More petard-hoisting: “A champion of Berkeley rent control was ordered last week to pay his former tenants more than $100,000 in restitution by the very rent board he campaigned to create. By a unanimous vote, the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board found that Michael Berkowitz, a paid aide to Councilmember Maudelle Shirek, had willfully misrepresented his residency status at his 2820 Derby St. property to skirt rent control. Berkowitz also works in a second position as chief of information services and neighborhood planning for the City of San Francisco.” (Matthew Artz, “Rent Board Orders Council Aide To Repay Overcharged Tenants”, Berkeley Daily Planet, Feb. 27)(via Myria who had it from Classical Values). And this just in: Republican Joe Thompson, the minority whip of the New Mexico House of Representatives, “was charged with drunken driving, hours after attending a bill-signing ceremony to highlight the state’s newest effort to crack down on DWI offenders.” (“Lawmaker arrested for drunken driving after attending anti-DWI ceremony”, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, Mar. 4)

Filed under: New Mexico