Steven Greenhut
California
Pension Wars Will Be Fought At City Hall
Breathe a deep sigh of relief now that state legislators have headed home. As Judge Gideon Tucker (and also attributed to Mark Twain) exclaimed, “No man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” You are safer now than you were a little over a week ...
California
The Conventional Jerry Brown
Common wisdom, embraced by many on the left and on the right, holds that California governor Jerry Brown is a most unconventional politician. Brown’s otherworldly attitude, quick wit, and unpredictable utterances have served him well throughout his long political career. Political observers in Sacramento are still trying to figure him ...
Business & Economics
Your Government Still the Main Threat to Your Freedoms
In my years writing for newspapers, I’ve always hated the commemoration ritual. What new insight can we offer about Thanksgiving? What words can still capture the essence of D-Day? And, this weekend, what can we really say that ameliorates the horror of 9/11? Mainly, I hate how commemorations, and national ...
California
Pay cut story highlights pension absurdities
Fresno schools Superintendent Larry Powell has been getting the hero treatment in the national media for his reportedly selfless decision to give up his annual salary/benefits of $290,000 a year and instead take $31,000 in salary only. He’s doing it for the kids, he said, to save the district significant ...
Business & Economics
Pension plan embraces absurd double standard
When the taxpayer is backing up the entire liability for the massive pensions received by public employees who are part of the California Public Employees Retirement System, then CalPERS officials are exuberant about the stock market. They insist that a predicted rate of return of 7.75 percent is perfectly realistic. ...
Business & Economics
Pension funds should get real on rate of returns
When the taxpayer is backing up the entire liability for the pensions received by members of the California Public Employees Retirement System, then CalPERS officials are exuberant about the stock market. They insist that a predicted rate of return of 7.75 percent is perfectly realistic. When their own funds are ...
Agriculture
Villaraigosa wants more of what doesn’t work
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s speech Tuesday at the Sacramento Press Club left many reporters wondering what the mayor is doing and what he is running for next. It seems odd for an L.A. mayor to fly to Sacramento, give a speech detailing a so-called “grand new vision” even as ...
Business & Economics
Police beating sparks needed national debate
The latest cheesy TV cop series, “Against The Wall,” is about a Chicago woman from a family of police officers who becomes a detective in the department’s internal-affairs unit. This causes outrage among her police brothers and dad, who view internal oversight work as treasonous. The trailer is filled with ...
California
State Legislature fights evil unfitted sheets
The Legislative Goofball of The Session Award goes to Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, for Senate Bill 432, which mandates that hotels use fitted sheets rather than unfitted sheets on mattresses. Other legislators have promoted more damaging and far-reaching bills, but de León’s ban on unfitted sheets and mandates ...
Business & Economics
Removing Politics from Politics
An investigation last month by CalWatchDog.com, which I edit, revealed that at least one of the 14 commissioners in charge of drawing new district lines for California’s elected representatives had made multiple political campaign contributions to Democratic candidates—contributions that were previously undisclosed to the California Citizens Redistricting Commission. The commissioner, ...
Pension Wars Will Be Fought At City Hall
Breathe a deep sigh of relief now that state legislators have headed home. As Judge Gideon Tucker (and also attributed to Mark Twain) exclaimed, “No man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” You are safer now than you were a little over a week ...
The Conventional Jerry Brown
Common wisdom, embraced by many on the left and on the right, holds that California governor Jerry Brown is a most unconventional politician. Brown’s otherworldly attitude, quick wit, and unpredictable utterances have served him well throughout his long political career. Political observers in Sacramento are still trying to figure him ...
Your Government Still the Main Threat to Your Freedoms
In my years writing for newspapers, I’ve always hated the commemoration ritual. What new insight can we offer about Thanksgiving? What words can still capture the essence of D-Day? And, this weekend, what can we really say that ameliorates the horror of 9/11? Mainly, I hate how commemorations, and national ...
Pay cut story highlights pension absurdities
Fresno schools Superintendent Larry Powell has been getting the hero treatment in the national media for his reportedly selfless decision to give up his annual salary/benefits of $290,000 a year and instead take $31,000 in salary only. He’s doing it for the kids, he said, to save the district significant ...
Pension plan embraces absurd double standard
When the taxpayer is backing up the entire liability for the massive pensions received by public employees who are part of the California Public Employees Retirement System, then CalPERS officials are exuberant about the stock market. They insist that a predicted rate of return of 7.75 percent is perfectly realistic. ...
Pension funds should get real on rate of returns
When the taxpayer is backing up the entire liability for the pensions received by members of the California Public Employees Retirement System, then CalPERS officials are exuberant about the stock market. They insist that a predicted rate of return of 7.75 percent is perfectly realistic. When their own funds are ...
Villaraigosa wants more of what doesn’t work
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s speech Tuesday at the Sacramento Press Club left many reporters wondering what the mayor is doing and what he is running for next. It seems odd for an L.A. mayor to fly to Sacramento, give a speech detailing a so-called “grand new vision” even as ...
Police beating sparks needed national debate
The latest cheesy TV cop series, “Against The Wall,” is about a Chicago woman from a family of police officers who becomes a detective in the department’s internal-affairs unit. This causes outrage among her police brothers and dad, who view internal oversight work as treasonous. The trailer is filled with ...
State Legislature fights evil unfitted sheets
The Legislative Goofball of The Session Award goes to Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, for Senate Bill 432, which mandates that hotels use fitted sheets rather than unfitted sheets on mattresses. Other legislators have promoted more damaging and far-reaching bills, but de León’s ban on unfitted sheets and mandates ...
Removing Politics from Politics
An investigation last month by CalWatchDog.com, which I edit, revealed that at least one of the 14 commissioners in charge of drawing new district lines for California’s elected representatives had made multiple political campaign contributions to Democratic candidates—contributions that were previously undisclosed to the California Citizens Redistricting Commission. The commissioner, ...
