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Pomona Assemblymember Vanishes? UPDATED
By Publius | June 5, 2007
Word is that Assemblymember Nell Soto (a sixth-generation resident of Pomonan who represents that decaying city), hasn’t voted or been actively engaged in her job in at least a month. We don’t even know if she’s still living in Pomona anymore.
Where Is She?
This is apparently due to health reasons, and the sad thing is, it’s as if no one has noticed.
*Begin Update*
A few hours after we posted this, the link above searching Google News for Nell Soto turned up this from Shane Goldmacher of the Sac Bee’s Capitol Alert:
Assemblywoman Nell Soto, who celebrates her 81st birthday in two weeks, has been absent for the last two months, having contracted a nasty case of pneumonia. Soto has been ordered to remain at home by her doctor. She was last seen in the Capitol on March 8.
The Pomona assemblywoman is scheduled to return to the Capitol next week, according to her chief of staff Paul Van Dyke, but that won’t be in time to help her colleagues get legislation out of the Assembly.
The FC Blog extends our best wishes to Nell for a full and speedy recovery.
However, there is an extremely disturbing element to this story. Someone out there correct me if I’m wrong, but I haven’t seen this reported in print or online anywhere besides this post and Shane Goldmacher’s bit above. The fact that Soto has been out of commission for 2 months is not published on her website, either. If you lived in the 61st district, how would you know that your 80-year-old representative in the Assembly was at home and seriously ill for 8 weeks? I don’t know about all of you, but this sort of thing scares me.
*End Update*
And another thing: one of the good friends of the FC blog is Poormoana Mayor Norma Torres. You will recall that Mayor Torres recently compared us to supermarket tabloids, called us gossipers and said she laughs at us.
[We also believe she said our mother was a hamster and our father smelt of elderberries, and that she spits “in our general direction,” although this didn’t make the main stream press.]
Her city attorney, Arnold Alvarez-Glasman, compared us to the National Inquirer. We were so funny and irrelevant, in fact, that the city attorney stopped laughing long enough to threaten us with a lawsuit.
The city attorney, you will recall, was not representing the city of Poormoana when he threatened us using city stationary, but an unnamed city employee. He said in the press that Poormoana, and, I suppose, Mayor Norma Torres, allows him to use city stationary to threaten people when he represents private individuals. Somehow I think, in her heart of hearts, Mayor Torres may not see eye-to-eye with him on everything.
What does this have to do with Soto’s absence?
Well, Poormoana’s no-show Assemblymember reminds us that Mayor Torres will likely be setting sail for the 61st Assembly District soon. Then she’ll be able to represent Ontario, Montclair and Chino as well as her shining city beneath the hills—in Sacramento, no less. Will she do the right thing and find a way to fire her city attorney beforehand?
Last 5 posts in Pomona
- Alvarez Waterboarded! - July 23rd, 2008
- Morning Linkfest: 7 Reasons to Hate Corporations - July 23rd, 2008
- Inland Empire Barbie: Claremont/Pomona Editions - July 3rd, 2008
- Party At The Aztec - June 30th, 2008
- End of the Week Links - June 27th, 2008
Topics: Pomona |
June 5th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
It sounds suspicious! Grab an axe.
June 7th, 2007 at 8:23 am
[…] Rodriguez’s article in the DB today credits us with breaking the story about 80 year-old Assemblywoman Nell Soto’s two month absence from work due to health […]
June 28th, 2007 at 8:00 am
[…] And no, it’s not about assemblywoman Nell Soto or mayor Norma Torres. […]
July 2nd, 2007 at 9:45 am
[…] she represents that she was out sick and off the job for over 2 months this year—until this blog broke the story.We also asked the sort of questions that, quite frankly, it appears the Inland Daily […]