Before the 2016 election, Republicans were telling anybody who will listen that they would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. After the election, with control of the House, Senate and White House, the Republicans want to “fix” and “repair,” the ACA. This betrays a familiar dynamic of the…
Read More »
Since the dawn of Covered California, the state’s wholly owned subsidiary of the federal Affordable Care Act, health journalist Emily Bazar has tracked the dysfunctions. The skyrocketing premiums, cancellations and “glitches” of the $454 million computer system were responsible for “widespread consumer misery,” not exactly a ringing endorsement. Covered California also dropped 2,000 pregnant…
Read More »
This just in: Sacramento City Unified School District has actually fired an administrator, but as Loretta Kalb notes in the Sacramento Bee, this rare dismissal is not an example of accountability. The administrator, Felisberto Cedros, is embroiled in a sexual harassment case against African American school worker Delecia Sydnor, whom he had threatened to…
Read More »
California maintains a state Board of Equalization that, contrary to its name, does not equalize anything. Board of Taxation would more accurate because the state body collects taxes, and as Adam Ashton notes in the Sacramento Bee, board members use some of the tax money they collect to promote themselves in their districts. In…
Read More »
“Thousands of people enrolled in Covered California face higher-than-expected bills from their insurers because the exchange sent incorrect tax credit information to the health plans.” That’s the latest from health reporter Emily Bazar, now with Kaiser Health News. As she explains, Covered California, the state’s Obamacare system, send the wrong tax information for 25,000…
Read More »
Taxpayers in the northern California capital region wonder why their roads remain full of potholes, fire stations close down, and overall services decline. As Brad Brannan of the Sacramento Bee explains, this happens because of “rising pension costs.” An employee of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District can retire after 30 years, at the age…
Read More »
Back in 2012, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing installed Houdini, a $640,000 computer system designed to automate the filing of complaints. In November, 2013, Jon Ortiz of the Sacramento Bee reported that Houdini was failing to deliver improved efficiency and the DFEH “has seen a decline in the speed and quality of…
Read More »
For more than a decade, according to David Jensen of the California Stem Cell Report, the $3 billion California Institute for Regenerative Medicine “has given away money at a rate of $22,000 an hour, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.” Donald Kohn of UCLA got $52 million from CIRM, and his treatment…
Read More »
As Chriss Street of Breitbart News reports, California Governor Jerry Brown wants a 42 percent increase in the gasoline tax and seeks to hike Californians’ vehicle registration fees by 141 percent. These tax and fee increases are not to fix the state’s terrible roads, build more water storage, which the state desperately needs, or…
Read More »
Before anybody else climbs aboard California’s “high-speed rail” project, they might give a listen to Ralph Vartabedian of the Los Angeles Times, who has been riding herd on this boondoggle from the start. The reporter has obtained a confidential Federal Railroad Administration risk analysis charging that the bullet train could cost taxpayers 50 percent…
Read More »
 |
 |
 |