Maddox heading from Sacramento to UCLA

Alicia Robinson

At the end of the year, 68th District Assemblyman Ken Maddox will go

from a term in the state Capitol to term papers as he accepts a

one-year fellowship at UCLA. Maddox announced Wednesday he will

become a senior fellow at the UCLA School of Public Policy and

Research, where he will mentor students and lecture on public policy

issues.

“I got a phone call, and they asked me if I would be interested,”

he said. “It’s a significant program, and I hope I can be an asset.”

Indian gaming and gaming law generally are among the topics Maddox

expects to cover as a fellow. Lecturing will be a new for him, though

he did teach elementary school Drug Abuse Resistance Education

classes when he was a police officer in Tustin.

Maddox is completing his third term in the Assembly. He lost a GOP

primary bid for the 35th District Senate seat in March to 70th

District Assemblyman John Campbell.

In accepting the fellowship Maddox joins a group that has included

former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, Motion Picture Assn. of

America President Jack Valenti and state legislative analyst

Elizabeth Hill.

Maddox’s other post-legislature plans have yet to be announced,

but he’s already started to pursue other interests. On Wednesday he

took his first lesson in bluegrass mandolin.

“I’m taking to it like a duck to water,” he said. “I love country

and bluegrass music.... Maybe it has something to do with being 40

years old. I didn’t get a Harley, but I did get a mandolin.”

Rohrabacher wants bells for Reagan

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is hoping music of another kind will be

heard on Friday morning. He’s asking civic buildings and places of

worship in his congressional district and around the country to ring

bells 40 times at 10:15 a.m. Friday as a tribute to Ronald Reagan,

the nation’s 40th president, who died Saturday.

Reagan’s funeral service in Washington, D.C., will conclude at

that time, and Rohrabacher said in a statement that he hopes tens of

thousands of places of worship will all ring their bells.

“I think it is a fitting tribute to the man who secured religious

freedom for hundreds of millions of people across the world,” he

said.

James Dobson of Focus on the Family planned to promote the bell

ringing on his radio show this week, and a spokesman for Rohrabacher

said the Regan family has endorsed the idea. Friday was declared a

national day of mourning for Reagan.

Cox trying not to tax seniors, sort of

Filing taxes may get easier for those older than 65, thanks to

Rep. Chris Cox and an Irvine senior citizen activist. The House last

week approved legislation that would allow seniors to file taxes with

the 1040-S, a new one-page tax form that includes Social Security and

pension income. People older than 65 now must use the lengthy 1040

form.

Roland Boucher of Irvine lobbied for a simpler tax form for

seniors, and Cox pushed a bill through the House Policy Committee and

assigned it to Rep. Max Burns (R-GA), a tax simplification advocate,

who introduced it to the House floor. The fast-tracked bill was

approved unanimously last week and is now before the Senate for

consideration.