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In California, the Dream Is an Act

JULY 26, 2011 The California dream of an affordable, top-notch state-sponsored education for all is nothing to dream about for legal California students. Just signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown was AB 130, the “California Dream Act of 2011,”

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U.S.-Calif. Stuck in Stagnation Spiral

JULY 26, 2011 BY JOHN SEILER Welcome to the desert of economic and jobs growth. I keep reminding people that California actually still is part of the United States of America. That we are not the “eighth largest world economy,”

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Brown Signs Una Parte of Dream Act

Ali Meyer: This afternoon Gov. Jerry Brown signed the “Dream Act” bill AB 130. By Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, the bill will “allow undocumented immigrants who live in California to apply for scholarships funded with private donations,” according to the

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Rutten's Amazon Attack Ignores Reality

JULY 25, 2011 By JOHN SEILER L.A. Times columnist Tim Rutten continues his tax obsession in “Amazon’s shameful California tax dodge.” He just has it in for Amazon.com. He makes a weird comparison: At the turn of the last century,

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Despite Gain, CalPERS Still Underfunded

JULY 22, 2100 By LANNY EBENSTEIN The recent announcement that the investment return of CalPERS for the 2010-11 fiscal year was 20.7 percent does not indicate that it, or other public sector pension funds, are now financially solvent. Indeed, the

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Zombie Recovery: CA Jobless Rate Jumps

JULY 22, 2011 By JOHN SEILER California is suffering what I call a “Zombie Recovery.” The state economy is walking, but dead. Today the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new numbers for June 2011 showing that California’s unemployment rose

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Feds Wasted Most of $17 Bil. CA Stimulus

JULY 20, 2011 By JOHN SEILER How did the federal government actually spend the 2009 stimulus money in California? In March 2009 the California Legislative Analyst made a study of proposed spending on the officially named American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But

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CalPERS Needs Bailout Despite 21% Gain

JULY 19, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI CalPERS made an anemic 3.41 percent return over the last five years and only 0.98 percent over the last three years, falling far short of the 7.75 percent annual target return it needs to

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Bankruptcy Bill Hijacked By Senate

JULY 15, 2011 By KATY GRIMES An Assembly bill requiring cities and counties to go through a mediation process before filing for bankruptcy has been hijacked by the Senate Rules Committee, but the reason why is fuzzy. In February, freshman

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Deadbeat California Needs a Payday Loan

JULY 15, 2011 By CHRISS STREET For the State of California and its counties and cities, tax collections tend to be lumpy during the year due to half of all income, corporate and other taxes being collected in the two months

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