Columns
Back to homepageThe enemy of clear language
Jan. 26, 2010 Sometimes I really feel sorry for reporters who cover the Capitol. Their job is to follow around our esteemed elected officials, hauling their notebooks, laptops, cameras and recording equipment to all manner of photo ops and press
Read MoreIs a populist revolt brewing?
Jan. 25, 2010 In a telling interview on National Public Radio, a Democrat from a Boston suburb, who described himself as a proud liberal, said he nevertheless voted for Brown because of the man’s fears of an American future soaked
Read MoreNo correlation between budgets and education
Jan. 20, 2010 There was a time, not so long ago, when California schools were the standard for all American schools, and California students excelled. Today, California hovers near the bottom of the heap. What happened? Until the 1970s, schools
Read MoreUsing soldiers as props
Jan. 15, 2010 By now most people are probably tired of hearing about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Jan. 6 State of the State Address. And who could blame them? You can only subject someone to arcane budget discussions and phrases like
Read MoreSavoring a target-rich environment
Jan. 5, 2010: Then there was the time I swiped a local city councilman’s trash. Another reporter and I were investigating him for all manner of crookedness (he was eventually convicted of felony corruption and banned for life from ever
Read MoreGood, bad and ugly initiatives
Jan. 5, 2010: Any reform that will actually help fix the ongoing California government’s fiscal mess (serious spending limits, pension reform, limits on union power, cutbacks in the size of state government, educational privatization, etc.) cannot possibly pass, given political
Read MoreCalifornia’s “green jobs” snow job
Jan. 5, 2010: As a news reporter and columnist for CalWatchdog, my focus is reporting stories that do not get sufficient coverage and to expose the waste, fraud and misuse of taxpayer funds buried in legislation and political practices in
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