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CA says ‘no’ to Obamacare freebies, makes own law
One of the most liberal states in the nation has said no thanks to a key Obamacare provision and instead is enacting its own version of the law. California has decided to skirt the “Buy 1, Get 3 Free!”
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Pressure grows for CA $15 minimum wage
The California Legislature this year boosted California’s $8 per hour minimum wage to $9 in July 2014 and $10 in January 2016. But advocates for, and beneficiaries of, that 25 percent wage hike are not content. Pressure is building
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LAO’s cheerfully nutty budget report: Pension crisis? What pension crisis?
The Legislative Analyst’s Office has among the best reputations of any state agency. But after the release of Wednesday’s bizarre LAO budget analysis and accompanying press conference by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, I don’t know why. I groused about it
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Vidak warns: Water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink
The California Department of Water Resources announced this week that the Central Valley may only get five percent of the water it needs next year. The Central Valley, the heart of California, is the state’s top agricultural producing region, often called
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New Aussie PM brands carbon tax ‘socialism’
Last month West Coast governors, led by Gov. Jerry Brown, agreed to impose carbon taxes on their people. And California has had a carbon trading system for a year now. But new Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, in an interview
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What is the CA Agricultural Labor Relations Board?
Editor’s note: This is Part 1 in a series on the ALRB. California government includes many boards and commissions with members appointed by the governor. Most people never get to see who these decision makers are, despite the far-reaching effects
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Why is gas so expensive in California?
When people talk about gasoline, it’s usually because prices have dropped — or skyrocketed. But with prices remaining between $3.90 and $4.10 per gallon in California for most of 2013, there hasn’t been much noise about gas prices. (As of
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San Diego mayor’s race: Shape-shifter to ‘leave public life’; GOP candidate favored
CalWatchdog has paid close attention to Nathan Fletcher over the past year, detailing the former union-trashing Republican assemblyman’s odyssey across the ideological spectrum. When the local GOP wouldn’t endorse him over libertarian crusader Carl DeMaio in the 2012 San Diego
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The DOW has NOT set new records
The so-called economic recovery supposedly is shown by the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovering around the 16,000 mark, the highest ever. It’s just below that number as I write. In fact, adjusted for inflation, the DJIA is the same as
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Will Gov. Brown’s ‘small is beautiful’ sink water plan?
During California Gov. Jerry Brown’s first term in office, 1975 to 1983, one of the central planks of his political platform was “small is beautiful.” Brown borrowed his platform from economist E.F. Schumacher’s 1973 book, “Small is Beautiful: Economics as
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