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Blame sequester theater, not sequester, for threat to CA beach
Sequestration theater — the Obama administration’s attempt to make a de facto freeze on overall government spending as painful and inconvenient as possible — is absolutely real. It’s not an invention of the president’s GOP critics. Just look at the
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Corporatist state takes over telecom
America really doesn’t have a free-market economy. Rather, it has a corporatist economy — that is, the union of state power and big business. The latest example:, from the Wall Street Journal: “The U.S. government has used the merger-approval process
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Will CA trust SF Bay Bridge re-opening?
After months of controversy over the 36 cracked bolts on the new eastern span of the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee made the decision in July to delay the Bay Bridge opening. But that decision was
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Fossil fuel ‘divestment’ may add to CA pension funding nightmare
If any state in America displays more of a need for a consistent commitment to pension “best practices” than California, I’m not aware of it. Some states’ main retirement systems may be in worse shape than the California Public Employees’
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‘There’s no state tax in Houston’
The Houstan Texans fielded a young team last year that won through the first round of the playoffs, then lost to New England in the divisional round. They’re looking to make it all the way to the Super Bowl this
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Brown still a friend of unions; signs SB 776
While Gov. Jerry Brown may have averted a strike by the Bay Area Rapid Transit workers, he’s no union buster. Brown just signed today, SB 776 by Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, which will eliminate independent monitoring and enforcement of prevailing wage laws.
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Vidak: ‘Let the people re-vote on High-Speed Rail’
SACRAMENTO — Newly elected Sen. Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, has authored a set of amendments to an existing Assembly bill to allow Californians to vote on whether or not to proceed with the High-Speed Rail project, and would halt any further bond sales
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The L.A. Story: Picture worth far more than a thousand words
Can’t really beat this for succintness, can you? New Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti may think his slight standing up to the L.A. Department of Water and Power shows he’s independent. But the Aug. 22 edition of the Southern California
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Avoiding Filners
Not just women should avoid future Bob Filners, but everybody. Filner just resigned as mayor of San Diego, America’s Finest City, after multiple accusations of assaulting women arose. Our friend Steven Greenhut writes: “That process of lying and rationalization was
Read MoreMorain auditions to be Skelton successor, part 2
Last week, I wrote about Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Morain’s bizarre decision to focus on an alleged tactical error by a California House Republican in his efforts to fight the state’s bullet-train project instead of the infinitely bigger story that
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