Scene at the hospital *

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.

1:22 AM Sunday, May 8 2005 • Link
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