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Back to homepageBrown's Tax Election Stalling
MARCH 8, 2011 BY JOHN SEILER A couple of days ago it seemed as though Gov. Jerry Brown had the needed GOP votes to slate a Special Election for June on increasing taxes. Now it seems he doesn’t. His deadline
Read MoreI Go on a Road Trip to Sacramento
MARCH 8, 2011 BY JOHN SEILER Last week I started work on CalWatchDog.com as the new managing editor, a promotion from reporter and analyst. I’ll still be doing a lot of reporting and analyzing, as well as new editing and
Read MoreCosta Mesa Stands Up To Public Unions
MARCH 7, 2011 By LAER PEARCE The chambers were packed at Costa Mesa’s City Council meeting last Tuesday night, and understandably so. After all, the council was considering sending pink slips to 203 city employees – 43 percent of the
Read MoreCA Confused on "Drought" Meaning
MARCH 7, 2011 BY WAYNE LUSVARDI California’s drought barometer and vocabulary need to be reformed. The bureaucratic apparatus in California perpetually says the state is in a “drought.” In fact, with snowpack running at 124 percent of normal, the California
Read MoreEnergy Prices Are Going Up
MAR. 4, 2011 By KATY GRIMES Renewable energy standards are increasing from 20 percent to 33 percent, “whether you like it or not.” Borrowing a phrase used by California’s Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, back when he was mayor, seems the
Read MoreInflation Stalks CA Budgets
MARCH 4, 2011 BY JOHN SEILER Like a rerun of “That 70s Show,” inflation is back. And it’s hitting both personal and government budgets in California. The most obvious signal of renewed inflation is the rise in prices at the
Read More'Calpetbaggers' Still Spiking Pensions
MARCH 2, 2011 BY WAYNE LUSVARDI Call them “Calpetbaggers.” They’re the 200 local governmental entities fingered in last week’s Little Hoover Commission’s pension report that have defiantly increased public pension benefits since 2008 — in the face of a $240 billion
Read MoreBrown Late, Budget in Turmoil
MAR. 1, 2011 By KATY GRIMES Gov. Jerry Brown was late delivering key realignment revisions to California legislators, who seemed befuddled at budget hearings Monday. The report, on a proposed constitutional amendment on realignment, was made available Feb. 28 to
Read MoreKings Or Not, Sacto Can't Be ‘World Class’
The Maloofs should leave town and take Mayor Johnson and his blather about “world-class cities” with them. FEB. 28, 2011 By STEVEN GREENHUT As Sacramento Kings owners’ Joe and Gavin Maloof ponder moving their basketball team to Anaheim, Sacramento area
Read MorePoisonous Budget Spider Uncovered
FEB. 28, 2011 BY WAYNE LUSVARDI There is a line in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe where a gentleman is… advised to remember that all the wealth he had acquired by sucking the blood of miserable victims had but swelled
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