Business & Economics
Business & Economics
California’s sprawling welfare system carded, but not reformed
Last year, a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that California welfare “clients” were using their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards to spend millions at casinos and on cruise ships to hardship destinations such as Rio de Janeiro. Californians will be interested to know what the state did to counter this ...
Ali Meyer
August 7, 2011
Business & Economics
Left Wins Redistricting
As someone who chronicles the political goings-on in California, I rarely offer encouraging news for those who believe in the principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility and individual freedom. Nevertheless, readers frequently implore me to offer some good news. The truth isn’t enough. These folks want to read something positive. ...
Steven Greenhut
August 5, 2011
Business & Economics
California Welfare Gets Carded but Not Reformed
Last year a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that California welfare “clients” were using their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards to spend millions at Las Vegas casinos and on cruise ships to hardship destinations such as Rio de Janeiro. Working Californians will be interested to know what the state did ...
Ali Meyer
August 3, 2011
Business & Economics
Why Washington is America’s bubble city
Like many national capitals, Washington, D.C., is often accused of being insulated from the economic realities of the rest of the country. In colloquial terms, it is frequently referred to as a bubble city. If Washington is indeed sheltered from the discipline and competition that pervades the rest of the ...
Michael Noffsinger
August 2, 2011
Business & Economics
Court pick echoes Jerry Brown’s worldview
Gov. Jerry Browns decision to nominate Berkeley Law Professor Goodwin Liu to Californias Supreme Court is a highly partisan poke in the eye at Republicans, given that GOP congressional criticisms led Liu, in May, to withdraw his name from contention for a slot on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. ...
Steven Greenhut
July 31, 2011
Business & Economics
Jerry Brown picks his kind of judge
Gov. Jerry Brown’s decision to nominate UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the California Supreme Court is a highly partisan poke in the eye at Republicans, given that GOP congressional criticisms led Liu, in May, to withdraw his name from contention for a slot on the 9th U.S. Circuit ...
Steven Greenhut
July 29, 2011
Business & Economics
California Dreaming: Money for Nothing in the Golden State
California, a left-coast state, shows its isolation from common sense in many ways, including the latest developments at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state’s taxpayer-funded institute for stem cell research. Created by Proposition 71 in 2004, CIRM is spending $3 billion in bond money on the embryonic ...
K. Lloyd Billingsley
July 27, 2011
Business & Economics
Give A Convict A Job
Never has it been more evident that California is in a downward spiral on the verge of economic, social and political collapse San Francisco is now pushing to make convicted criminals a protected class so that prospective employers cannot inquire about criminal records. An already precarious business climate in ...
Katy Grimes
July 25, 2011
Business & Economics
Making public pay for budget cuts
Sacramento – Last year, one of my reporters and her adult son were walking in downtown Sacramento when a couple of young toughs tried grabbing her purse. She pulled back her purse, and the robbers lunged at the two of them, leaving the son’s face covered in blood. Despite a ...
Steven Greenhut
July 22, 2011
Business & Economics
The Alameda incident: ‘First responders’ who don’t
On Memorial Day, a suicidal man waded into San Francisco Bay outside the city of Alameda and stood there for about an hour, neck deep in chilly water, as about 75 bystanders watched. Local police and firefighters were dispatched to the scene after the man’s desperate mother called 911, but ...
Steven Greenhut
July 20, 2011
California’s sprawling welfare system carded, but not reformed
Last year, a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that California welfare “clients” were using their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards to spend millions at casinos and on cruise ships to hardship destinations such as Rio de Janeiro. Californians will be interested to know what the state did to counter this ...
Left Wins Redistricting
As someone who chronicles the political goings-on in California, I rarely offer encouraging news for those who believe in the principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility and individual freedom. Nevertheless, readers frequently implore me to offer some good news. The truth isn’t enough. These folks want to read something positive. ...
California Welfare Gets Carded but Not Reformed
Last year a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that California welfare “clients” were using their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards to spend millions at Las Vegas casinos and on cruise ships to hardship destinations such as Rio de Janeiro. Working Californians will be interested to know what the state did ...
Why Washington is America’s bubble city
Like many national capitals, Washington, D.C., is often accused of being insulated from the economic realities of the rest of the country. In colloquial terms, it is frequently referred to as a bubble city. If Washington is indeed sheltered from the discipline and competition that pervades the rest of the ...
Court pick echoes Jerry Brown’s worldview
Gov. Jerry Browns decision to nominate Berkeley Law Professor Goodwin Liu to Californias Supreme Court is a highly partisan poke in the eye at Republicans, given that GOP congressional criticisms led Liu, in May, to withdraw his name from contention for a slot on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. ...
Jerry Brown picks his kind of judge
Gov. Jerry Brown’s decision to nominate UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the California Supreme Court is a highly partisan poke in the eye at Republicans, given that GOP congressional criticisms led Liu, in May, to withdraw his name from contention for a slot on the 9th U.S. Circuit ...
California Dreaming: Money for Nothing in the Golden State
California, a left-coast state, shows its isolation from common sense in many ways, including the latest developments at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state’s taxpayer-funded institute for stem cell research. Created by Proposition 71 in 2004, CIRM is spending $3 billion in bond money on the embryonic ...
Give A Convict A Job
Never has it been more evident that California is in a downward spiral on the verge of economic, social and political collapse San Francisco is now pushing to make convicted criminals a protected class so that prospective employers cannot inquire about criminal records. An already precarious business climate in ...
Making public pay for budget cuts
Sacramento – Last year, one of my reporters and her adult son were walking in downtown Sacramento when a couple of young toughs tried grabbing her purse. She pulled back her purse, and the robbers lunged at the two of them, leaving the son’s face covered in blood. Despite a ...
The Alameda incident: ‘First responders’ who don’t
On Memorial Day, a suicidal man waded into San Francisco Bay outside the city of Alameda and stood there for about an hour, neck deep in chilly water, as about 75 bystanders watched. Local police and firefighters were dispatched to the scene after the man’s desperate mother called 911, but ...