Antonio Villaraigosa

A Los Angeles television reporter is dating Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, about two years after his extramarital affair with another local newscaster led to the breakup of his 20-year marriage. KTLA-TV Channel 5 reporter Lu Parker, a former Miss U.S.A., has been dating Villaraigosa since March, station officials confirmed Monday. On Sunday, while working as a weekend anchor, Parker announced a story about the likelihood of Villaraigosa running for governor in 2010.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's decision Monday to skip the 2010 race for California governor left a two-person contest for the Democratic nomination in which former Gov. Jerry Brown starts with a strong advantage in scooping up much of the mayor's support, political analysts said. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the other contender, appeared likely to tap into Villaraigosa's strong appeal among young voters.

A day after being sworn in for his second term as Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa jetted off to South Africa on Thursday for a nine-day vacation. The mayor's office released a statement Thursday afternoon saying only that the mayor will be out of the state from July 2 to July 10. A source familiar with the trip said the mayor will attend a summit in Cape Town and Johannesburg sponsored by the Academy of Achievement.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday unveiled a refurbished parent center on a middle school campus in South Los Angeles to spotlight his fledgling improvement efforts at 10 schools. The updated parent room at Gompers Middle School was joyfully received, but his overall effort has hit snags as his team struggles to boost student achievement while also including teachers and parents in vital decisions on how to move forward.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday defended his support of Israel's military action against Hamas, a day after he met privately with local Muslim leaders who had criticized him as being one-sided and ill-equipped to wade into the complex Middle East conflict. At a rally outside the Israeli Consulate earlier this week, Villaraigosa said Israel had the "right and responsibility to defend itself" from the rocket attacks being launched from the Gaza Strip.

A pension board appointee of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may have violated city law by accepting a campaign donation from a Los Angeles businessman whose client sought a $10-million investment from the board. Kelly Candaele, who served until three weeks ago on the board of the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System, received $1,000 on Dec. 2 from Dan Weinstein, managing director of Wetherly Capital Group. That firm pitches investments to city and state pension boards.

Even as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa promises to enlist teachers and parents in his reform plan for Los Angeles schools, he has largely overlooked another group with a stake in his new enterprise: students. Villaraigosa might want to listen to 16-year-old Yamileth Capetillo, who goes to class on an empty stomach many days because her crowded high school, the Santee Education Complex near downtown, runs out of hot food for the second lunch shift.

A few minutes after 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, dozens of volunteers filtered into a storefront campaign headquarters where a massive photograph of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton smiled out from a window beneath a dingy Whirlpool appliance sign. The plan for the day was to get boots on the ground for a door-to-door canvass of Nashua, about 15 miles down the Merrimack River from Manchester. The Clinton organizers were eager to get started on the crucial last Sunday before Tuesday's primary.

Faced with a budget shortfall that has doubled in three months, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Monday for paring city spending by suspending most hiring, asking thousands of workers to take unpaid furloughs and selling vacant fire stations.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's campaign for a $243-million telephone users tax has received a major contribution from an unlikely source -- a Texas oilman whose company could see a windfall from one of the mayor's environmental initiatives. Proposition S, which is on Tuesday's ballot, took in a $150,000 contribution last week from billionaire T. Boone Pickens, the co-founder of Clean Energy, which bills itself as the nation's largest supplier of liquid natural gas.