Eric Longabardi of ERS News.com reports that before Mirthala Salinas became involved with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, she was the girlfriend of his good friend and close ally, Speaker Fabian Núñez. Quoting Longabardi:

Assembly Speaker, Fabio Nunez, one of Villaraigosa’s best friends, also had a relationship with Salinas from the summer of 2003 until after his swearing in as Assembly Speaker in February 2004. The Speaker’s office confirmed to ERSNews.com that while the Speaker was divorced from his wife Maria (they have since remarried), Nunez and Salinas had a romantic relationship. Salinas attended Nunez’s swearing in as Speaker of the Assembly. Sources also tell ERSNews.com that Salinas would regularly fly to Sacramento to see the Speaker. One insider at Telemundo said that “everybody in the newsroom knew all about it and management did nothing about it.”

[snip]

The Mayor told the Los Angeles Times that Salinas had the “highest journalistic integrity.” However ERSNews.com has learned that on one of the Mayor’s trips to Sacramento where he was seeking education reform Salinas was given unparalleled access to the Mayor. On the return commercial flight with other journalists and the Mayor’s staffers Salinas spent the entire flight sitting next to the Mayor being given obvious special treatment....

A Telemundo spokesman, Alfredo Richard, said that they removed Salinas from the political beat 11 months ago after they apparently learned about Salinas and Villaraigosa. It appears that Salinas never let it slip that she was having a romantic relationship with the Speaker of the California Assembly and one of the most powerful politicians in California during 2003 and 2004, while she was still covering politics. ERSNews.com attempted to contact Salinas to ask her about the inconsistency in her news assignment but calls were never returned.

Longabardi is the sometime network investigative reporter who disclosed the name of the "Dateline NBC" producer who sits on the Phil Spector jury.