Tag "budget deficit"

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How will Brown budget proposal address pensions, taxes, debt?

California's budget battles will begin on Friday when Gov. Jerry Brown releases his proposal for fiscal year 2014-15, which begins on July 1. The media and political buzz in the Capitol building is that the state has a surplus — and

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2014 brings new laws regulating CA businesses

In 2013, California’s Legislature busied itself passing more than 800 new laws. In the coming weeks, CalWatchdog.com will report on the many affecting businesses in 2014. Overtime for nannies and domestic workers The “Domestic Workers Bill of Rights,” Assembly Bill 241,

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EDD employees nap, watch TV, surf net, while claims stack up

My three-part series about the Employment Development Department computer system upgrade has some in the agency wanting to unload. Apparently EDD officials’ explanation of the newly updated $100 million computer system “glitches,” and claims of understaffing, aren’t the whole story,

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Employment Development Department computer system not yet fixed

This is Part 3 of a series on the EDD. Part 1, an interview with Spokesman Dan Stephens, is here. Part 2, EDD computers must be fixed by Dec. 31, is here. Three months after a California Employment Development Department computer

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‘Since voters are so stupid, let govt. make all decisions’

The pabulum voters are being fed has escalated to new heights… or lows as the case may be. In a letter to the Sac Bee editor today, a reader claimed Alexis de Tocqueville would have supported Sacramento City Council’s decision to forge

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Update: Critics charge SF/Oakland Bay Bridge still unsafe

New questions have arisen about the subject of several stories I wrote last spring about the construction debacles on the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge repairs. In May, I covered a report of the concerns of engineer Yun Chung. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake struck with 6.9 magnitude

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EDD computers must be fixed by Dec. 31

This is Part 2 of a series on the EDD. Part 1, an interview with Spokesman Dan Stephens, is here. Just after the Labor Day weekend, the California Employment Development Department released a $100 million computer upgrade. It crashed. Without

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Ugly dust up over GOP Assembly health care site

The California State Assembly website, Covering Health Care: A California Resource Guide, has become something of a media kerfuffle. But many of the messages coming from the media and social media, are false and misleading. “Helping You Navigate Federal Health Care

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EDD responds to questions on computer glitches

This is Part 1 of a series. Obamacare’s computers aren’t the only government systems struck by major glitches. Two months after a California Employment Development Department computer crash cut off tens of thousands of Californians from their unemployment benefits, the EDD

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Strikes for higher minimum wage hit CA, USA

Anti-Walmart protests struck across California and the rest of America on Black Friday. The protesters demanded that the giant retailer pay its worker higher wages and benefits. As part of the protests, Robert Reich is pushing a petition on Facebook. The former

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