Updated: The Skinny: Mr. Freeze

Normally, we don’t spend too much time patting ourselves on the back, but sometimes we just can’t help ourselves. Capitol Weekly is excited to announce a new joint venture with the Los Angeles Times on a new California politics blog that is now live on both the LA Times and Capitol Weekly sites. The site will be updated throughout the day with contributions from both the Times and Capitol Weekly staffs. As if you didn’t have enough tidbits of political information already at your fingertips … Sen. Barbara Boxer has a new press secretary. Kate Folmar, former spokeswoman for the California Democratic Party and former Capitol reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, has taken a new gig in Boxer’s D.C. office. Folmar moved East to be reunited with her husband, Don Moulds, another former Sacramento hand who is now an assistant Health and Human Services secretary in the Obama administration…When the Senate announced its hiring freeze last year, they did so with great fanfare to show how they were sharing everyone’s financial pain. But last month, in closed session, the freeze was quietly lifted. We’re not criticizing the need to make new hires, but all that backroom sneaking around looks silly…

*Note: the original version of this story said the Senate announced its hiring freeze via press release. No such release was ever issued.