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Feds, CA clash over funding private water projects

Last week, President Obama dumped a bucket of cold water over his fellow Democrats in California on water policy. He’s emphasizing private investment, while they’re trying to ban it. His Environmental Protection Agency announced on its website: “WASHINGTON — The

Boxer exit begins CA youth shift in Congress

John January 19, 2015

Girls may run the world, as in the Beyonce song, but women run California’s congressional delegation. More specifically, older Democratic women — but that could change soon. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s retirement announcement earlier this month kicks off a major demographic shift

CA Analyst warns against budget spending spree

Dave Roberts January 16, 2015

With California’s state budget in the best shape in years, Democratic legislators are eager to open the spending spigots. But they were cautioned at an Assembly Budget Committee hearing Jan. 15 that the good economic times could end as

State Senate 21: Runner seeks to reclaim seat

John January 15, 2015

Sharon Runner, a former High Desert state lawmaker and “walking miracle,” is asking voters to send her back to the California Senate. After declining to seek reelection in 2012, due to a life-threatening autoimmune disease, Runner was replaced by fellow Republican Steve Knight.

Hoover Poll: CA wants growth, not green programs or rail

Wayne Lusvardi January 15, 2015

Gov. Jerry Brown just won a resounding re-election victory. But his new budget released last week for Fiscal Year 2015-16, which begins on July 1, is out of sync with Californians on some important issues, according to the Hoover Institution’s

Sacramento aims to police the police

James Poulos January 14, 2015

After a politically punishing year for law enforcement departments from Los Angeles to New York, California legislators are riding the wave of controversy, drafting a spate of bills that would use the power of state government to assert more control over how police

LAPD’s fresh push for higher pay

James Poulos January 14, 2015

With a potentially damaging sense of timing, the Los Angeles Police Department has embarked on a fresh push for higher pay — enlisting the services of a public relations firm to help accomplish the goal. The LAPD hired the top-flight

Supreme Court refuses to hook Delta smelt case

Wayne Lusvardi January 13, 2015

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court refused to put a hook into an appeal of lower-court actions that shut off water to farmers and cities in 2007 and 2013 in favor of Delta smelt. In the Los Angeles Times summary: “The justices

Boxer’s departure draws CA contenders

James Poulos January 13, 2015

Sen. Barbara Boxer’s announcement last week she wouldn’t seek re-election in 2016 provided ambitious California Democrats a rare new opening for statewide office. With a number of well-known political figures contemplating a run to replace her, the future of the state Democratic

Brown talks taxes at budget press conference

Joel Fox January 12, 2015

Reading Gov. Jerry Brown’s meaning on some issues, with or without a dictionary and history text, can be tricky. But it was worth looking for signals on tax issues at the governor’s Friday press conference introducing his record, $113 billion general-fund budget