Ending the marriage of a Democratic power couple after a sordid public breakup, California Treasurer Bill Lockyer has filed for divorce from former Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, who had an affair and has struggled with a drug abuse problem in recent months.
The divorce papers, filed Friday in Alameda County Superior Court, cite "irreconcilable differences" between the 71-year-old California political institution and his 41-year-old wife.
Tom Dresslar, Bill Lockyer's spokesman, said Monday afternoon that "Bill's desire is to above all resolve the matter in a way that serves'' the best interests of the couple's 9-year-old son Diego.
"Beyond that, he wants to the extent possible for this to be handled as privately and as amicably as possible," Dresslar said.
Shortly after the court filing, Nadia Lockyer, was injured in a solo car accident.
At about 5:10 p.m. Friday, she was talking on her cell phone when she veered off the road while driving in her Hayward Hills neighborhood, hitting a light pole and a tree, Hayward Police Sgt. Eric Krimm said Monday.
Krimm said her car's air bag deployed, but she suffered some facial cuts and complained of pain in her arm and was taken to a hospital by ambulance; she was not seriously injured.
Alcohol wasn't a factor in the crash, Krimm said, and Lockyer was alone in the car when it happened. Police aren't sure how fast she was driving but Krimm said she made an "unsafe
turning movement" before the crash. She wasn't cited or arrested.Neither Nadia Lockyer nor Bruce Jobson, Bill Lockyer's attorney, immediately responded to emails and phone calls Monday seeking comment about the divorce filing.
When she resigned in late April, Nadia Lockyer told this newspaper she was determined to fix her crumbling marriage.
"We're married. There's no talk of changing that, " she said. "We're committed to our son."
Trouble between the Lockyers surfaced in February after Nadia Lockyer told police that the lover she had met in a chemical-dependency program had attacked her in a Newark hotel room. But the state Justice Department investigated and in April declined to charge him with any crime. For weeks, the tempestuous affair between Nadia Lockyer and Stephen Chikhani -- a 35-year-old convicted felon from San Jose -- unravelled in the media through a series of text messages, secret recordings and rumors of a sex tape.
Nadia Lockyer resigned her seat on the board of supervisors in late April, months after the Chikhani incident brought her affair and her drug addiction into the public eye.
The Lockyers had wed in 2003, in what one veteran political operative at the time had called "a match made in political heaven."
By the time Bill Lockyer met Nadia Maria Davis about a decade ago, he was a Democratic political giant serving as California's attorney general after 25 years in the Legislature. Twice married earlier in life, he'd long been a bachelor.
Her father had been a renowned immigrant-rights lawyer, and she had cut her political teeth in Orange County by working on campaigns and winning a four-year term on the Santa Ana Unified School District board. When they met, she was four years younger than Bill Lockyer's daughter from one of his previous marriages.
The Lockyers, who have shared a home in the Hayward hills, became a prominent Democratic "power couple" from whom many local candidates sought blessings and support. Bill Lockyer transferred about $1.5 million from his campaign committee to his wife's 2010 campaign for supervisor, allowing her to swamp her rivals in a blizzard of direct mail and advertising.
In an extended interview with this newspaper to announce her resignation, Nadia Lockyer declared her commitment to focus on her recovery from addiction and her family. She thanked her husband for "his incredible patience and love and understanding despite the things I shared about past hurts and losses.
"I'll never feel I can do it enough,'' she said.
Staff Writer Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report. Josh Richman covers politics. Follow him at Twitter.com/josh_richman. Read the Political Blotter at IBAbuzz.com/politics.
Source: www.mercurynews.com
London 2012: Kenya's runners aim to drag golden haul from the disarray - The Guardian
Ordo ab chao – out of chaos, comes order. It is one of the oldest freemason mottos, attributed to the 14th century craft masons. In their own pursuit of world domination, it seems to be the motto the Kenyan Olympic team is adopting in 2012.
Kenyan runners have become a familiar sight on Olympic podiums ever since the great Kipchoge Keino first caught the world's attention, winning the 1500m by a huge margin in 1968. Yet good as they have been, in recent years Kenya's runners have got even better.
In Beijing in 2008, they won their biggest haul of medals yet, claiming almost half those available in the middle and long-distance running events. In London, they are set to do even better.
But if anything can stop them, apart from Mo Farah and the Ethiopians, it's their own chaotic preparations. While Britain has had its share of controversy in selecting a team for the Olympics, Kenya has gone from picking and then dropping its newest world record holder, to seeing its most flamboyant star in court on charges of stabbing a woman, and the majority of its team refusing to travel to the pre-Olympic training camp.
It all began when Abel Kirui won the marathon at the world athletics championships in August 2011. A month later Patrick Makau broke the marathon world record in Berlin. In a fit of excitement, Athletics Kenya (AK) announced that both men were pre-selected for the Olympic team. But then Wilson Kipsang almost broke the new world record, falling short by just four seconds. And Geoffrey Mutai followed up his course record in Boston by winning the New York Marathon, also in a record time. And then there was Emmanuel Mutai – no relation – who had beaten Makau to win the London Marathon, also in a course record. The selectors backtracked, reopened the qualifying criteria, and eventually settled, after another series of races, on Kipsang, Kirui and Emmanuel Mutai.
Makau, the world record holder, was not happy."This is something I can't understand. I don't know why I am not in the team since … I was promised by Athletics Kenya a chance to go and compete in the Olympics. Having run a world record, I think I deserved a place in the Olympics team."
The truth was that Kenya had the top 20 fastest marathon runners in the world in 2011 and AK simply couldn't make up its mind who to pick. "In this country, any runner is as good as the other," said AK's chairman, Isaiah Kiplagat, after making the final decision, which did not go down well, but probably summed up the governing body's approach to picking the team.
Amid that melee, AK then decided to run the Olympic trials for 5,000m and 10,000m not in Kenya, but in the US. The rationale was that the athletes needed to be tested in conditions and at an altitude similar to London, but the decision caused an outcry in Kenya that local fans were being denied the chance to witness one of the greatest races on the planet. It also ruled out the possibility of a wildcard coming from nowhere to beat the favourites, as all the runners had to be preselected and flown out to the US.
There was speculation, too, that the country's kit sponsor, Nike, was behind the decision. Kenya's commissioner of sports, Gordon Oluoch, said: "AK should not make excuses to have the trials in the US just because Nike is sponsoring the event." After the furore, AK again backtracked and in the end only the men's 10,000m was run in Eugene – the home town of Nike – while the rest of the trials were held in Nairobi.
A few weeks later, the trials went smoothly, with most of the main protagonists making the team. But just as everyone was predicting great things, a woman turned up late at night at a hospital in the town of Eldoret claiming she had been stabbed by the world steeplechase champion and Team Kenya member Ezekiel Kemboi. In what was a bizarre night at the local police station, Kemboi then turned himself in, saying the woman had actually been stabbed by her own accomplices in a botched attempt to rob him.
The nation was divided on the issue, with the prime minister's wife, Ida Odinga, sending a letter to the national newspapers blaming AK for not protecting the nation's star athletes. "As a mother," she wrote, "I feel there is too little Athletics Kenya, the Kenya National Sports Council and the National Olympics Committee are doing to protect our athletes, especially those selected to represent Kenya in prestigious events like the Olympics." The issue was eventually brushed under the carpet when Kemboi's lawyers convinced the court to hold the trial after the Olympics.
The team could now travel to its pre-Olympic training camp in Bristol. Kenya's national Olympic committee had arranged for the team to be based in Bristol in the weeks leading up to the Games to make use of its "highly specialised facilities". But just days before the team was due to travel, the athletes revolted, this time with the backing of AK, saying it would be madness to leave their high-altitude training camps in the weeks before the Games.
"The whole world is coming to Kenya to train in long and middle distance races. Why would we take our team to Bristol?" asked Kiplagat. Fortunately, some high level discussions took place and it was decided that only the sprinters, swimmers, boxers and the team's lone javelin thrower would travel to Bristol – probably not what the city had in mind when it agreed to host the great Kenyan Olympic team. But as one Kenyan athlete once told me: "In Kenya, nothing is straightforward."
Adharanand Finn is the author of Running with the Kenyans, published by Faber & Faber
Five Kenyans to watch out for at London 2012
David Rudisha
Men's 800m
Rudisha is probably the biggest shoo-in for gold in any track event at the Games. The world record holder and world champion likes to front run, and has been in imperious form this year, winning his last race in Paris by a massive four seconds. He has only been beaten once in three years, by the young Ethiopian Mohammed Amancorrect at the very tailend of last season
Main rival Mohammed Aman
Medal prediction Gold
Mary Keitany
Women's marathon
Keitany has been almost unbeatable over the last few years, winning the London marathon twice and breaking the world record for the half marathon. Her only blip came in the New York marathonMarathon last year when she paid for setting a blistering pace at the beginning and ended up finishing third. Her closest challenger is likely to be her training partner Edna Kiplagatcorrect, who is the world champion and finished second behind Keitany in London this year
Main rival Edna Kiplagat
Medal prediction Gold
Wilson Kipsang
Men's marathon
The second fastest marathon runner in history and an impressive winner in London in April, Kipsang is heading a Kenyan team looking for a clean sweep of the medals. A late bloomer, Kipsang didn't start running seriously until he was 25. As well as battling with each other, the Kenyan trio face a strong Ethiopian team. No one else is likely to get a look in
Main rival Emmanuel Mutai
Medal prediction Gold
Vivian Cheruiyot
Women's 5,000m and 10,000m
The triple world champion from last year (5,000m, 10,000m and cross country) can handle a fast pace, or is devastating in a sprint finish. She was also world 5,0005,000m champion in 2009. Her biggest challenge is likely to come from the double Olympic champion from Ethiopia, Tirunesh Dibabacorrect. The Ethiopian has been injured for much of the last few years but showed an ominous return to form in two races in the US recently. However, she is only in the Ethiopian team for the 10000m
Main rival Tirunesh Dibaba
Medal prediction Gold and silver
Asbel Kiprop
Men's 1500m
The world and Olympic champion is an erratic performer, often getting boxed in at crucial moments, although he usually gets it right on the big occasion. He only finished 3rdthird in the Kenyan trials, but that says more about Kenya's strength in this event than Kiprop's chances of winning gold. His two teammatesteam-mates, Silas Kiplagatcorrect and Nixon Chepsebacorrect, are sure to run him close, while the 1500m is always an event liable to throw up a surprise result
Main rival Silas Kiplagat
Medal prediction Silver
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: American and Australian team buses get lost from Heathrow to Olympic Park - Daily Telegraph
The result was a journey which took the tired and bemused athletes past Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament before finally crawling to its destination.
“Buckingham Palace, on the way to the Olympic Village? Not the most direct route, Monopoly tour maybe! Mayfair next?” said Australian sailor Elise Rechichi.
Rechichi had earlier feared her sail had been lost by Heathrow baggage handlers, although it was later found in the cargo area.
A separate London 2012 bus carrying American athletes got so badly lost it took four hours to make the 23-mile trip across the capital.
The blunders were an embarrassment to London’s Olympic organisers, especially as yesterday marked the point at which the world’s media began to take a special interest in the event, and given that Heathrow itself seemed to cope well with what had been billed as the busiest day of arrivals in its history. Bus drivers, many of them unfamiliar with London streets, found the GPS systems difficult to operate and some of the Olympic venues, like the athletes’ village location, have not been pre-loaded.
Navigation woes meant drivers missed key turn-offs and the 90-minute journey was in many cases extended well beyond 2½ hours even though the Olympic Lane was in operation on a small part of the M4.
In what resembled a script from the BBC comedy Twenty Twelve, the Dublin-based bus driver taking the Australian contingent of 30 athletes, officials and medical staff took his passengers past Buckingham Palace and into the back streets of West Ham yesterday morning before ended up driving the wrong way down a one-way street. The team had cleared immigration in less than 15 minutes after their 23-hour flight but had to wait an hour and a half for a bus to arrive.
“It would have been a great tourist trip if that is what you are here for,” said Australian official Damian Kelly. “The driver admitted this was the first time he’d taken the route and no one had taught him how the navigation system works because it operates off GPS. One of the doctors on board got it working for him, but then the Olympic village hadn’t been loaded into the system and everyone was trying to find the name of the street the village was in. In the end another physio got out his iPhone and gave directions to the driver via his phone.”
The experience of the Australians mirrored that of the United States contingent. Two-time world 400 metres hurdles champion Kerron Clement said his first impression of London was not that favourable.
Clement, the Olympic silver medallist and rival to Team GB’s world champion Dai Greene tweeted from the lost bus: “Um, so we’ve been lost on the road for 4hrs. Not a good first impression London. Athletes are sleepy, hungry and need to pee. Could we get to the Olympic Village please.”
But the transport commissioner Peter Hendy thought that particular delay may have been exaggerated.
He said: “I can’t believe it would have been four hours – they would have had to get seriously lost. They would have been at Southend rather than the Olympic Park. They would have seen the whole of south-east England.”
Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson apologised for the transport problems. More than 1,000 athletes checked into the Olympic village with a similar number expected on Tuesday.
He said: “If people have been on buses that have got lost then it is of course regrettable. I am extremely sorry, and clearly the drivers need to know where they are going.”
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games said the average time taken for the airport route was two hours, slightly longer than it had forecast. But it brushed off the transport problems.
A spokeswoman said: “We will do over 100 bus journeys today. It is day one and we have only had one or two issues where journeys have taken longer than planned, The vast majority are fine.”
Stagecoach and Arriva have the contracts to provide the bus travel for athletes and members of the media.
“With the athletes needing to be on top form when they arrive to compete, it is crucial that their journey is comfortable, convenient and hassle-free,” Stagecoach said in a release months ago. The company referred all media queries back to Locog.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
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