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‘Subsidiarity’: About broad push for local control? Or upping teacher pay?
Joel Fox has an analysis piece at Fox & Hounds that looks at the governor’s push for “subsidiarity” on education policy and wonders if what Jerry Brown is touting will segue to a larger agenda: “… is there a next
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Secrecy, deception: CA bullet train follows path of Big Dig
One of the defining characteristics of a government boondoggle is secrecy. Boondoggles are much less likely to come to pass if early scrutiny reveals huge problems. This was illustrated perfectly by the “Big Dig” — the Boston tunnel and road
Read MoreLife expectancy gains: new front in CA pension funding woes
Daniel Borenstein of the Bay Area Newspaper Group had a sharp column Sunday pointing out that delays in acknowledging gains in life expectancy added to the long-term funding problems faced by CalPERS. “The mortality issue exemplifies how CalPERS has set
Read MoreTaxpayer-funded union programs: Scams and scandals
In a state with normal standards of honesty and transparency, the idea that millions of dollars in public funds could be used without any scrutiny for many years at a time would seem goofy. But that's in a normal government.
Read MoreCTA wins: Brown lobbies to weaken own school-funding reform
Gov. Jerry Brown made a surprise appearance Thursday at a State Board of Education meeting to call for board members — most of whom he appointed — to approve loophole-ridden regulations for the implementation of the sweeping education funding changes
Read MoreSacramento’s Russians, Sochi and the homophobia double standard
One of the biggest storylines leading up to next month’s Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, is the Western world’s stern disapproval of Russia’s homophobia and the fear that it could cast a pall over the event and lead to
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U.S. fracking changes global balance of power; can’t CA join fun?
Anti-fracking forces are gearing up in California, aided by our pathetic state media, which never mention that the Obama administration considers hydraulic fracturing to access natural gas and oil reserves to be just another heavy industry that can be made
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Brown still on loony, increasingly lonely bullet-train bandwagon
Cal Watchdog managing editor John Seiler and I were among the pundits who got a telephone budget briefing from Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday afternoon. I was disappointed but unsurprised to hear that the governor is still 1,000 percent on
Read MoreAs with fracking, Obama shuns green cultists on GMO foods
One of the most puzzling phenomena I’ve seen in years of watching the California media is how they simply won’t report that the Obama administration considers fracking to be just another heavy industry that can be made safe with routine
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As consultant, bullet-train boss helped write doomed business plan
A lengthy Comstock’s profile of Jeff Morales, the former Washington D.C. and Chicago political operative brought in to save the bullet train by Gov. Jerry Brown, gets some little details about the high-speed rail project wrong and has some dubious
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