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State, local governments misusing voter-approved bond money
It seems common sense that bond money approved by a state’s voters would be spent directly on the projects it was intended for. Unfortunately, lawmakers, trying to find resources to bandage constant budget imbalances, often raid bond funds by
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Will man of all parties end up San Diego mayor?
On Friday, the San Diego City Council will vote on a proposed settlement in which it is believed that scandal-plagued serial groper and pay-to-player Bob Filner will resign as mayor in return for some city help with his legal expenses
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Cailfornia’s Khmer Rouge regime
Kay Lim and Ken Chea — or their families — survived the murderous Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia, when a third of the Cambodian people were murdered in the name of the people. In America, the government
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Dan Morain (aka George Skelton Jr.) has bullet train ‘scoop’
So a Sacramento Superior Court judge agrees with Quentin Kopp, the father of California’s bullet train, that how the state is pursuing the project flouts state law. So the judge tells the state it has to have all the funds
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Micro-managed grid short-circuting CA market electricity
In Germany, merchant-energy companies are considering moving to other countries where they can make a profit. Such companies are private firms that operate electricity generators. They are separate from public utilities, such as the Southern California Edison Company, or
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Election reform Part 2: ‘Dark money,’ vs. public money
Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of 2. Part 1 is here. Two election bills caused a stir in the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee last week. The first, SB 27, I covered in Part 1 of this series. A
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Video: In CA schools, 3 X 4 = 11
Back in the early 1990s, California schools adopted “New New Math” and “Whole Language” to dumb down the kids. Parents revolted. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the state reformed the curriculum and adopted some decent standards. But in
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Steinberg seeks CEQA changes to boost Sacto arena
SACRAMENTO — The task of reforming the California Environmental Quality Act is being mingled with local Sacramento politics. At a hearing in the Assembly Local Government committee last week, State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, passionately defended SB
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Fracking: Can we trade CA Dems for PA Dems?
The New York Times and the Huffington Post have reported that the Obama administration supports fracking and doesn’t buy the alarmism of the enviromental lobby on this. Now another prominent publication, the National Journal, points out a fact that the
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Bullet train: Judge shows taxpayers may be saved by Prop. 1A
The Friday ruling by a Sacramento judge that the California High-Speed Rail Authority was violating the 2008 state law providing funds for the bullet-train project was the first good news that the many foes of the project have had in
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