Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

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Why no Asian Nobel economics laureates?

Fabled investor Jim Rogers brings up an important point: Why has there never been an Asian winner of the Nobel economics prize? Yet during the 44 years the prize has been awarded, it’s Asia’s economic dynamism that has astounded the

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Covered California video features gyrating Richard Simmons

Facing a $78 million budget shortfall, Covered California spent $1.37 million on an outreach campaign that included a video featuring exercise guru Richard Simmons gyrating on the floor and hugging a kneeling contortionist whose buttocks stuck in the air. The

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Will appeals court notice AG’s flip-flop on bullet train?

It took the California Supreme Court five days to unanimously reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s request that justices immediately consider a Superior Court ruling that the state’s bullet train project had an illegal business plan and lacked proper environmental reviews to

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Obama ignores global cooling freeze out

One part of President Obama’s State of the Union with high implications for California was this: But we have to act with more urgency because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought and coastal cities dealing

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AG’s bullet-train appeal: Judges should know their place. LOL!

After rereading Attorney General Kamala Harris’ court filings from October and last week regarding the bullet train, I’m more convinced than ever that what we’re seeing from Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown is an elaborate charade to mask the fact

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Sacto City Clerk rejects petition to put arena subsidy to a public vote

In another twist in Sacramento’s arena derangement syndrome, a petition drive to put a public subsidy for the proposed Sacramento basketball arena project to a public vote, has been rejected by the Sacramento City Clerk. Friday, the city clerk announced

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Brown pleads to CA Supreme Court: Please kill bullet train ASAP!

On Friday night, the Sacramento Bee reported a bullet-train development that looks off the wall if you follow the MSM coverage that accepts surfaces narratives from rail officials. But the development looks somewhat predictable if you’ve been reading Cal Watchdog’s

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Mayor’s ‘arena hype machine’ shuns due diligence, economic analysis

Arena Derangement Syndrome continues. “Collusion” and “shady dealings,” are just a few of the words used in a letter to describe the City of Sacramento’s “utter failure to conduct any economic analysis” in the proposed taxpayer-subsidized sports arena. Attorneys representing members

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Secrecy, deception: CA bullet train follows path of Big Dig

One of the defining characteristics of a government boondoggle is secrecy. Boondoggles are much less likely to come to pass if early scrutiny reveals huge problems. This was illustrated perfectly by the “Big Dig” — the Boston tunnel and road

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Life expectancy gains: new front in CA pension funding woes

Daniel Borenstein of the Bay Area Newspaper Group had a sharp column Sunday pointing out that delays in acknowledging gains in life expectancy added to the long-term funding problems faced by CalPERS. “The mortality issue exemplifies how CalPERS has set

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