Bankruptcy Series: What are the alternatives to bankruptcy?

Editor’s Note: This is the Ninth in a CalWatchDog.com Special Series of in-depth articles on municipal bankruptcy. Nov. 12, 2012 By Tori Richards It was 1975 and New York City was running out of cash. Its excessive spending and lack of financial

Read More

Republican leader wins despite election losses

Nov. 11, 2012 Katy Grimes: Despite losing two important Republican Assembly seats in the election and handing state Democrats a supermajority, California’s Assembly Minority Leader  Connie Conway, a Republican, was surprisingly and handily reelected to her leadership position Thursday. “It

Read More

Registration edge no longer guarantees GOP victory

Nov. 11, 2012 By Chris Reed Republican strategists for years have looked contentedly on the fast-growing Inland Empire as a future source of GOP strength, seeing all the suburban bedroom communities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties as a bulwark

Read More

National microtargeting drove youth vote, not Prop. 30

Nov. 10, 2012 By Chris Reed I have interviewed Tony Quinn for my old radio shows several times and acknowledge he knows way more about California politics than I do. But he is flatly, simply wrong when he writes the

Read More

Greenmail lives in San Diego, making PLA ban irrelevant

Nov. 9, 2012 By Chris Reed In June, San Diego voters overwhelmingly approved a ban on project labor agreements. But they can’t do anything about greenmail, so guess what: CEQA threats have persuaded Mayor Jerry Sanders to give in to

Read More

Prop. 31 would have ended California’s republic

Nov. 9, 2012 By Wayne Lusvardi How could all of the following so-called impartial ballot guides miss a key controversial component of Proposition 31 that would have ended the original republican form of local government in California? * The California

Read More

Does supermajority portend Maldonado-style gamesmanship?

Nov. 9, 2012 By Chris Reed In 2009, state Sen. Abel Maldonado made Democrats in the Legislature jump through an awful lot of hoops before the Santa Maria Republican would be the final vote needed for temporary tax hikes. The

Read More

Selfish vote won over philosophical vote, again

Nov. 9, 2012 Katy Grimes: After every election one party has to retreat and lick its wounds while the other party revels in the mandate.  But elections are changing. Voters are changing. America is changing, and California is leading that

Read More

Cities on a future spending spree

Editor’s Note: This is the eighth in a CalWatchDog.com Special Series of in-depth articles on municipal bankruptcy. Are the staggering forecasted public pension obligations facing state and local governments in California the result of overspending or under-taxation? The technical answer to this

Read More

Bankruptcy Series: Cities on a future spending spree

Editor’s Note: This is the eighth in a CalWatchDog.com Special Series of in-depth articles on municipal bankruptcy. Nov. 9, 2012 By Wayne Lusvardi Are the staggering forecasted public pension obligations facing state and local governments in California the result of overspending or

Read More