Posts From John Seiler
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Mexico also having high-speed rail problems
California isn’t the only place having problems building high-speed rail. So is Mexico. The Times reported: Bowing to intense criticism, the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto yanked a contract worth nearly $4 billion from a Chinese-led consortium to build
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CA faces stiffer competition from more GOP-led states
The 50 American states are the “crucibles of democracy,” where new ideas are tried out. The states all compete against one another, with the best ideas winning the day. Although Democrats won almost everything Tuesday in California, the state still
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Berkeley imposes soda tax
Berkeley has done all Californians a favor by voting for a demonstration of how taxes drive away business. Its citizens just passed Measure D, a soda tax amounting to 12 cents on a can of Coke or other sugary beverage. The
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Prop. 2 victory upgrades CA credit
It has yet to be seen whether voter passage of Proposition 2 actually will improve California’s “rainy day fund.” Or whether it will go the way of Proposition 58 in 2004. The latter was then-new Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attempt to control
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Statewide seats surprisingly close
Aside from Gov. Jerry Brown’s victory, 58 to 42, which I wrote about earlier, the other statewide races are surprisingly close in early returns, with 31.1 percent counted. Democrats probably will win them in the end. The national GOP tide has had
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Statewide propositions end predictably
The statewide propositions ended predictably, with the side spending the most money on TV ads winning. The preliminary numbers: Prop. 1, water bonds. Winning 68-32. The $7.5 billion in water bonds will cost $15 billion to pay off. For that, only
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Union-backed Torlakson beating reformer Tuck
It looks like the state’s ultra-powerful teachers unions won another one. Early returns show incumbent State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson defeating reformer Marshall Tuck, 55-45. The unions’ strategy of spending tens of millions of dollars — all of
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Brown wins 4th term as gov.
Bucking a national Republican trend, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown easily won re-election tonight, with early returns indicating a 58-42 win over Neel Kashkari. If the numbers hold, that would top his 53-41 victory over Meg Whitman in 2010, when Third
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Live-blogging the election
At the CalWatchdog.com blog, we’ll be live-blogging the election this evening. So tune in. The main races to watch are: Superintendent of public instruction, between union ally Tom Torlakson and reformer Marshall Tuck. Several California races for U.S. Congress, which
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