California to match my donation of $50 to Lusk's fund-raising efforts for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
When I made it out to the Calaveras Street block party early Saturday afternoon, the Fresno High jazz band was kicking out sweet sounds and scores of children were having fun at the Sciencemobile.
Organizer Rob Defrees had hoped to attract at least 1,000 people to his "road" and make it the biggest single-street block party in Fresno history. The crowd didn't reach four figures, but he declared the six-hour event -- a celebration of the street's efforts to oust drug-dealers and build community pride -- a success nonetheless.
"All the smiling faces and the people trying to make people feel brilliant made it worth it," said Defrees, manager of the El Capri apartment complex, just north of Divisadero.
"The U.S. Marines stayed to the bitter end even though they didn't get any customers that day. My surprise violinist was a 7-year-old boy. He brought tears to people's eyes with his performance."
The Fresno mayoral race has been a snoozer, with none of the candidates possessing the charisma of termed-out incumbent Alan Autry, or even Dan Whitehurst, the man he defeated in 2000.
But, with early voting underway and three weeks remaining before the June 3 primary, things are heating up, as Republican activists focus on bringing down Henry T. Perea, the presumptive front-runner in the nonpartisan race.
