On December 26, one day after Christmas, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner broke a blockbuster story. On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2012, the United States will reach its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit and will have to undertake “extraordinary measures” to avoid default. The debt ceiling had been troubling Steven Mufson of the Washington Post…
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While California was closing parks and state employees giving themselves unauthorized vacation buyouts, the state Parks Department was concealing nearly $54 million for more than a decade. A Democratic legislator denounced this “deceit and thievery” and wondered how much more money state employees had stashed away. In the Parks Department, it’s at least $3.9…
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The November election made California the highest-tax state in the nation by raising the state income tax to 13.3 percent, an increase of 29.13 percent. Governor Jerry Brown claimed the increase would boost revenues by some $6 billion and solve the Golden State’s budgetary woes. But according to state Controller John Chiang, total state…
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For 25 years the federal government has been trying to ban sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) from vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean off California. Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the plan was “harmful” and “futile.” The translocation program, therefore, “should be considered a failure.” Otter advocate Steve Shimek told the…
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University of California bosses have suspended the new logo that had drawn so much ridicule, and deservedly so. Indeed, the slick new design packs all the gravitas of a state lottery badge. On the other hand, the new logo does symbolize what the University of California has become, a bloated, wasteful state institution. As…
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Jaime Avila Jr., who purchased guns illegally as part of a government sting operation, has been sentenced to 57 months in prison. That prompts a meditation on Operation Fast and Furious and the federal bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. Fast and Furious began with the belief of U.S. President Barack Obama and Felipe…
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The federal National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) seeks new regulations requiring all automobile manufacturers to include “black box” data recorders in all new cars and light trucks. Federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the regulations will “make our vehicles and our roadways even safer,” but that may well be doubted. The data recorders do…
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The Pentagon plans to add the Defense Clandestine Service to the nation’s Intelligence Community (IC). This is being billed as an advance in national security but it shapes up as a costly bureaucratic turf war that could leave the nation less secure. The current IC boasts 17 member agencies: Air Force Intelligence Army Intelligence…
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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is allowing the lease of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company to expire. This will eliminate an oyster farm from the Point Reyes National Seashore and supposedly create a pristine marine wilderness. The Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation, the National Parks Conservation Association, and California Senator Barbara Boxer applauded Salazar’s…
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The election is over and as the nation advances toward the “fiscal cliff” many assume that the mortgage and financial crises are over. Some review is clearly in order. In September 2008 the federal government took over the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. During the 2012 election campaign, the U.S. Treasury Department…
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