Skinny

Accounting details can be a snooze, but every once in a while you spot a nugget buried in the incoming/outgoing and you just can’t pass it up. Such was the case of Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, who got popped for allegedly lifting more than $2,400 from a high-end retailer – Neiman Marcus, in fact – in San Francisco. But now comes the irony: She got campaign donations of nearly $2,400 from the California Retailers Association Good Government Council. The amounts don’t balance out, of course, but it works fine for the Skinny. As for Hayashi, she’s got a court appearance next week. Even if the allegation is proved up – the incident apparently was caught on tape by a Nieman Marcus security camera – she likely will do little, if any, time because she’s got no criminal record. About the only negative on Hayashi in the Capitol is that she’s hard on her staff. And that isn’t against the law – at least not yet. But if it ever becomes unlawful, we’ve got a long list of suspects we’ll be happy to provide.