Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

UTLA boss goes Orwell: Teachers=students

Tuesday’s historic Vergara vs. California ruling was likened to Brown vs. Board of Education by none other than Rolf Treu, the judge who issued the decision. But has anyone noticed how quiet Latino Democrats are about the ruling, outside of

Sweeping new legal challenge to bullet train

Kathy Hamilton June 11, 2014

A massive California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit was filed June 4 in Sacramento Superior Court over the newly certified environmental impact report (EIR) for the bullet-train project segment linking Fresno to Bakersfield. This EIR is supposed to have far more

State’s Bay Bridge follies will have bullet train encore

Chris Reed June 9, 2014

When the first stories came out about the problems with the $6.5 billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge construction project, there was a faintly surprised tone to some of the coverage. They can’t get stuff like welds right? Really? But I

Court hears objections to high-speed rail

Kathy Hamilton June 4, 2014

This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1 is here. The first article in this series on the crucial May 23 hearing before the Third District Court of Appeal reported that questions asked by the justices seemed to lean

CSU ‘student success fees’ an obnoxious surcharge

Chris Reed June 3, 2014

California lawmakers of both parties have long been upset that UC and CSU leaders look to raise tuition as option number one during budget headaches instead of scrutinizing their operating budgets for fat. But for poor students, at least tuition

How rich: CTA parent group struggles with pension costs

Chris Reed May 30, 2014

The following news nugget almost has an Onion feel to it, it’s such a perfect commentary on the aggressively dishonest Maviglian/union narrative about pension affordability. But it’s legit. The California Teachers Association has spent years depicting complaints about the costs

Typical Sacramento: Weak CalSTRS fix made even weaker

Chris Reed May 24, 2014

So Gov. Jerry Brown is finally forced by events to come up with a CalSTRS pension rescue plan. And as Dan Borenstein points out, it’s so cautious that it doesn’t prevent CalSTRS’ underfunding from getting worse for some time to

2007 press release shows rail authority touting CEQA compliance

Chris Reed May 21, 2014

A Tuesday afternoon AP story laid out the latest courtroom developments involving the bullet-train fiasco: “SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s $68 billion bullet train project should be exempt from the state’s strict environmental review process now that it is subject

Brown’s CalSTRS fix hammers districts, protects teachers

Chris Reed May 14, 2014

Contrary to the impression given by some of the current coverage of Sacramento’s attempts to shore up the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the underfunding problem hasn’t been completely ignored for all these years. Here’s what I wrote about the

19 CA members of Congress take pensions

John May 13, 2014

Former San Diego city councilman and mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio, who brought comprehensive pension reform to San Diego, is taking his fight to Capitol Hill. A new report published by the GOP congressional candidate identified 102 members of Congress that