The Skinny: Wasting away

Well, the prison health care system may still be in the hands of the feds, but at least somebody is getting out of the grasp of the receivership. Richard Stapler, who has been handling press duties for Clark Kelso and company, is heading back to the world of campaigning. Stapler will join Gale Kaufman’s consulting shop as the director of media and public affairs. Stapler’s immediate priorities will be as the mouthpiece for the Ted Lieu for Attorney General campaign. But Stapler’s hiring is also in anticipation of an all-out initiative war in the fall. Measures that would limit labor union’s ability to use political dues for political purposes, and another to scale back public pensions, have Democratic interests preparing for a very expensive campaign season…And from our Waste Not, Want Not Files, this week marked the official end (at least for now) of the Integrated Waste Management Board. The board met in the EPA’s Byron Sher Auditorium Tuesday. Only fitting, then, that Sher himself was on hand to say goodbye. Also there was board member John Laird, who said he’s still looking at a potential race for state Senate. And though he’d have to move “a couple of miles” into the district, Laird already had encyclopedic details of the district at his fingertips…