News Media

Court thwarts CA officials’ cynical race-racket coverup

Chief Justice John Roberts’ 2009 opinion calling government racial quotas a “sordid business” hits the spot. Sordid also pretty much describes all government racial maneuvering and gamesmanship. Consider the case now playing out in California courts: “SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —

Michal Bloomberg’s candor beats Jerry Brown’s candor — by a mile

Chris Reed December 19, 2013

Jack Dean of the invaluable pensiontsunami.com website sent me a Politicker story about departing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s exit speech that Bloomberg plainly intended to be a historic demarcation of sorts. Bloomberg hammered home the theme that what

Bullet-train coverage: All the happy talk that fits

Chris Reed December 18, 2013

The Fresno Bee’s editorial page has cheered longer and harder for the bullet-train project than just about any newspaper in the state. But has this enthusiasm affected news coverage? A story in Wednesday’s paper should make Fresno Bee readers wonder.

$Texas cashing in on fracking of shale; will CA leaders allow same?$

Texas cashing in on fracking of shale; will CA leaders allow same?

Chris Reed December 16, 2013

At Gov. Jerry Brown’s behest, California has adopted fracking regulations that appear to allow for significant use of the vastly improved drilling technology to access 15 billion-plus barrels of oil under a vast swath of Central California, from the coast

$Mexico to join shale/fracking revolution; will media keep CA out?$

Mexico to join shale/fracking revolution; will media keep CA out?

Chris Reed December 12, 2013

This spring, I did a two-week series for Cal Watchdog on the many nations around the world that are pursuing fracking in oil and gas exploration after witnessing its immense success in North Dakota, Montana, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Here’s

George Skelton finally turns on bullet train. Now will Dan Morain?

Chris Reed December 9, 2013

So it’s been clear for years that when it comes to the bullet train, Gov. Jerry Brown has lost Sac Bee news columnist Dan Walters. This weekend’s column makes it clear that the LAT’s George Skelton is about to jump

Bullet-train blog urges $29B in new CA taxes to save project

Chris Reed December 7, 2013

These are melancholy and bitter times for the California High Speed Rail Blog. Overseer Robert Cruickshank has reacted to Judge Michael Kenny’s rulings blocking the project by decrying the taxpayer protections in the 2008 ballot measure authorizing $9.95 billion in

Bullet train: Denial is a river in Sacramento

Chris Reed December 6, 2013

The meeting Thursday of the board of the California High-Speed Rail Authority was a laugh riot, with authority officials dismissing state and federal setbacks as much ado about nothing. This is from the Mercury-News: “SACRAMENTO — Critics and many political

State finances: LAO’s own report on CalSTRS demolishes LAO’s happy talk

Chris Reed December 4, 2013

I’m still struggling to make sense of Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor’s bizarrely upbeat report last month on state finances that predicted budget surpluses for years to come — but barely mentioned the state’s huge unfunded liabilities for retiree pensions and

Thanks, Dan: Cal Watchdog themes now Walters’ favorite talking points

Chris Reed December 2, 2013

For a year, Cal Watchdog contributors and staffers (and a Cal Watchdog alum) have been pretty much alone in pointing out two extremely relevant statistics that demolish Gov. Jerry Brown’s and the media’s narrative of the Golden State bouncing back