Investigation

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Dam-busting plan shrouded in mystery

  March 4, 2010 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Reading about the recent signing of Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement by Governors Ted Kulongoski of Oregon and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, and U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, reminds this writer of

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Pensions push state to insolvency

  FEB. 23, 2010 By TROY ANDERSON As the $17 billion annual taxpayer tab for government employees’ pensions and retiree health care increases at a rate of “several billion dollars” a year, Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach says California is heading for an “economic

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Will Prop. 14 kill third parties?

Feb. 19, 2010 By JOHN SEILER Californians keep tinkering with the state’s elections system. That’s understandable given the low esteem in which Golden State politicians are held. A January 2010 Field Poll found just 16 percent of voters approved of how

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New speaker's FPPC troubles

Feb. 16, 2010 By ANTHONY PIGNATARO One of John A. Perez’s first acts as a state assemblyman was to introduce AB 9, which partially amended the Political Reform Act of 1974. In fact, the official bill history says Perez introduced

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State pushes costly new water standard

Feb. 10, 2010 By JT LONG California water agencies face a groundbreaking proposal to eradicate — at what could be a high cost to ratepayers — all but trace levels of hexavalent chromium, the industrial byproduct made famous by the

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Nadia, Arnold & Bill – a love story

Feb. 3, 2010 By ANTHONY PIGNATARO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Jan. 19 appointment of Nadia Davis-Lockyer to the California Community Colleges Board of Governors is both perfectly understandable and completely incomprehensible. As a result, it’s unusually illuminating of the governor’s special

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State's health-mandate miasma

Feb. 2, 2010 By JOHN SEILER The victory of Scott Brown in Massachusetts prevents Democrats from enacting a universal health-care reform bill. Something likely will be enacted. But the lack of universality means the states will continue to play a

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Nature violates Clean Water Act

Jan. 27, 2010 By WAYNE LUSVARDI The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently issued a stop order to the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority in Southern California delaying construction of a water treatment facility to clean up contamination

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California Jobs Gap Grows

Jan. 25, 2010 By JOHN SEILER In an earlier article I introduced a new measure of economic vitality: the Jobs Gap. It measures the difference between unemployment in California and the rest of the country. It thus factors out the

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CalPERS blames rating agencies

Jan. 21, 2010 By TROY ANDERSON In recent congressional hearings, inaccurate credit ratings were described as a major contributing factor in bringing the nation to the “brink of financial collapse.” In September, California Attorney General Jerry Brown opened an investigation

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