A bad day for Murray

Sen. Kevin Murray takes heat today from two different newspapers in two different stories about two different bills he has introduced. Michael Hiltzik in the LA Times looks into his bill that would seal divorce information. Murray quietly implemented what is known as a "gut-and-amend" job on the homeland security measure, which had been gathering dust on a committee shelf. He struck out the old language and replaced it with a fresh version of the overturned law, much as one might scoop out a cantaloupe and fill it with crab dip. The new bill would require judges to shroud only the financial details at issue, not the entire document. But because it still would prohibit them from making the customary balance test between privacy and openness at their own discretion and line by line, Janet Burkle and the newspapers still object. And Tom Chorneau at the Chronicle has a story about another Murray bill. One of the nation's largest owners of professional sports and entertainment properties paid $20,000 in consulting fees to a state senator while the lawmaker pushed legislation aimed at providing more public assistance in financing such venues, records show. Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles, said the December payment from Anschutz Entertainment Group was for legal services unrelated to his bill.