Jul 20, 2008

The Phantom

Racing board gets a model appointee

By The Phantom / Daily News

A MODEL APPOINTEE: The California Horse Racing Board, which oversees Bay Meadows and other racetracks around the state, isn't a hotbed of glamour, as public bodies go. Its meetings can drag on for four hours or more as its commissioners - all male, and all of middle age or older - mull the finer points of wagering standards and doping rules.

Things could get more interesting if the state senate confirms Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest appointee. Last week, he picked former model and Hollywood actress Bo Derek for a post on the board.

A press release announcing the choice noted the 51-year-old Republican from Santa Ynez has served as a spokeswoman for the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act since 2003. Her other relevant experience includes owning Bless the Beasts, a company that makes boutique dog grooming products.



HYDE, LANTOS AND ... HELMS?

Relatives of the late Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, and others including Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa have been calling for the U.S. Senate to pass Lantos' last major bill, which would reauthorize and expand funding to fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa.

The battle over the Lantos-Hyde bill took a surprising twist last week when Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole suggested adding the name of a third recently deceased lawmaker to the title: Jesse Helms.

True, toward the end of his long life, the stalwart conservative from North Carolina supported funding to combat AIDS. But apparently, not everyone was satisfied that a man who once opposed AIDS funding on the grounds that gays are "weak, morally sick wretches" was the best person to share top billing on the legislation with Lantos, known as a champion of gay rights.

The measure died without coming to a vote.



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