Katy Grimes, Author at CalWatchdog.com

Posts From Katy Grimes

Katy Grimes

Katy Grimes is CalWatchdog’s news reporter. Grimes is a longtime political analyst, writer and journalist. Grimes has written columns for The Sacramento Union, The Washington Examiner, The San Francisco Examiner and The Sacramento Bee. Grimes has been an influential political blogger since 2004 and currently blogs at Townhall.com and The Sacramento Citizen.

Farm workers win right to vote on UFW decertification… sort of

UPDATE: Nov. 1, 2013: Late yesterday Visalia ALRB Regional Director Silas Shawver announced his decision to block the decertification election at Gerawan Farming. The workers have asked twice for an election. Both times Shawver sided with the UFW and against the workers,

Obamacare: This is going to hurt

Katy Grimes October 31, 2013

Ouch! That’s the cry of someone trying to sign up for the Affordable Care Act, usually called Obamacare. Health insurance cancellation notices have gone out to millions of Americans. Many cannot get insurance at all. And for many who can,

The entitlement society Halloween

Katy Grimes October 31, 2013

Perhaps because of my Gaelic Irish and Welsh heritage, I’ve always loved Halloween. Traditions from the old Celtic countries Wales, Brittany, Ireland, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man, influenced today’s Halloween customs. But today’s Halloween is a wee bit different

Enviro CA: Green for thee, but not for me

Katy Grimes October 30, 2013

California has gone green: mandatory recycling, plastic bags bans, hybrid and electric cars, wind and solar energy, and the state has gone paperless… well, not entirely paperless. Assemblyman Tim Donnelly said he discovered something this week: the Capitol is not

ALRB forcing unionization on farm workers

Katy Grimes October 29, 2013

UPDATE: It was reported the Agricultural Labor Relations Board has reversed its Monday decision, which would have blocked the Gerawan farm workers’ second attempt to hold an election to determine if the United Farm Workers of America should represent them.

FPPC on ‘dark money’ witch hunt

Katy Grimes October 28, 2013

Just in time for Halloween, the Fair Political Practices Commission completed a modern-day witch-hunt last week, looking for “dark money.” Ann Ravel, the outgoing chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, had accused libertarian philanthropists Charles and David Koch

Hey Sacramento — publicly-funded arenas are bad for business

Katy Grimes October 28, 2013

While running record deficits, Sacramento’s Mayor Kevin Johnson and city officials approved a $447.7 million arena deal at the Downtown Plaza in March, claiming a public-private partnership – only the private contributions amount to about one-third. Sacramento’s publicly funded arena deal

Non-profit accused of 'money laundering,' exonerated, but fined

Katy Grimes October 24, 2013

The California Fair Political Practices Commission is announcing today at noon they have reached a settlement in the investigation into the mysterious $11-million donation from an Arizona nonprofit, during the 2012 California general election. One of the groups accused of the

Is Jerry Brown eyeing the White House again?

Katy Grimes October 24, 2013

Gov. Jerry Brown’s crack public relations team has been hard at work convincing the rest of the country that he has sparked a California turnaround. The New Republic even recommended to President Obama that, in his second term, he should

FPPC to announce settlement in Arizona donor case

Katy Grimes October 24, 2013

The California Fair Political Practices Commission will announce today at noon they have reached a settlement in the investigation into the mysterious $11-million donation from an Arizona nonprofit, during the 2012 California general election. FPPC Chairwoman Ann Ravel, a Democrat, is