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Knives already out for CA’s emerging House star
The flurry of reports that Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, is a lock to replace Eric Cantor of Virginia as House majority leader has led the mainstream media to do the usual profiles and think pieces about D.C.’s newest political star.
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UTLA boss goes Orwell: Teachers=students
Tuesday’s historic Vergara vs. California ruling was likened to Brown vs. Board of Education by none other than Rolf Treu, the judge who issued the decision. But has anyone noticed how quiet Latino Democrats are about the ruling, outside of
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UC Berkeley prof behind invest/spend semantic ploy
AP reporter Judy Lin had a fun story Wednesday about how Democrats are playing the semantic spin game: “SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As billions of dollars in unexpected tax revenue pour into California, Democratic lawmakers have proposed all kinds of ways
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The left-wing theory driving Vergara ruling
A point that hasn’t been made nearly enough by the MSM is that the Vergara vs. California ruling rejecting the state’s lax teacher tenure practices depends on a legal doctrine associated with lefty causes. That doctrine deals with “disparate impact” and
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‘Kaustrodamus’: The L.A. journo who saw Cantor’s demise coming
Mickey Kaus is a very smart L.A. pundit whose Kaufiles was one of the original news blogs that mattered. He now writes mainly for the Daily Caller. In 1992, he wrote “The End of Equality,” a powerful book-length analysis of
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Post-Vergara: Civil war possible among CA Dems
The Vergara storm is coming, and I’ve got a feeling that it’s going to be gigantic. The ruling’s potential impact on California public education — and public education nationally — could be immense. Even if it doesn’t stand, it will
Read MoreRail board chair Dan Richard responds to critical post
Dan Richard, the chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, sent this to Cal Watchdog in response to my Monday morning post: “In his campaign to stop California from building the nation’s first high-speed rail system, Chris Reed (calwatchdog.com, June 9, 2014)
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State’s Bay Bridge follies will have bullet train encore
When the first stories came out about the problems with the $6.5 billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge construction project, there was a faintly surprised tone to some of the coverage. They can’t get stuff like welds right? Really? But I
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Light-rail love affair: CA pols, media stuck in 1980s
Californians with a green streak are in love with mass transit — at least when it involves rail. Buses are far better at helping people, especially poor people, to and from work. But there’s something about rail and how it
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Changing CA politics: What’s the biggest potential shift?
The open-primary success of relatively moderate GOP candidates in statewide races has prompted lots of thumbsucker punditry lately. For example, Dan Walters sees Tuesday’s results as suggesting a mild GOP comeback. There’s also the evidence that the Legislature isn’t as
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