State Senator Marty Block, San Diego Democrat, decided not to seek a second term, but as the ever-vigilant Dan Walters notes in the Sacramento Bee, on December 5, just in time for the holidays, Block “got a lucrative consolation prize from Gov. Jerry Brown – a $146,609 per year appointment to the state Unemployment…
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Sanctuary cities decline to enforce U.S. immigration laws and comply with federal customs and immigration enforcement. President-elect Donald Trump’s crusade against sanctuary cities is supposed to be a blow against criminals, but as Chriss W. Street of Breitbart shows, California could suffer serious consequences. There are some 300 sanctuary cities and counties nationwide and…
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The U.S. economy may be sluggish, but as we noted, bureaucracy is booming. University of California bosses cry out for more taxpayer cash even as they bulk up on “diversity” bureaucrats. Universities nationwide are now cranking out administrators to fill these useless posts, but diversity bloat is hardly confined to education. For example, new…
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Politicians pitched it as a magic carpet that would speed riders from Los Angeles to San Francisco in record time, with complete safety and total comfort. According to promoters California’s high-speed rail project, also known as the bullet train, would also clear up the state’s crowded highways and of course protect the environment and…
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November 5 marked 20 years since Californians rejected race, ethnic and gender preferences through Proposition 209. As we noted, a major purveyor of state-sponsored discrimination was the University of California, which during tough financial times has been bulking up on vice-chancellors for equity, diversity and inclusion and such. As Stephanie Keaveney of the John…
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As we noted, Emily Bazar of the Center for Health Reporting did a fine job outlining how Covered California, a wholly owned subsidiary of Obamacare, was responsible for “countless glitches and widespread consumer misery.” The $454 million Covered California computer system, for example, proved dysfunctional and insecure. Covered California bosses blamed it for canceling…
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“There is no native criminal class except Congress,” said Mark Twain. A look at California might change his mind. As Taryn Luna notes in the Sacramento Bee, the state political ethics watchdog wants a $57,000 fine against state Senator Tony Mendoza, who allegedly “broke campaign-finance laws to keep money out of the hands of…
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In the presidential debate last week, Republican Donald Trump attacked China’s trade policies and Democrat Hillary Clinton charged that Trump used “Chinese steel” in his own projects. As it happens, the most eager American user of Chinese steel is the government of California, on the new span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Back…
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K-12 education gets the lion’s share of California’s budget, largely due to Proposition 98 (1988) author John Mockler, a lobbyist who became a millionaire working both sides of the table. In government monopoly education, the money goes directly to bureaucracies, the state department of education, the county offices of education, and local school districts….
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As David Jensen explains in the Sacramento Bee, California’s government stem cell agency, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is spending another $30 million “to dramatically speed approval of stem cell therapies and establish the Golden State globally in the much-heralded regenerative medicine field.” Down lower in the piece, in paragraph six, readers…
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