Mayors

When Pomona Mayor Norma Torres returned to Guatemala in October, it was the first time she had been back to her native country since she was a child. But Torres got a hero's welcome. As she toured the country she barely remembered, people everywhere recognized her on the streets. "She's the mayor of Pomona," they said. Some brought magazines with her picture on the cover and asked for an autograph. They called her "the pride of Escuintla," her hometown, and "the hope of all migrants."

The civic soap opera engulfing Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick took a new plot twist Monday when a county prosecutor charged the onetime rising political star with obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct in office, all related to a romantic relationship with his former chief of staff. Facing political catastrophe and a long prison term, Kilpatrick defiantly vowed to fight the civil felony charges, which grew out of an $8.

James Brian Sliter had every legal right to run for mayor of this gritty little city. But as a registered sex offender, Sliter learned, reality is sometimes different. A week after declaring that he was running for mayor of Wilmer because he was fed up by a local government he claims is sullied by nepotism and corruption, Sliter announced Friday that he was dropping out of the race.

Two City Council members who voted in favor of raising the salaries of the mayor and the council have changed their minds, which means the issue no longer has a majority of support. Mayor Jerry Sanders had threatened to veto the raises, which were approved Monday. The council could have overridden a veto by the same 5-3 majority that approved the raises, but council President Scott Peters and Councilman Ben Hueso issued a joint statement Wednesday saying that a controversy over salary increases for elected officials is "not in our community's best interest."

A four-letter word has enlivened an otherwise wonkish mayoral race between incumbent Jerry Sanders and businessman Steve Francis, attracting much more attention than the two Republicans' disputes over infrastructure needs and municipal financing. Annoyed by Francis' multimillion-dollar barrage of television commercials questioning his honesty and integrity, the normally low-key Sanders refused to shake Francis' hand after an Earth Day debate and instead said to him, ". . . you."

In the NBA and in life, Kevin Johnson always seemed the guy who would do the right thing. This was the kid who survived Sacramento's toughest neighborhood to study hard and set scoring records, graduating to matchups with Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. This was the man who returned to his old Oak Park neighborhood to work at restoring a place pockmarked by poverty.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as is the norm in political circles, has offered a wager to his counterpart in Boston, Thomas Menino, on the outcome of the Lakers-Celtics series. Villaraigosa's imaginative offer, from the mayor's website: "So here's my proposal: "If the Celtics win, we'll send you the best professional football team L.A. has to offer: the Arena League's Los Angeles Avengers. "If the Lakers win, we get the Patriots. "I know what you might be thinking: 'Villaraigosa must be nuts!

In a push to coalesce Democrats, Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday huddled in a hotel conference room with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other influential city leaders who earlier had supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president. The private meeting occurred shortly before he addressed an overflowing ballroom at the U.S.

After a rough year marked by budget headaches and marital woes, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa strode back into the warm glow of the national spotlight this weekend and used it to urge the presidential candidates to reinvigorate federal anti-poverty programs. Villaraigosa, speaking to hundreds of city leaders at the U.S.

The nation's mayors have voted against spending taxpayer money to buy bottled water. A majority of about 250 mayors at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Miami voted to phase out regular use of bottled water for its employees and functions. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom wrote the resolution. Newsom was joined by 17 sponsors, including New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. A beverage industry group called the move "sound-bite environmentalism," while activists cheered it.