By Steven Greenhut. California’s two major pension funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), control more than $500 billion in total assets, making them two of Wall Street’s most influential investors. They ...
Author Cal Watchdog
By Avery Bissett. Citing an increase in violent crime rates, a coalition of law enforcement and victim’s rights groups announced last week a proposed ballot initiative that would partly roll back recent criminal justice reforms. Calling itself the California Public ...
By Steven Greenhut. To deal with federal court orders demanding a reduction in prison populations, California officials – and state voters, via initiative – passed a series of sentencing reformsover the past seven years that have reduced overcrowding from 181 percent ...
By Steven Greenhut. If the past is any guide, California’s Legislature will declare its recently passed housing-affordability package a success and move on to the many other priorities that dominate Capitol discussions once lawmakers return in January. But the housing package – ...
By Chris Reed. Gov. Jerry Brown’s signing of three billsrelating to rape kits – the physical evidence gathered from individuals in lengthy examinations after reports of sexual – was hailed by women’s rights groups as a major step forward in bringing justice to ...
By Chris Reed. The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s rough year continues with the departure of another top executive at the agency overseeing the state’s $64 billion bullet-train project. Jon Tapping, the agency’s director of risk management since 2012, is leaving, ...
By Chris Reed. The deadly and massively destructive wildfires now in their second week of ravaging Northern California’s wine country are likely to have lengthy negative effects on the region’s economy. But it could also exacerbate perhaps its most pressing ...
By Chris Reed. The underfunded California Public Employees’ Retirement System faces daunting challenges in coming years, with local governments increasingly vocal about not being able to afford the ever-growing cost of their CalPERS-managed pension programs, as CalWatchdogreported July 20. The nation’s ...
By Chris Reed. Reporting from across California indicates that more college students are homeless than at any point in state history. While hard statistics are in short supply, surveys suggest the problem is so severe that the Golden State has ...
By Steven Greenhut. Does California have a voter turnout problem? The state’s voter-turnout rates hit the skids in the 2014 election cycles, with only 25 percent of registered voters casting a ballot in the June primary and only 42 percent voting in the ...
