Dave Roberts, Author at CalWatchdog.com

Posts From Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts

Business bills reach Brown’s desk

While there has been much focus on the impacts to California businesses from Obamacare and the state minimum wage hike, less noticed are the smaller pieces of legislation regulating businesses. Two of those bills, which passed the recent legislative

Weeds could whack your house and job

Dave Roberts September 23, 2013

Failure to keep up your property in California could damage your credit rating, prohibit you from buying or selling property, and hurt your ability to get or hold a job, thanks to a bill recently approved by the Legislature. Assembly

Refinery ‘safety’ bill could reduce safety

Dave Roberts September 16, 2013

Never let a refinery disaster go to waste. That’s what Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, is doing with Senate Bill 54, according to critics of her bill. Hancock and fellow Democrats say SB54, which passed the Legislature last week, will improve

Audit: Secretary of State wastes $22 million on voting machines

Dave Roberts September 3, 2013

When Debra Bowen was a candidate for California secretary of state in 2006, two of her top three priorities, according to SmartVoter.org, were to: Ensure that the state’s voting systems are accurate and secure by introducing strict auditing requirements so

SB 365 aims at limiting tax credits

Dave Roberts August 27, 2013

The California Tax Code is a monster. Just the first 136 sections of the code fill up 202 pages with more than 100,000 words. The entire code contain 60,709 sections. If those first 136 sections are indicative, the entire code

CA minimum wage may jump 25%

Dave Roberts August 16, 2013

California has made progress in bringing down the unemployment rate. June’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 8.5 percent is the lowest since October 2008, according to California Employment Development Department data. Unemployment reached 12.4 percent during the Great Recession, and

Bill aims to curb human trafficking

Dave Roberts August 13, 2013

When Angela Guanzon was offered the opportunity to leave the Philippines and work in the United States, she felt like she had won the lottery. But when she arrived, her dream turned into a nightmare. Guanzon was told by the

State Dems eager to implement Obamacare train wreck

Dave Roberts August 12, 2013

The wheels may be starting to come off the Obamacare train as it rolls out nationally. But California Democrats are more interested in greasing the skids than preventing what critics fear will be a train wreck. SB 639, by Sen.

Leftists seek SEC regulation of corporate speech

Dave Roberts August 9, 2013

This is the second in a two-part series on the battle over corporate political speech. Part one can be read here. “We see political spending as distorting markets in policy making and creating a skewed playing field,” said Bruce Freed,

Debaters clash over allowing corporate free speech

Dave Roberts August 7, 2013

This is the first article in a two-part series on the battle against corporate political speech. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision in 2010 affirmed the right of businesses, associations and unions to freely engage in politics. Since then,