Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
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CalPERS is worried
Last week, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes ruled that Detroit city workers’ pensions could be part of the Chapter 9 proceedings. So the pensions could be cut substantially. That obviously affects the federal bankruptcy trial for San Bernardino and, potentially, Desert
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Bullet-train blog urges $29B in new CA taxes to save project
These are melancholy and bitter times for the California High Speed Rail Blog. Overseer Robert Cruickshank has reacted to Judge Michael Kenny’s rulings blocking the project by decrying the taxpayer protections in the 2008 ballot measure authorizing $9.95 billion in
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Bullet train: Denial is a river in Sacramento
The meeting Thursday of the board of the California High-Speed Rail Authority was a laugh riot, with authority officials dismissing state and federal setbacks as much ado about nothing. This is from the Mercury-News: “SACRAMENTO — Critics and many political
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CA SEIU poised to break new ground on political thuggery
The California SEIU’s thuggishness is a matter of record. SEIU leaders think nothing of openly discussing their plans to monkey-wrench a pension reform measure in Los Angeles. Or about bullying and lying to their own members. The California SEIU’s upper
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Tax ’em if you got ’em
California is inhaling another pack of attempts to increase cigarette taxes. Joe Mathews enthuses about it on Fox and Hounds: This state needs to raise tobacco taxes. For a state as properly focused on health as California, the fact that
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Critics say CARB botching key part of cap-and-trade program
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (Bloomberg NEF) has accused the California Air Resources Board of a serious problem: double-counting industrial pollution emissions under its cap-and-trade program. Bloomberg NEF, a media enterprise focusing on the energy sector, isn’t the only credible entity
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‘Paycheck protection’: CA shouldn’t give up hope on checking unions yet
After the failure of three ballot attempts in the past 15 years to require unions to give their members veto power over the use of their dues for political purposes, Californians hoping for a better balance of power in local
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Actual state residents would struggle to recognize Paul Krugman’s California
What is it about California that inspires such insistently cheerful happy talk from New York Times columnist/Princeton professor Paul Krugman? This spring he claimed that California was in the middle of a roaring comeback. Has he ever been here? Read
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Grim LAT: Bullet train $25B short. Dim Sac Bee: What $25B? All soon to be well!
On Monday, a Sacramento judge dealt a devastating setback to the California bullet train. The most serious of several obstacles in two decisions released by Judge Michael Kenny was his ruling that the $68 billion project didn’t have a legal
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