News Media

Is Gov. Brown disinterested in pension reform?

Later today, the governing board of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System is expected to pass rules giving state employees 99 ways to spike their “pensionable pay.” Gov. Jerry Brown only objected to one of the 99 bonuses. This is

Immigration: Feinstein acts like Chicago Dem, not CA Dem

Chris Reed August 19, 2014

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein won’t put up with the CIA spying on lawmakers. Her repeated denunciations of the agency this year have been remarkable, considering her decades as a leading figure in the national security establishment. But Feinstein isn’t so

$Geothermal: New front in CA fracking war$

Geothermal: New front in CA fracking war

Chris Reed August 18, 2014

The war over fracking in California could soon have a second front. The Economist has become the latest publication to document how the newly refined and improved energy exploration technique using precisely aimed underground water cannons works not just to

Moody’s raises questions about teacher pension funding fix

Chris Reed August 15, 2014

Soon after the CalSTRS funding fix crafted by the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown took effect on July 1, Moody’s Investors Service raised CalSTRS’ bond issuer rating. But six weeks later, Moody’s has put out another release that examines how much

Petty corruption all too common at CA special districts

Chris Reed August 12, 2014

The California government agencies that provide water, sewage, trash and other special services are often oblivious to ethical norms and tone-deaf to how their actions look to the outside world. Part of it may be these agencies don’t get the

Unlike Brown, Hawaii gov took on teachers — and paid

Chris Reed August 11, 2014

As someone who went to college in Hawaii and spent eight years there as a journalist, I know the state’s politics pretty well. It is so solidly Democrat that it only has one Republican in its state senate. This monolithic

Scam exposed: UTLA wants $ for troubled students to fund 17.6% raise

Chris Reed August 8, 2014

When Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Local Control Funding Formula for state schools into law in the summer of 2013, it was billed as the biggest education reform in California in decades. The premise of the law — and the

Associated Press blows coverage of bullet-train ruling

Chris Reed August 3, 2014

Led by the Associated Press, the mainstream media coverage of the state appellate court ruling overturning two anti-bullet train trial court rulings is somewhat peculiar in that it depicts the ruling as monumental. Read the 49-page decision, and it seems

Kings County attorney: Don’t overreact to pro-bullet train ruling

Chris Reed August 1, 2014

A state appellate court ruling announced Thursday overturning Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny’s 2013 decisions saying the state rail authority didn’t have a legal financing plan or adequate environmental reviews to proceed with construction of the initial segment of

Mitch Albom, CWD contributor talk about Silicon Valley, diversity

Chris Reed July 31, 2014

Jesse Jackson’s on-again, off-again campaign against Silicon Valley for the lack of blacks, Latinos and women in its tech workforce is revving up. This is from a USA Today story this week: “There’s no talent shortage. There’s an opportunity shortage,”