Politics and Elections

FPPC releases lobbying, campaign violations report

Dec. 14, 2012 By Katy Grimes After big election seasons, it’s always interesting to see what the campaign and lobbying violations were. However, rarely is this information timely. It’s even more interesting that this information is not publicized prior to

Teacher unions the enemies of ‘social justice,’ not the champions

CalWatchdog Staff December 14, 2012

Dec. 14, 2012 By Chris Reed Here’s the intro to my take for City Journal on the absurdity of the California Federation of Teachers pretending to care about minorities. “The online premiere last week of the California Federation of Teachers’

George Skelton: 34% is a ‘small minority’

CalWatchdog Staff December 13, 2012

Dec. 13, 2012 By Chris Reed The persistence with which George Skelton writes silly, slanted stuff is hard to exaggerate. He only occasionally tells his L.A. Times readers that unions run Sacramento. He is a constant advocate of the Sacramento

Obama come and Belafonte want concentration camps

CalWatchdog Staff December 13, 2012

Dec. 13, 2012 By John Seiler I’ve liked Harry Belafonte over the years, especially his music. Now here’s how he has rewarded me: For the record, he said: “The only thing left left for Barack Obama to do is to

Audacity! Mich. shows Calif. GOP how to revive party

CalWatchdog Staff December 12, 2012

Dec. 12, 2012 By John Seiler When I was growing up in Michigan in the 1960s, the Democratic Party mostly dominated the state. Kennedy, Johnson and Humphrey won the presidential contests. Democrats controlled the Legislature. And labor unions dominated the

Filner signals he’ll block further reform in San Diego

CalWatchdog Staff December 11, 2012

Dec. 11, 2012 By Chris Reed SAN DIEGO — As I wrote for CalWatchdog just after last month’s election, there was a strong chance that successful reforms with a heavy libertarian flavor were going to be blocked going forward here

Maviglio bashes Reps on diversity — but what about Dems?

CalWatchdog Staff December 10, 2012

Dec. 10, 2012 By John Seiler I seem to be the last person in California that votes only on the issues, not by groups, or “diversity.” It wouldn’t matter at all to me if every top state office and every

Bullet-train boondoggle yields a Cabinet-level delusion

CalWatchdog Staff December 9, 2012

Dec. 9, 2012 By Chris Reed A House committee hearing Thursday at which Republicans vowed to use their majority to block new federal funding for California’s bullet-train train wreck produced this astounding passage in The Washington Post: “We’re not giving

Will school finance scams be addressed? One of two at best

CalWatchdog Staff December 9, 2012

Dec. 9, 2012 By Chris Reed The push is on to gut Proposition 13, with the nominal rationale being the urgent need to help public education by making it easier to pass parcel taxes. But will the Democratic lawmakers behind

EdSource look at superintendent turnover ignores union elephant

CalWatchdog Staff December 8, 2012

Dec. 8, 2012 By Chris Reed There are none so blind as those who will not see. EdSource does a 1,500-word analysis of a new study showing far higher turnover of superintendents in large school districts than smaller ones in