News Media

Dan Walters figures out Gov. Brown wants bullet train dead

For a few months, Cal Watchdog has been the only outlet in the media underlining how fundamentally strange and self-defeating the actions of the state government have been in defending the bullet train. After an August court ruling from Sacramento

Immigration amnesty not nearly as popular in CA as gay rights

Chris Reed March 3, 2014

There really has been a genuine change in American views of gay rights. The longer the Republican Party sees its members look at this new world and then act out in the fashion of the Arizona legislature, the harder it

‘Inspiring’ de Blasio channels CA Dems: White teachers > minority students

Chris Reed February 28, 2014

In the run-up to Bill de Blasio’s recent election as mayor of New York City, I lost count of how many times I heard pundits describe the tall Democrat with the mixed-race marriage as offering an inspiring new progressive vision

Self-parody department: Dakota oil boom depicted as threat to CA safety

Chris Reed February 27, 2014

The San Francisco Chronicle has broken new ground in over-the-top petrophobia. Not content to warp the California debate over fracking in the Golden State by never mentioning the Obama administration considers it safe, the Chronicle’s editorial page actually is warning

The dog that didn’t bark: More evidence top Dems want bullet train gone

Chris Reed February 26, 2014

The California establishment fights dirty when it comes to direct challenges to its priorities and the people it wants to protect the most. The CTA blocking efforts to make it easier to remove classroom sexual predators and instead passing legislation

Do CA electeds really believe pot is healthier than e-cigarettes?

Chris Reed February 25, 2014

E-cigarettes that are far healthier than the normal kind remain under siege in California. Why? Cigarettes just aren’t OK with the cool kids running the Golden State — unless we’re talking about marijuana cigarettes. How odd. “A Los Angeles City

Judge confirms the ‘California rule’: Pensions can only go up

Chris Reed February 25, 2014

A state judge on Monday did a split-the-baby routine with San Jose’s voter-approved pension-reform law: “SAN JOSE — In a landmark ruling that could help shape city budgets around the state, a judge invalidated key parts of San Jose’s voter-approved

Study of Los Angeles: Prosperity increases income inequality

Chris Reed February 23, 2014

Coverage of income inequality is shockingly slanted and inept. Lazy, populist demonization of the 1 percent is the standard default starting position for explaining why poor people make a small fraction of what the very wealthy do. But as I’ve

Shakedown street: Jesse Jackson targets Silicon Valley — again

Chris Reed February 22, 2014

However one feels about the growing fuss over white and Asian dominance of U.S. tech work forces, there are some fundamental facts to consider, starting with: African-American students are less likely to graduate college with degrees in high-tech fields. This

CalSTRS hearing underscores Mac Taylor’s destructive happy talk

Chris Reed February 20, 2014

An Assembly committee hearing Wednesday on the immense underfunding problems facing the California State Teachers’ Retirement System also illuminated another strange problem in Sacramento: the emergence of Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor as a civic arsonist. As John Myers reported, one