Pete Knight

The newly Republican-controlled Assembly Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would preclude California from recognizing same-sex marriages sanctioned by other states. The hearing on the bill by Assemblyman Pete Knight (R-Palmdale) drew gay activists from across the state to condemn it and conservative Christian activists from as far away as Virginia to support it.

PRUDENT PETE: Now here's a tightfisted politician who puts his money where his mouth is. Or doesn't, depending on how you look at it. Republican Assemblyman William J. (Pete) Knight revealed this week that, during his first year in the Legislature, he spent less money operating his office than any other Assembly member. In fact, Knight actually returned more than 40% of the money he was allocated in 1993 to run his offices in Sacramento and Palmdale. "I guess it's just my nature," Knight said.

If there's one topic that elicits angry letters and phone calls, it's immigration. Nothing else that I've written about pushes readers' buttons quicker or with more passion. Not even knocking the Dodgers in baseball-crazy L.A. So I wasn't surprised when the angry letters and calls started to come in after I criticized Republican Assemblyman William J. (Pete) Knight of Palmdale in this column for distributing The Poem. What surprised me is that more than a month later, it hasn't stopped.

They're calling it "Americans for Racial Harmony" and it's about coming together to make a positive statement. They want to tell people the Antelope Valley is a melting pot, where people do not judge each other by the color of their skin. Political, religious and ethnic leaders who announced plans Friday to join together June 19 said they want to turn lemons into lemonade in the aftermath of Assemblyman William J. (Pete) Knight's distribution of a poem mocking illegal immigrants.

A proposal that would call for a boycott by Latinos on Antelope Valley home purchases has drawn mixed reviews from the Mexican-American community. The statewide Mexican-American Political Assn. may call for such a boycott at a meeting Saturday in San Francisco of the MAPA Board of Directors in response to the distribution of a poem last month by the area's assemblyman, William J. (Pete) Knight, that some say ridiculed illegal Mexican immigrants.

The statewide Mexican-American Political Assn. may call for a Latino boycott of Antelope Valley home purchases in response to the distribution last month by the area's assemblyman, William J. (Pete) Knight (R-Palmdale), of a poem that ridiculed illegal Mexican immigrants. But some Latino leaders in the Antelope Valley believe that such a move may do more harm than good.

"Laurie W." of Glendale writes: People like you, with your blind, do-good policies, have put an end to freedom of speech in this country. . . . The poem you so righteously commented on is a poem about REALITY, NOT RACISM. . . . It is the most BRILLIANT, HILARIOUS, REFRESHING AND TRUTHFUL POEM I have read in years. . . . People like you have destroyed the meaning of "humor.". . . You are the one guilty of "racist stereotyping," not the poem. . . .

About 100 Latino constituents in the Antelope Valley tried but failed Sunday to re-educate Republican Assemblyman William J. (Pete) Knight, who touched off a furor last week when he distributed a poem deriding illegal immigrants.

An Assemblyman heroically named Knight Took a stand not for Right, but for white He passed out a poem So we get to know 'im For politics of a wattage not too bright Does anyone out there happen to know whether Kate Tufts likes limericks? She's the 82-year-old Los Angeles woman who not long ago sold her house and belongings, raising $1.25 million to endow a poetry competition in honor of her late husband. The winner of the annual Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize gets a cool $50,000.