New budget – election day trap

Katy Grimes: News came late yesterday that the “big five” finally reached agreement on the state’s budget. Yeah right. They reached a “handshake agreement.” Now there’s something you can bank on. What an embarrassment. And someone is going to lose

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Meg's amateurish response

John Seiler: As I’ve been writing, despite spending more than $120 million (so far), Meg Whitman’s campaign is amateurish. The Nannygate scandal shows that. When the scandal broke, what she should have said was, “I’ve been saying all along that

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Prop 23 could improve state's economy

Katy Grimes: The Legislative Analyst’s Office reported today that if Proposition 23 is passed, the state’s economy will improve “modestly.” However, before LAO analyst Mark Newton could give the rest of the good news, his testimony was interrupted and redirected.

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Gov Hails One Vehicle Code

Anthony Pignataro: Traffic speeders have no fear — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed SB 949 into law. This bill, authored by Senator Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, bans cities from enforcing their own vehicle codes in an attempt to generate revenue

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Arnold Goes Soft On Pay Scandal

Steven Greenhut: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is not serious about reining in the abusive salaries and pensions at the local level. He vetoed AB827, which would have prohibited “an employment contract for a local excluded employee, as defined, from including any

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Who Cares About Nannies?

Steven Greenhut: If only Meg Whitman were an actual human being, rather than a carefully crafted campaign machine surrounded by scores of advisers, she could have indignantly mocked the Jerry Brown/Gloria Allred cheap-shot October surprise regarding Whitman’s illegal nanny. Whitman

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Illegal employees are legal ambiguity

Katy Grimes: As a former employer, I hired illegal immigrants – not deliberately, or knowingly, but because fraudulent identification was used. The law is ambiguous and confusing, and different lawyers give different legal advise. Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has found

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Arnold Gets A D!

Anthony Pignataro: The good news is Cato Institute‘s new Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors came out today. The annual ranking scores governors on their taxing and spending records. The bad news is our beloved Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t

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San Jose In Deep Pension Mess

Steven Greenhut: Here’s the latest statement from the San Jose mayor regarding the city’s pension crisis. It’s good to see a big-city official championing this cause: Statement from Mayor Reed on City Auditor’s Findings that San Jose’s Retirement Funds are

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Housekeeping Problems

Katy Grimes: The poster child of ambulance-chasing, fame-seeking lawyers, has done it again. Attorney Gloria Allred (of Amber Frey and Rachel Uchitel fame), tried her hand with an “October surprise” in the gubernatorial race. But it doesn’t appear to be

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