Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

Lawsuit: Assemblyman forced staffers to work for his law firm

A former employee of Assemblyman Steve Fox alleges that the Democrat lawmaker forced employees in his taxpayer-funded state office to work for his private law practice. The allegations are contained in a lengthy complaint filed last Friday in Los Angeles

Death, taxes and state incompetence with computer projects

Chris Reed February 27, 2014

There are fewer sure things in life than the likelihood the California state government will screw up a computer project. We may be home to Silicon Valley and the greatest concentration of information-technology skills in the world, but once a

Feds give CA breathing room on bullet-train matching funds

Kathy Hamilton February 26, 2014

There’s been another funding twist for the California bullet-train project. The Federal Railroad Administration has agreed to delay the due date for $180 million in state matching funds for the project from April 1 to July 1, according to a

Why is CalSTRS’ version of corporate skulduggery tolerated?

Chris Reed February 26, 2014

Beginning in the late 1990s and for about a decade afterward, corporate accounting scandals unfolded one after the other. Bipartisan outrage over CEOs and CFOs cooking the books gave way to mostly Democratic initiatives to impose much more sweeping rules

The dog that didn’t bark: More evidence top Dems want bullet train gone

Chris Reed February 26, 2014

The California establishment fights dirty when it comes to direct challenges to its priorities and the people it wants to protect the most. The CTA blocking efforts to make it easier to remove classroom sexual predators and instead passing legislation

Steinberg calls for carbon tax on gasoline

Wayne Lusvardi February 24, 2014

Last week, state Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, proposed a “carbon tax” on gasoline and other fuels. This tax is separate from the taxes imposed by the state’s cap-and-trade program. Steinberg has opposed a cap-and-trade emissions tax on gasoline

Welfare, housing: Clinton pragmatism still ignored by CA’s dim paleo Dems

Chris Reed February 24, 2014

In the late 1980s, after three straight Republican presidential wins in which GOP candidates won 133 of 150 states, the Democratic Leadership Council seized prominence in Democratic policy circles with its centrist reform agenda. Founded in 1985 by strategist Al

Calderons indicted in massive bribery, fraud case

Tori Richards February 22, 2014

State Sen. Ron Calderon and his brother Thomas, a former assemblyman, were indicted late Thursday in a massive bribery and insurance fraud case that could send them to prison for the rest of their lives. A 24-count criminal complaint

CalSTRS hearing underscores Mac Taylor’s destructive happy talk

Chris Reed February 20, 2014

An Assembly committee hearing Wednesday on the immense underfunding problems facing the California State Teachers’ Retirement System also illuminated another strange problem in Sacramento: the emergence of Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor as a civic arsonist. As John Myers reported, one

Judge blasts ‘corrupt’ Cal Fire in wildfire lawsuit

Dave Roberts February 19, 2014

Superior Court Judge Leslie Nichols this month ruled that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection repeatedly deceived and withheld evidence in a lawsuit seeking $8.1 million from a company and several landowners for a wildfire that the company