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‘Paycheck protection’: CA shouldn’t give up hope on checking unions yet

After the failure of three ballot attempts in the past 15 years to require unions to give their members veto power over the use of their dues for political purposes, Californians hoping for a better balance of power in local

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Grim LAT: Bullet train $25B short. Dim Sac Bee: What $25B? All soon to be well!

On Monday, a Sacramento judge dealt a devastating setback to the California bullet train. The most serious of several obstacles in two decisions released by Judge Michael Kenny was his ruling that the $68 billion project didn’t have a legal

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Rialto police: Inspiration for the nation. Really.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! The city of Rialto is an odd mix of nice new subdivisions, industrial grayness and rundown neighborhoods. When I covered the city as an Inland Empire news columnist in the late 1990s, it had a distinct inferiority

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Sac Bee finally discovers Gerawan-UFW story

Since June, Katy Grimes has been covering the struggle between Gerawan Farms and its workers against the United Farm Workers union and Sacramento politicians. Almost two months ago, she profiled Silvia Lopez, the farm worker who was fighting UFW representation

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End game on bullet train: No $, no project — and no prospects for $

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny’s issued a double-whammy ruling Monday. He barred the use of bond funds for the state bullet-train project until it had adequate funding and complete environmental reviews for its first 300-mile segment. He also blocked

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LAT on Covered CA: No mention of mass cancellations, sticker shock

So Chad Terhune of the L.A. Times does a story on Covered California that notes the state’s version of Obamacare: 1) Isn’t doing that well signing up young people, who are essential to the economics of the Affordable Care Act,

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Southern California country song

I was driving around yesterday morning with a country music fan. He had on our local country station, Go Country 105. Up came this song, “Days of Gold,” by Jake Owen, about “Southern summers, that sun shinin’ down like Daddy’s

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LAO’s cheerfully nutty budget report: Pension crisis? What pension crisis?

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has among the best reputations of any state agency. But after the release of Wednesday’s bizarre LAO budget analysis and accompanying press conference by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, I don’t know why. I groused about it

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San Diego mayor’s race: Shape-shifter to ‘leave public life’; GOP candidate favored

CalWatchdog has paid close attention to Nathan Fletcher over the past year, detailing the former union-trashing Republican assemblyman’s odyssey across the ideological spectrum. When the local GOP wouldn’t endorse him over libertarian crusader Carl DeMaio in the 2012 San Diego

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Obamacare: National media finally turn on Obama — and Nancy Pelosi

The national media are finally done with covering up the incompetence of Barack Obama. Savor this amazing lead from Ron Fournier of National Journal, the former AP Washington bureau chief who still helps set conventional wisdom about national politics: “Incompetence,

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