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Long-ago union payoff now haunts CA pension reform
In his Tuesday Sac Bee story about the federal government preparing to withhold funds for state construction projects because the 2012 state pension reform violated a “federal mass transit grant rule,” Jon Ortiz got it wrong. It’s not a grant
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BART strike would provide needed clarity on compensation, union power
If I was an advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown, I’d recommend he let the BART strike play out without government intervention. California would be much more governable if voters understood that collective bargaining is holding taxpayers hostage, and more exposure
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Pension criticism=racism. Aaauugghh! Aaauugghh! Aaauugghh!
Samuel Johnson’s 1775 observation that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” has particular resonance nowadays, with civil libertarians who question our government’s massive spying on 300 million-plus Americans being derided as tools of U.S. enemies. But when it
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Maviglio upset about our optometry articles
Our recent articles on an optometrists’ bill upset powerful Democratic consultant Steve Maviglio, currently the spokesman for Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles. Katy Grimes described how Maviglio is the News/Press contact for Bridging the Provider Gap, which favors SB
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‘You don’t get free things’ Filner unlikely to quit
A source close to Filner tells me rumors that he will resign today are untrue. — Craig Gustafson (@gustafsoncraig) August 12, 2013 Late morning on Monday, a rumor swept San Diego political and journalistic circles that Mayor Bob Filner was
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More people fleeing America to freedom
How shameful. America, once the refuge of millions fleeing tyranny, now is seeing its best and brights escape here to freedom: “The main trigger for cutting ties with U.S., several lawyers say, is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or
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Speaker Perez’s spokesman behind Optometrist ads
An optometrist by profession, as well as Former president of the California Optometric Association, Sen. Ed Hernandez has authored SB 492, which would greatly expand the scope of practice for optometrists, allowing them to perform as ophthalmologists, even though they are
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State Dems eager to implement Obamacare train wreck
The wheels may be starting to come off the Obamacare train as it rolls out nationally. But California Democrats are more interested in greasing the skids than preventing what critics fear will be a train wreck. SB 639, by Sen.
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Filner’s fate: The warring conventional wisdoms
There are two conventional wisdoms about Bob Filner, San Diego’s embattled pervert of a mayor, and they can’t both be right. The first is that he simply can’t stay in office. Now that all nine City Council members say he
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‘Transit workers vs. just plain workers’
A renewed BART strike could bring chaos to the Bay Area on Monday. But as CalWatchdog founder Steven Greenhut points out in his U-T San Diego column, the BART labor strife isn’t prompting the public reaction that transit unions may
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