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Governor drops 'bomb' on Delta |
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Posted by: mturnipseed on 11/05/2009 04:45 PM
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News
Governor drops 'bomb' on Delta
He angers local officials by declaring state clear to build peripheral canal
By Alex Breitler
November 05, 2009
Stockton Record Staff Writer
STOCKTON - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to plug electric vehicles at a new manufacturing plant, but in the process he stunned local officials by saying that a water agreement by legislators early Wednesday will allow the state to "fix the Delta and to build a canal around the Delta."
It's well-known that Schwarzenegger supports a peripheral canal, but Wednesday's comment - one of his most direct endorsements to date - stung in Stockton, the heart of anti-canal country. |
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DWP outmaneuvered on Kern County land purchase |
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Posted by: mturnipseed on 09/15/2009 07:35 PM
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wind15-2009sep15,0,839175.story
DWP outmaneuvered on Kern County land purchase
A business venture led by a friend and advisor to L.A.'s mayor beat the DWP to Onyx Ranch, a 68,000-acre parcel east of Bakersfield that the utility wanted for a wind farm.
By David Zahniser
September 15, 2009
A business venture led by a friend and advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa outmaneuvered the city last year to buy land in Kern County that the Department of Water and Power wanted for a wind farm.
The purchase of Onyx Ranch, which covers nearly 68,000 acres east of Bakersfield, highlights the dual roles played by J. Ari Swiller, an entrepreneur whose field, renewable energy, has received a significant boost from the mayor's pledge to make Los Angeles "the greenest big city in America." |
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California tax panel set to recommend sweeping, controversial changes |
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Posted by: mturnipseed on 09/15/2009 07:31 PM
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California
California tax panel set to recommend sweeping, controversial changes
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published Tuesday, Sep. 15, 2009
A state tax panel plans to recommend this week that California reduce the income tax, eliminate the state sales tax and install a new form of value-added tax on businesses, but it remains uncertain how many commissioners will support the plan and how far it will go in the Legislature.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders had lofty hopes for the tax panel when they launched it in December. They formally called it the Commission on the 21st Century Economy, envisioning the panel would re-engineer the tax structure to generate money as the state has moved to a service-based economy. |
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CalPERS actuary: pension costs unsustainable |
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Posted by: mturnipseed on 08/13/2009 11:09 AM
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CalPERS actuary: pension costs unsustainable
By Ed Mendel
The CalPERS chief actuary says pension costs are “unsustainable,” and the giant public employee pension system plans to meet with stakeholders to discuss the issue.
So, are the critics right: Do overly generous pensions threaten to eat up too much of state and local government budgets?
An historic stock market crash wiped out a quarter of the CalPERS investment fund last fiscal year. Some experts are forecasting limited investment earnings in the years ahead, making it difficult to replace the losses.
Now “sustainability,” a term used in environmental discussions, has become a common label for a big question about public employee pensions: Will the current level of benefits be affordable in the future?
.The question of pension sustainability emerged as a hot topic during a seminar in Sacramento last week sponsored by the Public Retirement Journal. |
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Critics target recipients of six-figure public pensions |
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Posted by: mturnipseed on 07/12/2009 04:30 PM
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From the Los Angeles Times
Critics target recipients of six-figure public pensions
Organization posts the names and incomes of 5,100 retirees in California who receive annual pensions of $100,000 or more. A judge denied pensioners' request to block publication of such information.
By Patrick McGreevy
July 12, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — Some Californians, angry that taxes have just gone up, IOUs are being issued and the state may be on its way over a cliff, find few things more infuriating than a big benefits package enjoyed by a government worker.
So some of the 5,100 state and local government retirees who draw more than $100,000 annually are trying to lie low, preferring that the details of their receipts be kept private. And they have asked the courts for help. |
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Losses of factory jobs in California blamed on regulation |
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Posted by: mturnipseed on 06/23/2009 09:56 AM
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From the Los Angeles Times | MANUFACTURING
Losses of factory jobs in California blamed on regulation
A report to be issued today by the Milken Institute attributes the departure of 79,000 manufacturing jobs between 2003 and 2007 to onerous regulations and high taxes.
By Alana Semuels
June 23, 2009
The El Monte factory stopped operating just a few weeks ago, but already it feels abandoned, an appropriate setting for a "Terminator" movie.
The dusty clock on the wall is frozen at 7:00. Below it, the deep pits that once held molten steel are now empty, and the parts created there wait in hundreds of boxes to be shipped off across the country or turned into scrap.
Two months ago, more than 300 people were employed at the site making engine parts for trucks and heavy machinery for Gregg Industries, which is owned by Neenah Enterprises Inc. in Wisconsin. |
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Threat of layoffs puts public employee unions on the spot |
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Posted by: mturnipseed on 06/07/2009 07:48 PM
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from the Sacramento Bee | Capitol and California - State Politics
Threat of layoffs puts public employee unions on the spot
By Jon Ortiz, jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Jun. 7, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
An economic slide that started nearly two years ago in the private sector has rippled through government and is now shaking up public employee unions.
Faced with mounting costs and shrinking revenues, cities and counties from Sacramento to Los Angeles are curbing employee benefits, scaling back pay and cutting jobs.
California's finances are so dismal that the Democratic-controlled Legislature recently went along with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to enact fundamental changes to state worker overtime and holiday pay rules. |
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3 R's, no games, rigid standards |
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Posted by: mturnipseed on 06/04/2009 07:42 PM
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From the Los Angeles Times
Spitting in the eye of mainstream education
Three no-frills charter schools in Oakland mock liberal orthodoxy, teach strictly to the test -- and produce some of the state's top scores.
By Mitchell Landsberg | May 31, 2009
Reporting from Oakland — Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this: "We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multicultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply."
That, it turns out, is just the beginning of the ways in which American Indian Public Charter and its two sibling schools spit in the eye of mainstream education. These small, no-frills, independent public schools in the hardscrabble flats of Oakland sometimes seem like creations of television's "Colbert Report." They mock liberal orthodoxy with such zeal that it can seem like a parody.
School administrators take pride in their record of frequently firing teachers they consider to be underperforming. Unions are embraced with the same warmth accorded "self-esteem experts, panhandlers, drug dealers and those snapping turtles who refuse to put forth their best effort," to quote the school's website. |
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Stimulus likely won't avoid extra tax hike |
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Posted by: mturnipseed on 03/05/2009 10:37 AM
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From the Sacramento Bee | Capitol and California
Stimulus likely won't avoid extra tax hike
By Kevin Yamamura
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Mar. 5, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance estimated Wednesday that California will not receive enough federal stimulus money to avoid higher personal income taxes and deeper cuts in social services.
Officials said California will fall $2 billion short of the $10 billion threshold the state must receive to eliminate $1.8 billion in additional income tax increases and $948 million in further spending cuts negotiated as part of the budget deal Schwarzenegger signed Feb. 20. |
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California has enough pork to be in hog heaven |
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Posted by: mturnipseed on 03/05/2009 10:35 AM
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From the Los Angeles Times
California has enough pork to be in hog heaven
Even Republican lawmakers have pet projects in the massive spending bill before Congress, though most voted against it.
By Richard Simon
March 5, 2009
Reporting from Washington — A massive spending bill expected to be approved by Congress this week is filled with more than 8,500 earmarks -- those pet projects that lawmakers love -- costing $7.7 billion.
Despite the tough economy, mounting federal budget deficit and pledges by President Obama and members of both parties to crack down on the practice, a number of lawmakers have defended their earmarks as important to the nation's economic recovery.
And there's plenty in the bill for California: a DNA lab in Glendale, a new air traffic control tower for Palm Springs, police surveillance cameras for Rialto, a "green" jobs program in Berkeley and funding to help pay for new display space at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles. |
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