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Back to homepageBridge Tax Fails; Local Tax Passes
JUNE 13, 2011 By KATY GRIMES In the California Senate Friday, after a week of budget talks and hearings, the “bridge” tax extensions failed — for now. If passed, the tax extensions theoretically would balance the state budget until voters
Read MoreRedistricting Boosts Dem Dominance
June 11, 2011 By JOHN SEILER As I was the first to predict 15 months ago right here on CalWatchDog.com, the 2011 redistricting likely would bring 2/3 Democratic dominance in the California Legislature. The reasons were increased voter registration by
Read More'Consumer' Group Reaps Big Salaries
JUNE 10, 2011 Last week, the Assembly passed AB 52, which would require health insurance companies to seek permission from a state regulatory board before increasing premiums. In essence, AB 52 would give the state’s elected insurance commissioner and the
Read MoreStockton SWAT Raid Over Student Loans
JUNE 10, 2011 By JOHN SEILER Editor’s note: This article was rewritten to reflect more recent information, which corrected some of what was reported. The evidence that America now is a full-blown police state keeps pouring in. Governments short of
Read MoreCalifornia Ranks 3rd Worst in Freedom
JUNE 9, 2011 By LAER PEARCE As fans of DC Comics know, there’s a cube-shaped planet called Bizarro, where there are stupor-heroes, Batman wears a futility belt and the Bizarro Code states, “Us do opposite of all Earthly things!” The
Read MoreBrown, Leg Ignore Crashing Economy
John Seiler: Wasn’t Gov. Jerry Brown supposed to be the all-knowing, all-seeing wise man, the Guru of Tofu, Jerry the Magnificent? He reminds me of Carnac the Magnificent, the old Johnny Carson skit. Except Jerry the Magnificient isn’t funny. He
Read MoreDems, GOP Butt Heads on Budget, Taxes
JUNE 9, 2011 By KATY GRIMES Budget showdown time. Rumors have been swarming through the Capitol this week over budget issues. Talk of which legislators might agree to a budget seems to be a moot point, as most budget trailer
Read More$3.9 Million Pension Demands Sunshine
JUNE 9, 2011 By K. Lloyd Billingsley Pension payments such as the $3.9 million in supplemental funds to Samuel Downing, retired chief executive of the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, have touched off outrage among California legislators, editorial writers, and
Read MoreTeachers' unions locking parent trigger
JUNE 8, 2011 This article was first published in City Journal California. By BEN BOYCHUK California’s landmark parent-empowerment law, passed last year, is one of the state’s few bright spots in education. But the law is under assault on multiple
Read MoreState doles out more Hollywood subsidies
JUNE 8, 2011 By JOSEPH PERKINS I love “Men of a Certain Age,” the sitcom starring Ray Romano, Scott Bakula and Andre Braugher that just began its third season on cable’s TNT. I do not love that the show was
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