Blog

Key part of San Diego stadium finance plan gets OK

The city of San Diego’s interest in using lease-revenue bonds — which can be issued without specific voter authorization — to raise $200 million for a $1 billion-plus NFL stadium project has been ridiculed as a legally dubious ploy by Chargers

CA continues to lead nation in “diploma-mill” colleges

Chris Reed November 25, 2015

The recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Education and state Attorney General Kamala Harris that 85,000 California students who attended for-profit campuses of Corinthian Colleges would be eligible for debt forgiveness on their student loans because they’d been misled by

SEIU targeting hospitals with ballot measure again

Chris Reed November 24, 2015

The state branch of the Service Employees International Union is launching another bid to use direct democracy to win leverage in its negotiations with California’s hospitals to improve health care access for poor people and to make union organizing easier.

CSU faculty looks unwilling to compromise on pay

Chris Reed November 22, 2015

A strike by California State University professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches looks increasingly likely in coming months unless CSU leaders and Gov. Jerry Brown are more generous with pay raises. More than 90 percent of the 23,000 workers at

Federal judge moots CA casino oversight

Chris Reed November 19, 2015

In what amounted to a tart reminder to California voters that they have limited authority over sovereign Indian tribes, a federal judge has ordered Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration to renew negotiations with North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians officials over

Solar plant nearly forced to buy carbon emission rights

Chris Reed November 18, 2015

The giant $2.2 billion Ivanpah solar plant off Interstate 15 just west of the California-Nevada border has apparently won its fight with state regulators and won’t be classified as a heavy polluter that is required to buy carbon-emissions rights in

CA Controller predicts Prop. 30 extension will be passed

Joel Fox November 17, 2015

At last Friday’s California Economic Summit sponsored by California Forward and the California Stewardship Network, state Controller Betty Yee predicted that a Proposition 30 extension and a cigarette tax will be on the 2016 ballot and both would pass. It was a prediction

Coal and California: State not as green as it may seem

Chris Reed November 17, 2015

California regularly wins national acclaim for AB32 and other state laws pushing the Golden State toward the use of cleaner renewable power. A recent New York Times editorial page blog post was typical. But on niche websites devoted to energy

Cal Chamber scorecard

Joel Fox November 16, 2015

The California Chamber of Commerce released its tally of legislators’ floor votes on 15 bills that the chamber determined were crucial to the business community. Checking the scorecard, a telltale story from the chamber’s perspective is not who was for

PUC faces harsh hangovers from Peevey era

Chris Reed November 14, 2015

The California Public Utilities Commission may have hoped that the harsh headlines from PUC President Michael Peevey’s final year on the job would begin to fade after he left the position in December 2014. Instead, the state utilities regulator appears