Perry hailed his state's “employer-friendly combination of low taxes, fair courts, smart regulations and world-class workforce.” That translates for some into fewer government services, corporate-friendly courts, little oversight of corporate behavior and a cheap, intimidated workforce. One could also add a lot lower workmen's compensation fees and lower insurance costs (and payouts). “Low taxes” includes no income taxes.   read more

Experimental freeway toll lanes in Los Angeles, known as “Lexus lanes” in some circles, aren't speeding traffic up for very many drivers and are slowing down others, but generating millions of dollars in revenue. That was good enough for the county's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) board of directors to declare the one-year pilot program a success last week and give their unanimous blessing to an extension beyond the scheduled January 1, 2015, expiration.   read more

An estimated 1.6 million Americans were victimized in 2012 and around 60% of thefts in San Francisco and 75% in Oakland involved mobile devices. S.F. District Attorney George Gascón told the San Francisco Chronicle, “With their no vote, 17 members of the Senate chose to protect billion dollar industry profits over the safety of the constituents they were elected to serve.”   read more

Dr. Robert Pedowitz came to UCLA to head its orthopedic surgery department in 2009, stepped down as chair in 2010 after complaining about conflicts of interest and industry payments to its doctors, resigned in 2011, filed a whistleblower-retaliation lawsuit against the school in 2012 and settled for $10 million on Tuesday. The school admitted no wrong.   read more

Venture capitalists poured money into California startup companies in the first quarter of 2014 at a rate not seen since the dot-com burst in 2001 that ended moments later in bust. Eight of the Top 10 recipients of investor largesse are based in California. Of course, there are bubbles and there are BUBBLES. Even if venture capitalists keep up the first-quarter pace for a year, they won't have invested half of the $100 million poured into startups in 2000.   read more

A few refineries are experiencing problems after making the annual switch to spring fuels. The price of ethanol, a component of California gas, is soaring on the heels of failed Midwest corn crops. Turmoil in the Ukraine has oil companies nervous and Tuesday’s “blood moon” has made everyone insane. One of those explanations is more ludicrous than the others, but all are suspected of being somewhat short of truthful by cynics who have watched the oil industry whipsaw California for decades.   read more

An Arizona-based political organization funded almost entirely by the conservative Koch brothers—and that was fined for laundering political contributions in California—was awarded tax-exempt status by the IRS despite the agency knowing this. “Social welfare” groups are not eligible for tax exemption if they spend the majority of their money on politics. But Americans for Responsible Leadership, which had received 98% of its money from a Koch group, received that status from the IRS.   read more

The report by USPIRG's Education Fund found that states in general “are making progress toward comprehensive, one-stop, one-click transparency and accountability for government state spending.” But that assessment does not include California. California residents have no way to search contracts and expenditures by recipient, keyword or agency. And there is no web-based data on economic development, including public benefits, tax-expenditure reports and recouped funds.   read more

Even before the State Controller’s Office began auditing the small city of Cudahy in southeastern Los Angeles County, it was apparent he wasn’t going to like what he found. And he didn’t. Cudahy tied with the City of Industry for last place in the 2012-13 Los Angeles County Grand Jury study ranking the existence of internal financial controls in its 88 cities. Two city councilmembers and a former city manager pleaded guilty to bribery and extortion in 2012.   read more

The $204-million-dollar figure is actually the report's conservative estimate on how much the city pays annually on a plethora of fees. The authors had to root around in city documents for the unpublicized information it cobbled together but suspect there is much more to be learned. “Alarmingly, we have concluded that the fees we were not able to document may exceed those we could document,” they wrote.   read more

880,000 Medicare healthcare providers divvied up $77 billion in 2012. The top 2% collected almost 25%. That included a Berkeley doctor who allegedly met her customers at restaurants in and around Oakland—including Burger King, House of Chicken and Waffles and Starbucks—to prescribe prescription drugs, including oxycodone. The indictment said Dr. Toni Daniels picked up $64,000 that way between October 2010 and April 2011 and failed to file with the IRS after earning $144,000 in 2010.   read more

Supporters of the effort to keep the Oakland football team happy and the baseball team from bolting to San Jose fear the cause may have suffered a major setback. “You just don't throw the crown prince's name out there and say he's in a deal when he's not,” Councilman Larry Reid, who sits on the coliseum's oversight board, told the Oakland Tribune.   read more

When last heard from back in January, the Los Angeles 2020 Commission was reporting on the problems faced by the city and the steady decline that was sure to continue if nothing was done to address them, but offered no solutions. The commission's new report, “A Time for Action,” does, sort of. Education, homelessness and transportation are beyond the scope of this report, although, the report concedes, “education is the civil rights issue of our time.”   read more

It's a good thing Samuel In worked for the city and not the state. California revised the legal code in 2013 to eliminate any exceptions to the law that denied pensions to public employees or officials who commit felonies. Los Angeles, a charter city that manages its own pensions, is not bound by that state law and is more lenient. The pension isn't the only benefit In will keep. He is eligible for a healthcare subsidy of $1,459 a month.   read more

Big Oil Floods the Capitol:How California’ s Oil Companies Funnel Funds Into the Legislature, a report released this month by Common Cause and the ACCE Institute, says that the oil and gas lobby has spent nearly $15 million to influence Sacramento lawmakers halfway through the 2014-15 legislative session. The record is $25.5 million, set in 2011-12. Oil and gas lobbying expenditures have increased 400% since 1999-2000.   read more

A state labor board decision that seven short-haul truck drivers are entitled to $2.2 million because they were improperly classified as contractors was the latest in a string of victories by workers locked in years-long disputes over their status. Labor groups say 49,000 port truck drivers are misclassified nationwide.   read more