JAN. 11, 2012 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Call it pension “entrap and raid” --  instead of environmental “cap and trade.” Gov. Jerry Brown is floating an idea to divert $1 billion from the auction of pollution credits under California’s Cap and Trade Program to plug a $9 billion gap in the...

JAN. 11, 2012 By KATY GRIMES Each year, thousands of California state employees do the right thing by exposing government waste and fraud. But not in the state Capitol in Sacramento, according to Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena. At an Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing Tues...

JAN. 10, 2012 By KATY GRIMES Anyone who tries to change the sacred texts of the California Environmental Equality Act will find out just how sacred they are and lose.  Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, found that out Monday. CEQA provides a process for evaluating the environm...

JAN. 9, 2011 By JOHN SEILER Californians won't have to wait for tax increases, such as the several that could be put before voters in the November election. One proposal is Gov. Jerry Brown's $7 billion tax increase. Tax increases already are hitting the state because of inflation, which i...