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CalSTRS Unfunded Liability Hits New High
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System just announced it faces $73.7 billion in long-term liabilities. Left untouched, that would spell bankruptcy in 2043. For critics of California’s public-employee pensions programs, the grim numbers heighten the urgency for reform. If CalSTRS wants to address its shortfall, it has to get legislative approval. CalSTRS is the product of a contract with the state […]
Initiative Would Revive Redevelopment Agencies
If it were a movie, it might be called “Revenge of the JEDI: the Redevelopment Empire Strikes Back.” It’s the California Jobs and Education Development Initiative (JEDI), which would enable the revival of the 425 redevelopment agencies eliminated in 2011 by Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Legislature. The initiative liberalizes the definition of “blight” to include areas where the unemployment rate exceeds […]
Ling-Ling Chang’s Curious Foreign Imports Campaign Funding
Questions about Ling-Ling Chang receiving political contributions influenced by people and businesses with foreign connections are growing after recent campaign disclosures. Though for years she claimed she was “born and raised in Diamond Bar” on websites and to the news media, 55th Assembly District candidate Ling-Ling Chang, a Republican, was actually born in Taipei, Taiwan. […]
Job Killer Scorecard
The California Chamber of Commerce issued its annual list of job killer bills as the organization hopes to keep up a remarkable record of success in defeating bills harmful to jobs and the economy. Given a reputation that the state is a bad place to do business – a reputation that California legislators and the governor say […]
Just 7 Weeks to Go
It’s election season and we are hearing a lot of happy talk from the Sacramento politicians. After all, they want to be reelected so they are painting a rosy picture of their stewardship of our state. But happy is not a word that describes the outlook of millions of Californians who continue to be burdened […]
CPR Blog
Mercy and Liberty
March is Women’s History Month. But virtually ignored is one woman who played a central role in American history—Mercy Otis Warren—who died 200 years ago this October. Termed “The Conscience of the American Revolution” and called a genius by Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, Mercy Warren was a leading force behind our freedom. Sister of […]
Some Old Wisdom on Politics
America’s so-called public servants have supported ethically questionable policies, picked our pockets and eroded our rights. Yet they simply pretend that fact away, tar opponents for everything and pitch themselves as America’s unifiers. That is breathtakingly mendacious. In sharp contrast to their rhetoric, the competition to control government to help friends out of others’ pockets […]
Combining Constitutional Distortion and Extortion
If you were allowed to use four steps of your choice, valid or not, in a logical argument, you could reach any conclusion you liked. That is why the recent boom in First Amendment litigation is so unbelievably far from the Establishment Clause. It is certainly hard to find any other explanation for how “Congress […]
Publisher’s Corner
Pinole can’t stop taxing and the rest of California needs to watch
Pinole is a small city near the Carquinez Strait that leads to the Sacramento River and our state capitol. The Point Pinole Regional Shoreline has some terrific view points. But lately what Pinole is becoming known for is its chronically out-of-balance city budget and its’ taxes, taxes, and more taxes. The reason for the deficit […]
Cali-Culture
The California Chardonnay Paradox
Is drinking Chardonnay a thing of the past? That is what I used to think. As a red wine drinker, enamored with the best that France has to offer, I rarely drank or even thought about California white wines or white wines in general (other than Burgundy’s Le Montrachet). The idea of opening up a California […]
Trending News
Drought Responses Split California
From The Sacramento Bee: Californians agree their state is parched, but they diverge by region on how supplies dried up and what should be done about the drought. “There’s clearly a consensus that the state has a serious water shortage,” Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said of a survey on the subject released Tuesday. “There, however, […]
Republican National Committee Sues the IRS
From The Daily Caller: The Republican National Committee is suing the Internal Revenue Service. The RNC filed its lawsuit against the nation’s tax collecting body for withholding records the committee sought in a May 2013 Freedom of Information Act request Tuesday, Tax Day. (Read Full Article)
‘Money just simply corrupts,’ Yee said weeks before arrest
From The Sacramento Bee: In the weeks since the arrest of Sen. Leland Yee, two hard-to-reconcile versions of the San Francisco Democrat have emerged: Transparency advocate running for secretary of state vs. the man who, according to an FBI affidavit, accepted campaign money in exchange for favors and a promise to set up an illegal […]
Immigration is Making the US Blue
From The Daily Caller: Large-scale immigration is coloring the United States of American a deep shape of Democratic blue, according to a new report about the impact of immigration on elections. “Each one percentage-point increase in the immigrant share of a large county’s population reduces the Republican share of the two-party vote by nearly 0.6 percentage points […]
Obamacare Not Bringing New Patients to CA Clinics
From The Daily Caller: An expected rush of new patients to California’s low-income health clinics hasn’t materialized in the wake of Obamacare, according to the California Health Report. California has the largest share of health exchange enrollments of any state, with 1.2 million people having selected plans on the state Obamacare marketplace by March 31. Open enrollment in California […]
