Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

Back to homepage

California Solar Initiative: overhyped and underperforming

Now that the $2.167 billion California Solar Initiative is winding down, electricity ratepayers might ask: What was it and what did it accomplish? Was it: 1.) A cutting edge solar energy project to bring about a “self-sustaining” solar power industry,

Read More

Government incompetence behind Bay Bridge fiasco

July 9, 2013 By Chris Reed The latest revelations about the Bay Bridge’s construction shortcomings point straight to incompetence as the big issue. This is from the Mercury-News: “OAKLAND — When very large, high-strength steel rods on the new Bay

Read More

1,000 cans of soda a day? Cancer may be least of your woes

July 6, 2013 By Chris Reed Greens’ conviction that human beings are the worst thing to ever happen to Gaia manifests itself in water-runoff rules that seek a return to water purity seen last in the days before European explorers

Read More

No, the recession is not to blame for the pension crisis

July 5, 2013 By Chris Reed Perhaps the single smartest guy in the Schwarzenegger administration, David Crane, continues to be a wrecking ball when it comes to the arguments offered by apologists for California’s ruinous state finances. In his latest

Read More

FBI eyes San Diego mayor; his biggest risk may be perjury rap

Happy 237th birthday, America. No, that is not a reference to “The Shining.” Now, onto the news: Well, that didn’t take long. Multiple news outlets are reporting that the FBI and/or the U.S. Justice Department is looking at a San Diego

Read More

BART pay, benefits so lavish that workers deserve 0% raise

July 3, 2013 By Chris Reed We’ve been talking seriously in California since the middle of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s second term as governor about the need to rein in insanely costly public employee benefits, and not just pensions. This has led

Read More

Filner themes — obnoxiousness, shadiness — merge

June 30, 2013 By Chris Reed Cal Watchdog readers have been updated regularly on the goofiness and ugliness that’s unfolded in San Diego since veteran Democratic congressman Bob Filner took over as mayor in December. The two main themes of

Read More

Will Assembly education chair heed own words on bond abuses?

June 29, 2013 By Chris Reed A bill that would prevent expedient, irresponsible school districts from issuing insane “capital appreciation bonds” that can’t be paid off early and that cost, over the long term, 10 to 20 times as much

Read More

Assembly shelves Walmart health care mandate — for now

June 28, 2013 By Katy Grimes SACRAMENTO — For now, Walmart can keep its slogan, “Low prices. Every day. On everything.” A bill aimed at forcing large non-union businesses to cover the health care costs of all employees, regardless of

Read More

L.A. Times caught in tax liability

June 25, 2013  By Wayne Lusvardi File this under Hoist With Your Own Petard. As I wrote last month, the Los Angeles Times mistakenly said Michael Dell used a tax dodge to avoid $1.1 million in property taxes on his purchase

Read More