ERSNews.com reports over an hour before the Los Angeles Times:
ERS News has learned that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s girlfriend and suspended Los Angeles Telemundo anchor/reporter Mirthala Salinas will return to work on Monday October 1, 2007. The announcement came today at a meeting at the Spanish language KVEA-TV Channel 52 Burbank, CA newsroom. Salina’s was suspended in August by the station for violating what the station called a "conflict of interest" in having a romantic relationship with the Mayor while also covering and reporting on him.
The twist to this story is, Mirthala will not be working in Burbank, her former location, where she covered and had romantic relationships with many well known LA area hispanic politicians before "hooking up" with the Mayor. Those politicians included California Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez, former LA City Councilman and now State Senator Alex Padilla and others. ERS News extensively reported on the scandal this past summer, as the Mayor’s relationship with Salinas made national headlines. It turns out Salinas won’t be anywhere near Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. She is being sent to work at the Telemundo Inland Empire news bureau with KNBC-TV’s Mary Parks.
Salinas’ new assignment is at least two hours commute from Getty House (the Mayor’s official residence where ERSNews reported Marthala Salinas and the Mayor were spending lots of ‘quality time’ together). As for Inland Empire political and news junkies, they might expect to possibly see the LA Mayor hanging around Riverside for some mall shopping excursions with his girlfriend Salinas, like the one captured by celebrity website TMZ.com in LA last month. ERS doesn’t know the nice malls in Riverside or San Bernardino, but we do know there are a lot of factory outlet malls out there, so maybe the Mayor will be able to save a little money the next time the Mayor is hunting for a new pair of shoes!
According to insiders familiar with the new "general assignment" reporting job, Salinas will not be covering LA politicians anymore, which is what got her into trouble in the first place. Unless of course, they have a reason to make the trek out to the "Inland Empire" as the area is known. As for Riverside and San Bernardino politicians, we here at ERS News want to make sure the politicians out in the "Inland Empire" have been alerted! It looks like Salinas will be stuck covering snow in the mountains, floods in the desert, high winds in the passes, and the occasional meth lab bust! All these stories are the staple for Los Angeles area TV news.
