Richard Riordan

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Mayor Richard Riordan delivered commencement addresses and were awarded honorary degrees at two area universities Saturday. Villaraigosa spoke at Loyola Marymount University and received a doctor of humane letters degree from the private Catholic college in Westchester. Riordan, who served two terms from 1993 to 2001, delivered the keynote address at Woodbury University, a private, business-oriented school in Burbank.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan has been released from the hospital and will recover from heart bypass surgery at home, his law firm said. Riordan was released Friday from St. John's Health Center, according to a statement from his firm, Bingham McCutchen.

Former Mayor Richard Riordan has joined the local office of Bingham McCutchen, an international law firm. Bingham McCutchen, which has more than 850 lawyers in 11 offices in the U.S., England and Japan, merged two years ago with the law firm Riordan co-founded in 1975. Riordan served two terms as mayor from 1993-2001. He became Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's education secretary in November 2003 and resigned in June.

Richard Riordan, the former two-term mayor of Los Angeles, is stepping down as state secretary of education after an uneasy 17-month tenure, during which he enjoyed little authority in shaping education policy. The resignation comes at a time when polls show public confidence in the state's education policies sagging. Earlier in the week, administration officials, including communications director Rob Stutzman, had brushed aside as "rumors" inquiries about whether Riordan planned to resign.

State Education Secretary and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan endorsed Antonio Villaraigosa for mayor Friday, saying the city councilman will bring a new level of energy and vision to fixing the city school system and expanding after-school opportunities for children. On a day when Mayor James K.

State Education Secretary and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan has spent $24,900 on a mailer supporting Bill Rosendahl for the 11th District Council seat that Cindy Miscikowski is vacating. Rosendahl, a college instructor, is running against former area planning commissioner Flora Gil Krisiloff and attorney Angela Reddock.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan threw his support behind mayoral hopeful Bob Hertzberg on Thursday, offering a credibility boost to the little-known Sherman Oaks lawyer who hopes to rebuild Riordan's political coalition. The endorsement came a day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his support for Hertzberg's call to break apart the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Eager to close California's gaping budget hole last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his closest advisors quietly cut a deal to save $2 billion in education spending. But one person was notably missing from the behind-the-scenes negotiations: Richard Riordan, the newly appointed secretary for education. Riordan's absence, some Sacramento leaders say, has become a metaphor for his first year on the job.

Tim RUTTEN'S column regarding the overblown Richard Riordan "gotcha" news incident was dead on ("Riordan Stung by 'Gotcha' News," July 10). Rutten seems willing to stand up for Riordan because he knew him personally and feels his comment was very likely just a mistake and not indicative of anything deeper. However, others in similar situations deserve the same benefit of the doubt. We walk down a very slippery slope when we start instantly demonizing people who make mistakes in their choice of language.