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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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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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CARB update: Powers expanding beyond AB32

Irish wit Oscar Wilde once quipped, “The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.” He died in 1900, but he would have recognized the California Air Resources Board. Under AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of

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Covered CA throws a party – only 10 sign up

This week California’s Obamacare health insurance exchange, Covered California, rented the Sacramento Convention Center, and opened its doors to the public for a sign-up party, complete with balloons and press. CBS 13 reported 1,500 people showed up to apply and enroll in

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Sacramento arena proponents make desperate weekend robo-calls

My weekend was interrupted with yet another robo-call. But unlike other robo-callers, this outfit actually left a message… a jaw-dropping message. Never mind that I have an unlisted home phone number. “This is an urgent call from  DowntownArena.org,” the message

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Is Jerry Brown eyeing the White House again?

Gov. Jerry Brown’s crack public relations team has been hard at work convincing the rest of the country that he has sparked a California turnaround. The New Republic even recommended to President Obama that, in his second term, he should

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Tweaking the Sept. jobs report

I'm no mathematician, but I understand economics. It doesn't take a professional to see the “jobs, jobs, jobs” campaign rallying cries seem to be falling on deaf ears. Unemployment may have dropped a driblet, but it remains historically high. And

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Could 12,000 lawmakers fix what ails California?

The one thing m how to get your ex back ost Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on is that special interests have too much influence in politics. The little guy is feeling less and less relevant — especially at

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Gov. Brown axes 2013-14 school testing for K-12

Most California’s K-12 public schools will go through the 2013-14 school year without standardized testing after Gov. Jerry Brown just signed Assembly Bill 484 into law. The following school year, 2014-15, less rigorous federal Common Core tests will begin. AB484

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