David Zahniser writes in the LA Weekly:
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Daily News finally got confirmation of Villaraigosa’s romance with Salinas, a political reporter who had already dated former council President Alex Padilla, among others. Daily News reporter Beth Barrett, with help from an interpreter, brilliantly went to the most obvious source, Villaraigosa’s mother-in-law, who said that the mayor told his wife that questions about his missing wedding ring were “none of her business.”
And yet despite the salacious details, information about the timing of the romance remained frustratingly fuzzy. After all, the woman dating the mayor had, as a reporter, covered Villaraigosa during many of his high-profile endeavors: staking out a position on illegal immigration, showing up on the scene of a gang shooting and, perhaps most notably, attempting to take over the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Salinas made her biggest splash last year when, camera operator in tow, she got a rare peek at the stash of toilet brushes sent to Villaraigosa after he delivered his famous “We clean your toilets” speech to a crowd of immigrants.
