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Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary of the County Labor Federation, will join Mayor Villaraigosa and his coterie of city employees and Jewish community leaders on the trip to Israel that begins today. Durazo is neither an elected official nor a Jewish leader, nor will she ever be an expert on airport security or whatever other reason the mayor gives for the trip. But she is the most powerful labor official in town, a national co-chair of the Obama campaign, and a confidante of Villaraigosa's. She also went along on the mayoral junket to Asia in 2006. Today's junketeers as reported by new City Hall reporter Phil Willon in the Times and Rick Orlov in the Daily News, whose lists don't completely agree:
Durazo
Councilman Dennis Zine
Councilman Jack Weiss
Councilwoman Wendy Greuel
Greuel's husband (Orlov)
Department of Water and Power CEO David Nahai
DWP board President Nick Patsaouras
Port Deputy General Manager Molly Campbell
Harbor Commissioner Doug Krause
LAWA general manager Gina Marie Lindsey
Airport commissioner Alan Rothenberg
Airport commissioner Sylvia Reyes-Patsaouras
LAPD Deputy Chief Terry Hara
James Featherstone, general manager of the city's emergency preparedness department
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
Dr. Nur Amersi of the Afghanistan World Foundation
John Fishel, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
Support staff from the mayor's office is also going, and Villaraigosa's two youngest children, Antonio and Natalia Fe. LAT story, DN story