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More pain, despite modest good news

APRIL 12, 2010 By STEVEN GREENHUT State officials have been optimistic about the state controller’s March cash receipts report that provided good news about burgeoning sales-tax revenues, but the Legislative Analyst’s Office released a letter today — the same one provided

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Allred at Capitol for victims bill

APRIL 8, 2010 By KATY GRIMES Usually when celebrity media lawyer Gloria Allred makes a public appearance, there is a circus and an entourage of celebrity seekers along with her. However, Allred made an unusual appearance Tuesday before the Senate

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CA doing 'everything wrong'

APRIL 8, 2010 By JOHN SEILER A book released April 7, 2010 ranks California among the “States That Do Everything Wrong” on their state taxes and budgets. The other states in that dismal category are Michigan, New York and New

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Big Brother in your car?

APRIL 8, 2010 By KATY GRIMES Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, has introduced a bill that would require the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to develop a program to assess drivers for vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax in California. Specifically SB1299

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AG passes on whistle-blower suit

APRIL 6, 2010 By KATY GRIMES Despite his reputation as a consumer activist, California Attorney General Jerry Brown has decided against joining a controversial lawsuit against the nation’s largest PVC manufacturing company. The case involves four states, and 43 California

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Rail plan's unanswered questions

APRIL 5, 2010 By LARRY GILBERT Assessing the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) bullet train is reminiscent of the U.S. Senate vote on the national health care legislation where senators were voting before having all the facts. Last November,

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State tax receipts down sharply

March 31, 2010 By JOHN SEILER A new study by the U.S. Census Bureau found that the tax receipts of the California state government dropped 13.9 percent. That was fifth highest of the states, with the higher states being: Alaska

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Is Public Transit Bankrupt?

March 31, 2010 By KATY GRIMES With the announcement this week by Sacramento Regional Transit that it is reducing bus and train service by 22 percent, it’s never too late to address the problems faced by the chronic deficit-plagued transit systems in

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Public financing on ballot

March 29, 2010 By JOHN SEILER With California’s politics messed up seemingly beyond repair, it’s not surprising two reform initiatives are on the June 8 ballot. I earlier wrote about Proposition 14, the “Top Two Primaries Act.” The other initiative

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Vallejo avoids tough pension fights

March 29, 2010 By STEVEN GREENHUT (Originally printed in the Wall Street Journal) In 2008, Vallejo, Calif., was nearly broke. Faced with falling tax revenues, rising pension costs, and unmovable public-employee unions, the city was unable to pay its bills

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