Report: Los Angeles Mayor Dating Local Television Reporter
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The mayor of Los Angeles is dating a local TV reporter -- two years after having an affair with another newscaster that led to his divorce.
The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that Lu Parker, a KTLA-TV reporter and anchor in Los Angeles and a former Miss U.S.A, has been dating Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa since March 2009.
Parker anchored a newscast Sunday during which she announced Villaraigosa's prospects of running for governor in 2010.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Station executives, however, insist that her relationship with the mayor does not present a conflict of interest.
"Now that we're aware of the relationship, she will no longer be covering local politics," KTLA-TV news director Jason Ball told the newspaper. "I have the utmost faith in Lu Parker's abilities."
Villaraigosa's extramarital affair with Telemundo KVEA-TV Channel 52 reporter and anchor Mirthala Salinas in 2007 raised similar issues of integrity -- an affair for which he was roundly criticized during his first term in office.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Villaraigosa's affair with Salinas resulted in divorce from his wife of 20 years.
Click here to read more on this story from the Los Angeles Times.