Kathleen Connell

State Controller Kathleen Connell on Monday ordered top-to-bottom audits of the state's prison system and the Department of Education. She also announced that a full-scale examination of the Medi-Cal program already is under way. She said the probes were necessary to "eliminate any hint of conflict of interest and to maximize savings." "These are the most significant portions of the state budget, and they are the fastest growing," Connell said.

Former state Controller Kathleen Connell has complied with a demand to give up $22,000 in political contributions to her 2001 Los Angeles mayoral campaign because the donors have admitted the money was laundered. The action increases pressure on other L.A. politicians who have received laundered contributions -- including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and Councilman Jack Weiss -- to write checks to the state or city.

Kathleen Connell is on the move--brisk, forceful and confident. She talks tough about stripping state government of waste and inefficiency and of building a stronger California economy. And--ask any California political expert--Connell appears to know just what she wants for herself: to become governor of California at the first opportunity.

A termite contractor made $10,000 in illegal contributions to a Los Angeles mayoral candidate after an executive in a prominent real estate firm solicited the donation, according to transcripts of Los Angeles County Grand Jury testimony reviewed Tuesday by The Times. The contractor testified that John Archibald, vice president of Casden Properties LLC, later told him not to worry about an investigation of the contributions by the city Ethics Commission.

Back in 1952, state Controller Thomas Kuchel loftily cited his job as the one elected California position that "provides the necessary independent check on the financial operations of the spending agencies." More recently in the wake of enactment of another messy state budget by the governor and Legislature, Controller Gray Davis likened the job to the "guy in the circus following the elephant around."

State Controller Kathleen Connell launched audits Thursday of the finances of Los Angeles and Sacramento counties' child welfare agencies. The audits will trace the hundreds of millions of dollars in foster care funds spent by Los Angeles' Department of Children and Family Services and its smaller counterpart in Sacramento. A spate of child deaths in Los Angeles and a critical report by the Sacramento County Grand Jury helped spark the probe, said staffers in Connell's office.

State Controller Kathleen Connell on Monday night launched what aides said will be an expensive series of TV campaign commercials portraying her as a fiscal watchdog who will "know how to manage the city." Her first 30-second advertisement, appearing during late local news broadcasts Monday night, will be shown throughout the week as part of a $450,000 purchase of TV time.

Intensifying his criticism of Los Angeles' police chief, mayoral candidate Steve Soboroff said Thursday that he would not reappoint Bernard C. Parks if he had to decide today. Soboroff's statement at a mayoral debate was his most striking criticism yet of the chief, clearly separating the businessman candidate from his chief backer, Mayor Richard Riordan. The mayor has continued to support Parks, although more tepidly in recent weeks.

Complaining that her colleagues on a public pension board are trying to curtail her ability to raise campaign funds, state Controller Kathleen Connell has asked the courts to strike down reforms that prohibit many businesses from contributing to members of that board.

State Controller Kathleen Connell has dropped a lawsuit she filed in December against the California lottery, officials said Friday. The lottery had called the suit silly, political and an unnecessary burden on taxpayers, but Connell had said the suit was necessary for proper, independent scrutiny of the lottery by her auditors. With the dismissal of the suit, both sides claimed victory and disagreed with each other's assessment of where the issue stands.

State Controller Kathleen Connell, warning that the "financial integrity" of California is at stake, is calling for state government to borrow an unprecedented $12.5 billion to overcome a cash flow crisis. She said that the squeeze between income and expenditures may persist through the rest of the fiscal year, but that the general fund cash box must receive an immediate infusion to pay all the state's bills for October.

State Controller Kathleen Connell has formed an advocacy group to lobby legislators and others on behalf of foster children. ''I want to become the muscle for the foster care effort here in California,'' she said. The first order of business: to defend foster care programs in what promises to be a ''particularly brutal budget season.'' Connell, who is serving her last year as controller, said she has not worked out all the details of how the group will operate.

SACRAMENTO -- Controller Kathleen Connell, who must track California's cash flow, warned Tuesday that the state will end the fiscal year with virtually no money to pay its bills, and may have to borrow as much as $8 billion next year. Even under Davis' more optimistic view, Connell said, the state could be forced to borrow $2 billion in the new fiscal year that begins July 1.

State Controller Kathleen Connell launched audits Thursday of the finances of Los Angeles and Sacramento counties' child welfare agencies. The audits will trace the hundreds of millions of dollars in foster care funds spent by Los Angeles' Department of Children and Family Services and its smaller counterpart in Sacramento. A spate of child deaths in Los Angeles and a critical report by the Sacramento County Grand Jury helped spark the probe, said staffers in Connell's office.

State Controller Kathleen Connell is concerned that California's budget may not be repaid for billions spent on electricity until 2004 because of poorly worded state contracts and legislation, a claim instantly dismissed Wednesday by Gov. Gray Davis' administration. The Legislature recently authorized a record $13.4 billion in bonds to repay state coffers for emergency electricity purchases and to cover future power costs.

Antonio Villaraigosa pulled support from across lines of class and race in Tuesday's election, marrying substantial support in the Westside and the San Fernando Valley with his base on the Eastside. James K. Hahn won a strong majority of the black vote, and a large share of elderly voters, doing well in areas of the city that were won by other candidates who are now out of the race.

There you go again. The Times had outdone itself. In endorsing Kathleen Connell for state controller (Oct. 19), The Times has proven once again that it will always endorse big-government liberals--much to taxpayers' chagrin. Connell established an impressive record of wasting taxpayers' money when she bankrupted Los Angeles' homeowners' maintenance effort to the tune of almost $9 million. Now, Connell thinks this failure qualifies her to be controller--which is the constitutionally designated taxpayers' watchdog.

A Westside community leader whom state Controller Kathleen Connell listed as a backer of her mayoral bid is actually supporting former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa. Cindy Horn, an environmentalist and wife of Warner Bros. President Alan Horn, said Thursday that she was "surprised" to read a Jan. 22 article in The Times in which Connell's campaign cited her as someone endorsing the controller.

Former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa and City Atty. James K. Hahn forged to the front of the pack for mayor of Los Angeles on Tuesday and headed for a June runoff election. With three-quarters of the ballots counted, Villaraigosa maintained the narrow lead over Hahn that he had held all night.

An 11th-hour burst of negative advertising and one message with anti-Semitic overtones overshadowed the race for mayor of Los Angeles, drawing strong criticism Sunday from religious leaders and incumbent Mayor Richard Riordan. Outraged by the degenerating rhetoric of the race and its implications for harmony in the city on the religious holidays of Palm Sunday and Passover, Riordan demanded that the campaigns return to the high ground in the final hours before Tuesday's election.