January 6, 2010

Ex-OC Weekly investigative reporter Anthony Pignataro has joined the staff of the new Sacramento-based CalWatchdog.com which launched its website yesterday.

Controlled by ex-Orange County Register editorial writer Steven Greenhut on behalf of a libertarian-leaning California think tank, CalWatchdog carries a motto: “Your eyes on California government.”

Greenhut has been a vocal critic of entrench political and government forces–especially public employee unions. He is the author of a new book, “Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.” Art Pedroza over at orangejuiceblog.com welcomed Greenhut’s operation, but you can imagine that union bosses despise Greenhut.

As a staff writer at the Weekly for seven years until he became editor of an alternative weekly newspaper in Hawaii, Pignataro won numerous journalism awards on a variety of topics, dominated coverage of the proposal international airport at the old El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine and regularly entertained colleagues with his wit. I know his talents well. Advice for dirty politicians in Sacramento: beware. Pignataro is relentless.

Katy Grimes, a veteran journalist who has worked at such places as The Washington Examiner and The Sacramento Union, is also on Greenhut’s staff as a news reporter.

–R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly