Posts From Chris Reed
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Geothermal: New front in CA fracking war
The war over fracking in California could soon have a second front. The Economist has become the latest publication to document how the newly refined and improved energy exploration technique using precisely aimed underground water cannons works not just to
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Moody’s raises questions about teacher pension funding fix
Soon after the CalSTRS funding fix crafted by the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown took effect on July 1, Moody’s Investors Service raised CalSTRS’ bond issuer rating. But six weeks later, Moody’s has put out another release that examines how much
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Feds abdicate on own rules for CA bullet train $
The Obama administration has given the state $3.5 billion in funds for its bullet train project. But the 2009 stimulus funds that were the source of most of the federal bequest came with lots of strings attached, as is common
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Petty corruption all too common at CA special districts
The California government agencies that provide water, sewage, trash and other special services are often oblivious to ethical norms and tone-deaf to how their actions look to the outside world. Part of it may be these agencies don’t get the
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Unlike Brown, Hawaii gov took on teachers — and paid
As someone who went to college in Hawaii and spent eight years there as a journalist, I know the state’s politics pretty well. It is so solidly Democrat that it only has one Republican in its state senate. This monolithic
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Scam exposed: UTLA wants $ for troubled students to fund 17.6% raise
When Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Local Control Funding Formula for state schools into law in the summer of 2013, it was billed as the biggest education reform in California in decades. The premise of the law — and the
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Prop. 26 shows teeth, kills San Diego hotel tax hike
One of the few recent big triumphs of the small-government, low-tax movement in California came in 2010, when state voters approved Proposition 26. The constitutional amendment cleared up loopholes that allowed governing bodies to pass tax hikes on simple majority
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CA on sidelines as brown energy revolution unfolds
In the 41 years since the OPEC cartel begin throwing its weight around, U.S. consumers have gotten used to fluctuations in the price of gasoline. The dynamics have gotten pretty stable in recent decades as OPEC has deradicalized. In the
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Behind push against truancy/absenteeism: unions’ money hunt
What is by far the single most important factor in how California government functions? I stand by my theory that I wrote up last year for Cal Watchdog: Like Neo figuring out how life was coded to work in “The
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Associated Press blows coverage of bullet-train ruling
Led by the Associated Press, the mainstream media coverage of the state appellate court ruling overturning two anti-bullet train trial court rulings is somewhat peculiar in that it depicts the ruling as monumental. Read the 49-page decision, and it seems
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