Investigation

Do tiered water rates save water?

It must sound crazy in the middle of an epic California drought to say empirical studies show raising water rates to spur water conservation is not likely to result in water conservation. But a study by CalWatchdog.com of comparable

Water subsidies are ‘ancient history’

Wayne Lusvardi October 1, 2014

This is Part 4 of a series. Prior articles in this series showed there are no real water subsidies. But if there are no real water subsidies to farmers from taxpayers, what about all those crop subsidies? According to Mark Borba, owner of

Fact-checking water price subsidies

Wayne Lusvardi September 30, 2014

This is Part 3 of a series. Part 1 was on how drought-water pricing violates Proposition 218’s ban on tax increases without a vote of the people. Part 2 was on fact-checking water pricing. Water subsidies are the focus of much

Quarter-million applicants still waiting for Medi-Cal

Dave Roberts September 29, 2014

A quarter-million Medi-Cal applicants have been waiting more than 45 days, and in some cases nearly a year, either to receive coverage or find out why their application has been denied. That’s an improvement from the 900,000 applicants who

Fact-checking drought-water pricing

Wayne Lusvardi September 22, 2014

This is Part 2 of a series. Part 1 was on how drought-water pricing violates Proposition 218’s ban on tax increases without a vote of the people. What is good water pricing during a drought? Let’s look at some

Does drought pricing violate state law?

Wayne Lusvardi September 20, 2014

This is Part 1 of a series. Calls now are going out to raise water prices even higher to spur conservation. Instead of fining people for watering their lawns, numerous economists are recommending just tacking a punitive surcharge onto water rates until use

In fighting drought, San Antonio leaves L.A. in the dust

Wayne Lusvardi September 5, 2014

Could cities such as drought-vulnerable Los Angeles come to regret that a “privatization” provision in the old $11.1 billion state water bond was removed? Back in 2009, there was an outcry against language in the original version of a

How accurate are high-speed rail jobs reports?

Kathy Hamilton September 4, 2014

How many jobs is the California high-speed rail project creating? As California’s unemployment rate remains above the national number, it’s a crucial question. The California High-Speed Rail Authority has numbers of jobs created as of April. As reported by

Expert says drought did not cause Napa quake

Wayne Lusvardi August 27, 2014

Natural disasters predictably bring up speculation about causes. On radio shows, callers have been wondering whether the ongoing drought or fracking caused the 6.0 Richter scale South Napa Earthquake on Aug. 24. It’s true that, just before the quake, scientists reported that a

Covered CA premiums set to spike

Troy Anderson August 19, 2014

For some time, Obamacare critics have warned that health insurance premiums would skyrocket once the Affordable Care Act went into effect. Now they say the leap in premiums, as calculated by state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, is just the