Chris Reed, Author at CalWatchdog.com

Posts From Chris Reed

Chris Reed

Chris Reed is a regular contributor to Cal Watchdog. Reed is an editorial writer for U-T San Diego. Before joining the U-T in July 2005, he was the opinion-page columns editor and wrote the featured weekly Unspin column for The Orange County Register. Reed was on the national board of the Association of Opinion Page Editors from 2003-2005. From 2000 to 2005, Reed made more than 100 appearances as a featured news analyst on Los Angeles-area National Public Radio affiliate KPCC-FM. From 1990 to 1998, Reed was an editor, metro columnist and film critic at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario. Reed has a political science degree from the University of Hawaii (Hilo campus), where he edited the student newspaper, the Vulcan News, his senior year. He is on Twitter: @chrisreed99.

Study: CA Obamacare clients struggle with cost

In May 2013, Covered California officials faced sharp criticism over claims that premiums would actually go down for many health insurance purchasers. Forbes.com’s Avik Roy wrote that the agency implementing the Golden State’s version of Obamacare needed to look at

Coalition backing CA bullet train is fraying

Chris Reed June 15, 2015

Both in California and Washington, D.C., backers of the state’s controversy-plagued $68 billion bullet-train project are coming off a rough week. As CalWatchdog reported, a Los Angeles public hearing on proposed routes for the project in the San Fernando Valley

Wary Palm Springs guards its cheap, plentiful water

Chris Reed June 14, 2015

The California narrative about water is generally a tidy tale about the arid south scrambling to come up with water from the relatively wet north. But plenty of other angles deserve mention, starting with the fact that the state’s best-known

LAUSD may kill reform to avoid graduation-rate plunge

Chris Reed June 9, 2015

Even amid scandals over its iPads-for-all program and battles over leadership, the Los Angeles Unified School District has been able to cite some good news on the academic front in recent times. In April, district officials trumpeted the release of

Bullet-train agency chided for deceptive claim

Chris Reed June 8, 2015

The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s first business plan warned that the project would struggle to attract outside investors without some sort of revenue or ridership guarantee. That led the Legislative Analyst’s Office to repeatedly warn such guarantees would be illegal

Another black lawmaker turns on CA teacher unions

Chris Reed June 6, 2015

California’s Democratic Party has long been able keep the peace between its richest faction — public employee unions — and its biggest faction — minority voters. But more than with any Legislature this century, the current session has produced some

In San Fernando rail showdown, echoes of Chavez Ravine

Chris Reed June 4, 2015

In the San Fernando Valley, there’s been intense opposition for years among its 1.7 million residents to having the state’s bullet train project cut through middle-class and poor neighborhoods and equestrian areas. Civic leaders, activists and property owners view the

Is another bold CA energy strategy flopping?

Chris Reed June 1, 2015

In December 2000, Californians suffered a rare ordeal: rolling blackouts in a cool month instead of the blackouts seen intermittently in summer because of heavy air conditioning use overtaxing the state’s energy grid. The Golden State’s struggle to keep the

Reformers get help in fight over school funding law

Chris Reed May 31, 2015

Education reformers and advocates for poor communities have a new tool in the fight over implementation of a 2013 law that was supposed to provide extra help to millions of struggling California students. The Local Control Funding Formula — championed

L.A. budget gets good marks, but big obstacles ahead

Chris Reed May 30, 2015

A few years ago, the Los Angeles city government appeared to be hurtling toward the fiscal abyss because of heavy pension costs for police and firefighters and a sluggish local economy. But a pension reform measure and a relatively tough