Blog

Rialto police: Inspiration for the nation. Really.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! The city of Rialto is an odd mix of nice new subdivisions, industrial grayness and rundown neighborhoods. When I covered the city as an Inland Empire news columnist in the late 1990s, it had a distinct inferiority

Sac Bee finally discovers Gerawan-UFW story

John Seiler November 27, 2013

Since June, Katy Grimes has been covering the struggle between Gerawan Farms and its workers against the United Farm Workers union and Sacramento politicians. Almost two months ago, she profiled Silvia Lopez, the farm worker who was fighting UFW representation

Dem Mayors tell Reed to drop pension reform initiative

Katy Grimes November 27, 2013

Many can agree on the need for thoughtful and serious pension reform measures. Yet labor unions, and now Democratic mayors and city and county officials from around the state, have called on San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed to call off

Bullet train dead in water — yet state to proceed with eminent domain

Chris Reed November 27, 2013

Eminent domain is one of the greatest government assaults on individual rights that one sees on a regular basis in the United States. Even in its purer form, in which land is seized for projects with broad general public benefit,

CA still worst run state in the nation; Sacramento’s stadium obesssion

Katy Grimes November 25, 2013

For the third year in a row, California has been named the worst-run state in America, by 24/7 Wall Street. Is it any wonder? With at least 10 California cities on the verge of municipal bankruptcy, a $24 billion budget shortfall

Would-be San Diego mayor plans to nullify reform approved by city voters

Chris Reed November 24, 2013

In 2006, San Diego voters took a bold and unprecedented step: They lopsidedly approved a “managed competition” process under which groups of city employees would bid against private companies for the right to provide certain city services. This modified form

Southern California country song

John Seiler November 24, 2013

I was driving around yesterday morning with a country music fan. He had on our local country station, Go Country 105. Up came this song, “Days of Gold,” by Jake Owen, about “Southern summers, that sun shinin’ down like Daddy’s

Fisker $192 million taxpayer investment goes to China

John Seiler November 23, 2013

This is the perfect government program. Fisker Automotive got $192 million of our tax dollars for its greenie electric flivver. Then it want bankrupt. Now the Chinese bought it for $25 million. So here’s how government works nowadays. 1. The

LAO’s cheerfully nutty budget report: Pension crisis? What pension crisis?

Chris Reed November 22, 2013

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has among the best reputations of any state agency. But after the release of Wednesday’s bizarre LAO budget analysis and accompanying press conference by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, I don’t know why. I groused about it

Vidak warns: Water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink

Katy Grimes November 21, 2013

The California Department of Water Resources announced this week that the Central Valley may only get five percent of the water it needs next year. The Central Valley, the heart of California, is the state’s top agricultural producing region, often called