Steven Greenhut, Author at CalWatchdog.com

Posts From Steven Greenhut

Steven Greenhut

Steven Greenhut is CalWatchdog’s contributing editor. Greenhut was deputy editor and columnist for The Orange County Register for 11 years. He is author of the new book, “Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.”

Americans Need Courage from Leaders

Jan. 30, 2012 “Now, a return to the American values of fair play and shared responsibility will help protect our people and our economy. But it should also guide us as we look to pay down our debt and invest

Denying CA’s Plight Won’t Ease It

Steven Greenhut January 22, 2012

Jan. 23, 2012 Years ago, after starting to report and editorialize on news events in an old factory city in Ohio, I was quickly dubbed a “negative” for pointing out the disastrous government spending, housing and tax policies embraced by

Lots of Mileage in Naming Roads

Steven Greenhut January 16, 2012

Jan. 16, 2012 California legislators never have enough time, and always lack the vision, to deal appropriately with the state’s pressing budget and infrastructure problems. But they are great at self-aggrandizement and at catering to the special-interest groups that help

Redevelopment barons plot comeback

Steven Greenhut January 9, 2012

JAN. 9, 2012 I’m still giddy after the California Supreme Court ruled last month that the state had every right to shut down those noxious enemies of property rights and fiscal responsibility — redevelopment agencies. Better yet, the state’s high

Kevin De Leon Fights Evil Unfitted Sheets!

Steven Greenhut August 2, 2011

Commentary The Legislative Goofball of The Session Award goes to Sen. Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, for his Senate Bill 432 that mandates that hotels use fitted sheets rather than unfitted sheets on mattresses. Other legislators have promoted more damaging

Jerry Brown Picks His Kind of Judge

Steven Greenhut August 1, 2011

Gov. Jerry Brown’s decision to nominate UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the California Supreme Court is a highly partisan poke in the eye at Republicans, given that GOP congressional criticisms led Liu, in May, to withdraw his name

Making Public Pay for Budget Cuts

Steven Greenhut July 25, 2011

JULY 25, 2011 By STEVEN GREENHUT Last year, one of my reporters and her adult son were walking in downtown Sacramento when a couple of young toughs tried grabbing her purse. She pulled back her purse, and the robbers lunged

Stopping cop cell-phone searches

Steven Greenhut July 18, 2011

JULY 18, 2011 Thanks to a little-discussed state Supreme Court decision in January, the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against “unreasonable searches and seizures” don’t necessarily apply in California anymore. Yet few of our fellow citizens have been upset about

Spectacular waste in redwood forests

Steven Greenhut July 11, 2011

JULY 11, 2011 As I took the nearly six-hour drive recently from the Sacramento area, past Ukiah and up to Eureka, through the heart of California’s redwood-forested North Coast, I was reminded of the spectacular beauty of California. Driving through

Legislators: 'Less Power to the People'

Steven Greenhut July 4, 2011

JULY 4, 2011 By STEVEN GREENHUT California legislators — who seem unable to come up with an honest balanced budget, who always seek tax increases, and who won’t pass even modest reforms to the state’s unfunded pension system or to