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Gov. Newsom’s budget shows pension fixes failed
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to use some of the state’s budget surplus to pay down unfunded liabilities in the state’s two giant government employee pension funds drew praise from an unexpected source – the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which otherwise had
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Cheap illegal cannabis sharply undercutting legal pot industry
California’s first year with legal recreational sales of marijuana is wrapping up with a series of downbeat reports on a new industry struggling to find its footing. An Associated Press analysis posted Sunday said estimated legal sales of cannabis would total
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Federal oversight of state prison health care not ending any time soon
Since 2006, the federal courts have had a formal oversight role with California’s prison health care system – a result of a long history of poor care provided to inmates. A new scandal makes it seem highly unlikely that the state
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Retiring state fire chief warns planners, defends utilities
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Director Ken Pimlott retired last week but only after giving interviews in which he called for sweeping changes in how state officials and the public think about wildfire risks. He also challenged conventional
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Tom Steyer hiring staff in key early 2020 presidential primary states
Signaling he’s very likely to run for president, Bay Area hedge fund billionaire and progressive activist Tom Steyer has begun searching for key aides to help him as he seeks the 2020 Democratic nomination. A recent Linked-In ad was traced
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Response to San Francisco car break-in epidemic faulted
In September, when the FBI released national crime statistics for 2017 that showed San Francisco had the highest rate of property crimes per capita of any of the 20 largest U.S. cities, officials were quick to say the problem was
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PG&E may have violated its criminal probation from San Bruno disaster
Pacific Gas & Electric – the giant investor-owned utility that serves 16 million Californians – appears to be facing its gravest crisis since its founding in 1905. The initial indications that PG&E’s equipment may have sparked the Camp Fire that killed at
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Gov.-Elect Newsom’s interest in tax reform likely to face bipartisan push-back
Governor-elect Gavin Newsom says he hopes to amend the California tax code to lessen its dependence on income and capital gains taxes paid by the very rich. Yet the last two serious attempts at tax reform were both dead on arrival,
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CalSTRS at risk of disaster despite 2014 bailout
Four years after the state Legislature passed a bailout of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System that will nearly double annual direct contributions to the giant pension fund, a newly released internal report raises the prospect that the infusion of
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Union dues ruling by Supreme Court not a CTA headache yet
The U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in the Janus v. AFSCME case that public employees couldn’t be compelled to pay union dues was widely seen as a game-changing moment in U.S. politics. The coverage on The Atlantic website was typical.
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