Fabian Nunez

A complaint filed with state ethics officials Tuesday accused Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez of using a charity to illegally funnel donations into political activities. The complaint cites more than $270,000 that Nunez solicited in 2005 and 2006 from corporations, utilities and other interests with a stake in legislation to pay for toy giveaways, scholarships, youth summits and other events that featured Nunez and were arranged by his staff.

The president of AT&T California is urging employees to support Proposition 93, the term limits measure on Tuesday's ballot championed by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, whose 2006 law allowing the telecommunications company into the lucrative cable TV market could be worth billions of dollars. In a letter e-mailed to 40,000 employees this week, President Ken McNeely wrote: "I believe that Prop.

In his remaining months in office, outgoing Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez hopes he can leave a long-lasting mark on the Legislature with new term limits, a ban on fundraising during key periods and a new way of drawing state voting districts. He and the Assembly's minority leader, Mike Villines (R-Clovis), are discussing a constitutional amendment package that could be placed on the November ballot by the Legislature if two-thirds of lawmakers agree.

All these Democratic Assembly speakers in the post-Willie Brown era of term limits seem to pass through the state Capitol in a blur. Bustamante, Villaraigosa, Hertzberg, Wesson, Nunez. Next up: Bass. Six speakers in 11 1/2 years. But Fabian Nunez of Los Angeles is unique among that group: He has held the powerful post for four years-plus, making him practically a grizzled veteran.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, the gardener's son who rose from a San Diego barrio to one of California's most powerful posts, leaves office Tuesday having arguably fulfilled a vow he made when he was sworn in four years ago: to renew his chamber's prestige as "the house of ideas." But by many accounts, the Los Angeles Democrat and former labor leader failed to keep another pledge: to restore citizens' faith in government.

Fabian Nunez, the new ex-speaker of the California Assembly, has not taken kindly to reporting on his extravagances. Nancy Vogel, our esteemed colleague here at The Times, discovered that Nunez spent lavishly as speaker, treating himself to fancy dinners ($1,795 for one particularly lovely night out in Paris) and European vacations. He shopped at Louis Vuitton ($2,562 in "office expenses") and gorged at a French winery ($5,149 for a "meeting").

Calling himself a "Johnny-come-lately" to the issue, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez announced Thursday that he will back a bill to allow terminally ill people to hasten their deaths with lethal prescriptions. Similar bills have failed in the last two years, but supporters say Nunez, a Los Angeles Democrat, could make the difference. "We are more hopeful now than ever that we can get this bill signed into law," said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Patty Berg (D-Eureka).

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez announced in February that he was "ready to buck my church" and push legislation allowing terminally ill people to speed up their deaths with lethal drugs. But he wasn't ready for this -- not from holy leaders. The church is bucking back and looking like an ugly old political attack dog. We're seeing a collision of church and state, both of which serve society best -- with all our religious diversity -- when they operate separately. As the nation's founders planned.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez defied his counterpart in Congress on Wednesday by proposing that a bipartisan government watchdog commission redraw both legislative and congressional districts.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) picked up a potentially valuable ally Wednesday in the battle for California's Democratic presidential delegates: state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, a key link to the state's powerful unions. Nunez (D-Los Angeles) has joined Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign as a national co-chairman, an arrangement he announced Wednesday morning in Sacramento.