BILL WOULD BAN PARDONS IN FINAL DAYS OF GOVERNOR'S TERM

Now if Congress would only pass a similar bill for the President of the United States, then maybe we would not get those eleventh-hour pardons for the likes of fugitive Mark Rich who evaded more than $48 million in taxes and was charged with 51 counts of tax fraud, a pardon granted because Denise Rich, his socialite ex-wife, had donated an estimated $1 million to Democratic causes, including $70,000 to Hillary Clinton's successful Senate campaign and $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library fund.

From the January 28 issue of LAPPL NewsWatch:

A Southern California lawmaker proposed legislation this week to prohibit any California governor from pardoning an offender or commuting a prison sentence in the final 30 days of the officeholder's term. The measure comes three weeks after outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used executive power on his final day in office to reduce the sentence of Esteban Núñez, son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, from 16 to seven years in prison.