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School bond problems go far beyond LAUSD purchase of iPads

Gov. Jerry Brown’s skepticism about state assistance for local school districts’ construction projects appears to be primarily based on an intense disdain for adding more billions to what he likes to call the state’s “wall of debt.” But a counter

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Fracking with no freshwater — or water — increasingly common

The next great environmental fight in California is likely to be over hydraulic fracturing, the energy extraction process that uses underground water cannons to blast away rock and reach oil and natural gas reserves. Gov. Jerry Brown appears ready to

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Contra Costa County government scandal: Third World R Us?

It’s long been common in politics for one side to comment on how alleged wrongdoing is covered by the media if their side does it versus how it’s covered if it’s the other side doing it. But this tactic and/or

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UC budget fight: Brown playing 3D chess, Napolitano playing tic-tac-toe

Gov. Jerry Brown has upped the stakes in his fight with University of California President Janet Napolitano over who is ultimately in charge of UC budget and tuition decisions. Napolitano’s success last fall in getting UC regents to approve a

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Brown may hint at Vergara plans with state education board picks

Gov. Jerry Brown has been vague about whether he agrees with the incendiary premise of last June’s decision in the Vergara case: that state teacher tenure and job protection laws are so likely to steer poor teachers to struggling mostly

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San Diego mayor leery of subsidizing stadium, sees political risk

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s call for another task force to consider how to build the Chargers a new stadium and keep the NFL team from fleeing to a newly plausible Los Angeles stadium prompted an are-you-kidding-me reaction from the

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Top lawyer for controller benefits from much-criticized state perk

The state government’s practice of letting workers defy official state policy and pile up unused vacation days and cash them in upon retirement has been criticized on and off for years. California government watchdogs and journalists have outlined the budget

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Some crucial context on Brown’s new energy policy and AB 32

Gov. Jerry Brown’s decision to seek to extend the state of California’s push against global warming to 2030 with a further embrace of costlier-but-cleaner energy got a positive response from many environmental groups and journalists. The idea that California would

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State in use-it-or-lose-it mode with $4B in bullet-train funds

The California bullet-train project — stalled for years by legal fights over land acquisition and the state’s business plan, uneven progress in planning and Gov. Jerry Brown’s abrupt downsizing of the scale of the project in 2013 — had its symbolic

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Can GOP stop FCC attack on the Internet?

The Federal Communications Commission, controlled by Obama Democrats, is poised to impose a 1930s telephone-regulation model on the Internet. It makes no sense in a time when Internet costs drop by half every year to 18 months. They call it

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