Investigation-July, 2010State gags rail contractorsThursday, July 29th, 2010 JULY 29, 2010 By ANTHONY PIGNATARO All contractors hired by the California High-Speed Rail Authority to prepare environmental reports on the project are contractually prohibited from discussing their agreements with the media, a CalWatchdog examination of the authority’s current contract... Admin costs crowd out teachingMonday, July 26th, 2010 JULY 26, 2010 By JOHN SEILER A revealing new study shows that in recent years increases in the administrative costs of California's K-12 schools have squeezed salaries for teachers. It shines a powerful searchlight on exactly what goes on in the dark corners of school budgets. The study... Do tax hikes fix budgets?Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 JULY 21, 2010 By JOHN SEILER The U.S. and California economies continue to struggle to push up from the Great Recession. Even as revenues at all levels of government have been hit hard, businesses and citizens complain that, even if they have jobs, they’re finding it hard to make ends me... ARB throws couple in jailThursday, July 15th, 2010 JULY 15, 2010 By ANTHONY PIGNATARO For Kening Ma of Ontario, bail was set at $150 million. His wife Shirley Ji got a slightly better deal – a mere $75 million. These are, to say the least, extraordinary figures. The previous highest bail on record appears to be the $100 million set in the ... ‘Ghosts’ haunt Brown?Thursday, July 8th, 2010 JULY 8, 2010 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Will a set of Green Power plants in northern California planned in the 1970s under former California Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown’s administration and shut down in 1990 because they were running in the red come back to haunt third-time gubernatorial... Mulling a majority-vote budgetTuesday, July 6th, 2010 JULY 6, 2010 By JOHN SEILER With yet another state budget not passed by the July 1 beginning of the fiscal year, Democrats and their union allies are putting the blame on California's two-thirds supermajority rule for passing a budget in the Legislature. As commonly happens in recent years... |