Search Results for "high-speed rail"
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John Seiler: Except for those getting the cash, just about every analyst of the California High-Speed Rail Authority says it’s a boondoggle. Dan Walters summed it up: It’s rare for any human endeavor to achieve perfection, but California’s High-Speed Rail Authority has done it
Read MoreFeds Wasted Most of $17 Bil. CA Stimulus
JULY 20, 2011 By JOHN SEILER How did the federal government actually spend the 2009 stimulus money in California? In March 2009 the California Legislative Analyst made a study of proposed spending on the officially named American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But
Read MoreBrown Debt Gimmicks 'Balance' Budget
JUNE 14, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Most knowledgeable people realize that California’s debt emperor has no clothes. Even if the mainstream newspaper media continue to clothe the emperor in the robes of an all-wise Buddhist monk who has taken a
Read MoreTrain Wreck Keeps Rolling
Katy Grimes: With the Legislature’s ongoing guaranteed votes to allow California’s High Speed Rail Authority project to continue without financial analysis or ridership studies, it is apparent that High Speed Rail has become the latest New Deal-styled WPA project for
Read MoreRecall Gov. Jerry Brown!
John Seiler: I’ve had enough. Four and a half months of Gov. Jerry Brown, Part Deux, is four and a half months too much. Last October, even before he was elected, I was the first to demand: Recall Gov. Jerry
Read MoreLAO Blows Up Bullet Train
MAY 11, 2011 There’s something truly exhausting — no, dispiriting — about reading the latest state Legislative Analysts Office (LAO) report on California’s immense high-speed rail undertaking. Released at noon on May 10, the document runs just 28 pages but
Read MoreBoondoggle Train Already Obsolete
APRIL 21, 2011 The debate over whether to build an 800-mile network of bullet trains crisscrossing the state at speeds approaching 220 miles per hour is one of the most contentious we have today. Its projected cost of $45 billion
Read MoreCA’s Bond Rating Equals F-Minus Grade
APRIL 21, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Why is there such a large discrepancy between California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s assurances that the state is not broke and has plenty of money to pay off its bonds and the state’s effective
Read MoreSacto's Ongoing Redevelopment Disaster
APRIL 19, 2011 By RICHARD TRAINOR Since its inception in 1953, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency has been driven by scandals, sweetheart deals for connected developers, cockeyed projects and ineptitude. In 1991, this reporter wrote the official history of
Read MoreWealthy and Poor California Spongers
MARCH 24, 2011 Sponges come in all shapes and sizes. And some sponges are much more absorbent. Unfortunately for Californians, the freeloading sponges in the state are soaking up more than ever as California sinks deeper into a sinkhole of
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