Blog

Auditor: State govt. still can’t compute

As the locus of the global high-tech boom, you would think some of that digital dexterity might rub off on the California state government. Nope. A new report from state Auditor Elaine Howle is on the California Department of Consumer Affairs’ BreEZe

How long will dock strife last?

John Seiler February 14, 2015

Things are different now for West Coast ports because of increased competition from Mexico and the Gulf Coast of the United States. So the ongoing strife over dockyard workers out here is likely to be resolved faster than in the

Supreme Court has good news for CTA, CFT

Chris Reed February 14, 2015

A recent U.S. Supreme Court hearing on allegations of racial discrimination in Texas public housing programs may have major implications for Vergara vs. California, the landmark education lawsuit that’s now under appeal after a June 2014 trial-court ruling that created

Schools signing up families for Covered CA

John Seiler February 13, 2015

Critics of anti-poverty programs long have warned about what’s called the Welfare State or “Cradle-to-Grave” government programs. The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a liberal Democrat from New York, worked for decades to try to avoid that. He helped craft the 1996

Wired: Anti-vaccine parents common in Silicon Valley

Chris Reed February 13, 2015

The coverage of the measles outbreak in the U.S. often makes the point that opponents of compulsory vaccination for schoolchildren are split politically between affluent leftists with New Age-y views about modern medicine and conservatives who don’t like government telling

Skelton sees Dem vs. Dem

John Seiler February 12, 2015

One of the themes at CalWatchDog.com the past several years has been that, with Republicans still moribund in California, Democrats will turn on one another. One story from last October was, “Democrats divided on big issues in CA.” George Skelton,

GOP senator may challenge incumbent GOP supervisor

Chris Reed February 11, 2015

After winning re-election three months ago with 69 percent of the vote, state Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, knows he is termed out in 2018 and that there are a finite number of significant elected positions that Republicans can win in

Gov. Brown, Legislature seek road funds

John Seiler February 10, 2015

No question California’s roads are close to those in Iraq. The only makes car repair shops happy. Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature now are looking at taxing cars by the mile, instead of at the pump. Reported KPCC: California lawmakers are

SoCal carpool lanes could open up

John Seiler February 9, 2015

If you have traveled in Northern California or the East Coast of the USA lately, you know they do carpool lanes differently. After rush hour, the lanes are opened to anybody, helping traffic flow more easily — and thus actually

Warnings about AB32 sink in with national media

Chris Reed February 9, 2015

Since California’s adoption of Assembly Bill 32 in 2006, business interests have emphasized the law’s long-term effects on economic competitiveness. The measure requires the state to shift to cleaner-but-costlier forms of energy, reaching 33 percent of electricity supplies by 2020.