How respected — or powerful — was the late Miguel Contreras? When the news spread Friday that the labor leader had passed away, Mayor Jim Hahn and Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa showed up at Daniel Freeman Hospital, as did Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, State Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, Councilman Martin Ludlow and the heads of labor unions representing truck drivers, homecare workers, city employees, janitors and supermarket checkers. "We're all here because of Miguel," Nuñez told the Times. "He brought us to the dance. A lot of us owe a lot of our political success to him." The Daily News' Saturday story comes around on Contreras' age, agreeing he was 52, but there's new factual dissonance: The DN says that Contreras' wife, Maria Elena Durazo, was at the hospital with him, but the Times says she "was flying into Los Angeles when she heard the news of her husband's death." Local memorial services are pending, but the Times says burial is next Saturday in the San Joaquin Valley town of Dinuba. Times, Daily News, and in Spanish in La Opinión a front page news story and reaction sidebar and an editorial titled ¡Hasta siempre, Miguel Contreras!

* Crossover media: In the photo of Contreras and ex-mayor Richard Riordan on page 16 of the Times' California section, the fellow on the right is Daily News reporter Rick Orlov.

> | More
© 2003-2010   •  About LA Observed  •  Email the editor
Follow LAO
Kevin Roderick blog
12:44 AM Fri | The Dodgers say that Vin Scully fell getting out of bed at home in Hidden Hills and was admitted Thursday night for observation at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center.
Mark Lacter, LA Biz Observed
5:24 PM Thu | If all this turns out to be a he said/he said case, the prosecution might be in trouble.
12:21 PM Thu | Go buy a Buick. Really.
Sponsors
Jewish Journal logo
California Wellness Foundation
For information on becoming a sponsor, email the editor.
Sign up for email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


Blogads Los Angeles network

Get RSS Feeds
of LA Observed
LA Observed publishes several Real Simple Syndication feeds for easy scanning of headlines. If you wish to subscribe to a feed, most popular RSS readers will do it for you. You can also enter the web address from the XML button below or click on a specific feed. For more help with RSS, try here or here.




Add to Google