Last February 7 during heavy rains, the Oroville Dam’s concrete spillway failed, launching fears of a complete dam failure, and forcing the evacuation of 188,000 people downstream from the structure. As the anniversary approaches, the total costs of the spillway reconstruction, including emergency response, have risen to $870 million according to the state Department…
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According to an NBC report by Jaxon Van Derbeken, “Caltrans is investigating whether microscopic organisms are attacking critical welds on the submerged foundation of the new Bay Bridge tower, potentially endangering the projected 150-year lifespan of the troubled $6.4 billion structure.” Brian Maroney, Caltrans’ chief engineer on the project, told NBC that experts report…
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As we noted last month, sexual abuse has been thriving in Hollywood, Congress, the media, and in the California legislature. Senate boss Kevin de Leon sought to hire an independent legal firm to investigate but the latest revelations come from a different source. According to an investigation by the Sacramento Bee, “the state paid…
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If President Trump gets his way, the amount of U.S. defense spending will increase by nearly 13% above their current level in 2019. Bloomberg Quint‘s Eric Watson and Tony Capaccio report on the proposed surge in U.S. defense spending. President Donald Trump will propose $716 billion in defense spending in his fiscal 2019 budget…
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Before Jerry Brown’s 16th and final State of the State address Thursday, the New York Times wondered if he would use the address to “push for reforms in California’s notoriously dysfunctional tax system, hamstrung by Proposition 13 and a heavy reliance on volatile capital gains tax revenues.” Brown did no such thing but he…
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As we noted, California has the highest top marginal income-tax rate of 13.3 percent and the highest base sales tax rate of 7.5 percent. The state also deploys a corporate tax rate of 8.84 percent but now state Democrats Kevin McCarty and Phil Ting want a constitution amendment that would slap any company with…
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In late 2017, the city of San Diego developed a public health crisis involving an outbreak of Hepatitis A among the city’s population of homeless residents, which arose as a result of personal contact with others who were openly defecating in public areas without facilities to wash their hands. At least 20 deaths in…
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On Thursday, December 28, 2017, a Los Angeles publication mailed me a check via the United States Postal Service. I received the check on January 18, 2018, a full 21 days after it had been mailed, so the cost worked out to just pennies a day. On the other hand, in 21 days I…
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The latest episode of federal government shutdown theater turned out to be a total bust! Hardly anybody outside of Washington D.C. even noticed, and now, it’s all over—at least for a few more weeks. The Washington Post reports on the sudden demise of the 19th federal government shutdown since 1974’s Budget and Impoundment Control…
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Californians pay the highest income and sales taxes in the United States, and the government recently piled on a $5.2 billion tax on gasoline, diesel fuel and vehicle fees. Taxpayers recently got some clues about what the state will do with all that money. According to the state controller, the state is bulking up…
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