Posts From Anthony Pignataro
Back to homepage
Anthony Pignataro
Brown Is One Hell Of A Story
OCT. 29, 2010 For a long time now, I’ve accepted that I have a vested interest in chaos. After all, what good is an investigative reporter when government functions honestly and efficiently? And who wants to write about government officials
Read MoreFPPC Fights For Public Records
OCT. 21, 2010 When I was a reporter in Orange County a decade ago, calling the Fair Political Practices Commission could be a frustrating experience. “We cannot comment on the existence of an investigation,” the nice spokesperson would tell me
Read MoreHard Hats And Enviros Hold Hands
OCT. 14, 2010 Don’t sweat it if you’ve never heard of the Blue-Green Alliance. I had never heard of it either, until a rally Thursday over at the Federal Building in downtown Sacramento for organized labor, Jerry Brown’s gubernatorial campaign
Read MoreAre Smaller Parties Finished?
OCT. 7, 2010 For someone who may be the last of her kind, Laura Wells is remarkably chipper – even when talking about the new law that has made her essentially obsolete. “Prop. 14? I hope it has a boomerang
Read MoreState Opens Dusty Files
OCT. 1, 2010 On Thursday I took a break from high-speed rail controversies and death penalty analysis by walking over to the State Archives. Located a block away from the Capitol, the Archives are home to our state’s most precious
Read MoreReading Meg's Tea Leaf
SEPT. 24, 2010 Meg Whitman fascinates me. She’s a former (and quite successful) CEO of a major dot.com who until two or three years ago showed precisely zero interest in anything involving elected politics. She didn’t vote or engage in
Read MoreShame To See Wright Go
SEPT. 17, 2010 You don’t find the words “state senator” and “indicted” in the same headline very often. But when I saw this Sept. 16 Los Angeles Times story on the eight-count felony indictment of Sen. Rod Wright, D-Inglewood, for
Read MoreCapitol Mischief on Admission Day
SEPT. 10, 2010 Thursday was California Admission Day – the 160th anniversary of California getting admitted to the United States. Over at the state Capitol, they celebrated the old fashioned way, with a bunch of people dressed up in 1850s
Read MoreNo hope for finance reform success
SEPT. 2, 2010 As you read this, please keep in mind that I want the new Political Reform Act Task Force to succeed. As someone who’s spent about a decade reading through the campaign finance and personal disclosure reports the
Read MoreWhat Hath Arnold Wrought?
AUGUST 26, 2010 We’re at that time in a governor’s term when we start hearing the word “legacy” on a nearly daily basis. A Nexis search of the terms “Arnold Schwarzenegger” and “legacy” in newspapers over the last month yielded
Read More