Salinas speaks

The Times' City Hall beat reporters who were beaten on the Villaraigosa affair, Duke Helfand and Steve Hymon, recovered by the end of the day with a story that puts the mayor at the townhouse of Mirthala Salinas — bottle of wine in hand — four months after he took office in 2005. The story, accompanied by photographer Robert Durrell's photos of Villaraigosa and Salinas together in Sacramento, also mentions some trips where Salinas went along and covered the mayor. There also are details on how Villaraigosa helped Salinas last year when her mother was sick with cancer at Cedars-Sinai, and a statement from the Telemundo newscaster:

"I first got to know the mayor at a professional level where we went on to become friends," she said. "The current relationship grew out of our existing friendship."

Salinas said that while she and the mayor "are both public figures, I hope that everyone can understand and respect my desire to maintain my privacy when it comes to personal relationships."

Pretty clear the Times was working on a story about the Villaraigosa affair but just got beat by the Daily News. Commenters on the Times website are not being kind to Villaraigosa.

Photo today: Annie Wells / LA Times