CA auditor demolishes Jerry-Brown-saved-state narrative

The eagnerness of national media to lionize Gov. Jerry Brown as the guy who saved California amounts to an extreme form of cherry-picking. In some ways, Brown has done a better job than his two immediate predecessors in forcing some

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Debate on lead ammo ban defies political stereotypes

  A bill to ban lead ammunition in California has sparked a heated debate among environmentalists, conservationists, hunters and sportsmen. But, don’t expect these groups to follow political conventions. This isn’t your usual gun control debate. This week, the National

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Federal govt. shutdown would ripple through CA

Confusion, as usual, reigns in the U.S. Capitol. Now that Sen. Ted Cruz has finished his epic speech (or filibuster, depending whom you ask), the question of whether or not House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will be able to convince

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LAUSD offers reminder of pervasiveness of government incompetence

As John Seiler noted, it was completely predictable that students in L.A. Unified would figure out how to get around restrictions on their taxpayer-provided iPads. But another point that needs to be made is the sheer stinking stupidity of a

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Who pays for LAUSD’s broken or stolen iPads?

I’ve written a couple of things on the Los Angeles Unified School District’s gift of iPads to its students. In July, I predicted the kids would “jailbreak” the iPads. They did. Remember, these iPads are costing taxpayers $1 billion. That’s

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To keep tech companies, S.F. gentrifies housing

  “A city is where sirens make white streaks of sound in the sky and foghorns speak in dark grays,” wrote fabled columnist Herb Caen. “San Francisco is such a city.” It’s also a city with a severe housing shortage

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CA Obamacare implementation registers Dem voters

This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1 is here. As I explained in Part 1 of this series, one of the biggest features of Covered California, the state’s new health benefit exchange, is how it was set

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Jim Rogers: big recession coming

As regular readers of this site know, I’ve long pointed out that recessions hit every 4-6 years. The last one began in Dec. 2007. That’s almost 6 years ago, so we’re due. Here’s a YouTube of famed investor Jim Rogers.

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Business bills reach Brown’s desk

  While there has been much focus on the impacts to California businesses from Obamacare and the state minimum wage hike, less noticed are the smaller pieces of legislation regulating businesses. Two of those bills, which passed the recent legislative

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CA taxes, mandates boost unemployment

  “California raised a bunch of taxes this year. Its economy hasn’t collapsed.” So read the snarky headline accompanying a post last month by Jim Tankersley on the Washington Post’s Wonkblog. “Eight months after raising sales and income taxes, California

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