Investigation

FEB. 19, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Wind power is a medieval technology that most people visualize coming from Dutch windmills in the 1600’s and 1700’s. The 1600’s were also known for the Tulip Bulb Mania, which the Dutch fittingly called “windhandel”

Pensions May Be 'Touchable'

CalWatchdog Staff February 11, 2011

FEB. 11, 2011 By TROY ANDERSON The prevailing wisdom holds that existing public pensions – once converted into Cadillac plans – can’t be turned back into Oldsmobiles. For decades, union officials have repeated the mantra that government agencies can’t modify

The Real Meaning of the Constitution

By JOHN SEILER Writing recently in the Sacramento Bee, two professors mangled the actual meaning of the U.S. Constitution. Alan Gibson of Cal State Chico and James Read of the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in Minnesota

End Redevelopment 'Luxury'?

CalWatchdog Staff January 31, 2011

JAN. 31, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI We live in a virtual age of images that sometimes doesn’t reflect reality. Redevelopment agencies across the state are blitzing newspapers with online images of a group of elderly persons in a senior citizen

CA Obamacare Lead Will Hurt

CalWatchdog Staff January 27, 2011

JAN. 27, 2011 By JOHN SEILER The U.S. House of Representatives, now controlled by Republicans, voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, commonly called Obamacare. The U.S Senate, still controlled by Democrats, will not follow

Green Tech Guru's Apostasy

CalWatchdog Staff January 25, 2011

JAN. 25, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI A Green Tech Martin Luther may have emerged in California, but the state is unlikely to convert to his brand of economic religion. On Oct. 31, 1517, the Catholic monk Martin Luther posted his

SFSU Whitewashes History

CalWatchdog Staff January 20, 2011

JAN. 20, 2011 By STAN BRIN My alma mater, San Francisco State University, celebrates Nov. 6, 1967 as the birth of a movement to create the first department and college of Ethnic Studies. I remember Nov. 6, 1967 very differently,

Brown's Status-Quo Choices

CalWatchdog Staff January 10, 2011

JAN. 10, 2010 By JOHN SEILER “Personnel is policy” is a saying I heard often when I was a journalist in Washington, D.C. in the 1980s during the Reagan administration. The meaning was that, in large, complex modern organizations such

Conway's Discipline Problem

CalWatchdog Staff January 7, 2011

JAN. 7, 2011 By ANTHONY PIGNATARO State Assembly Minority Leader Connie Conway has a real discipline problem. Not with her family, or her staff, but with her Republican caucus, and the ruthless arithmetic that governs it. Of the 80 members

California 2010: The Year in Review

CalWatchdog Staff December 30, 2010

DEC. 30, 2010 By JOHN SEILER For California, 2010 brought exciting developments in many areas. The year catapulted our local computer company, Apple, into the first position among information companies, based on market capitalization (the total value of stocks). It