May 4, 2012, 12:05 AM
The Legislative Analyst's Office is urging lawmakers to continue an overhaul of the state's accounting systems despite ballooning costs that have plagued the effort. Called the Financial Information System for California, or FI$Cal, the project seeks to build a single statewide system...
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April 27, 2012, 12:05 AM
Serious safety violations at power plants go uncorrected because regulators have never used their formal enforcement powers, the California Public Utilities Commission stated in a budget request being considered by legislators. Profit-driven power plant operators need prodding to correct...
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April 19, 2012, 12:05 AM
In the flurry surrounding the end of redevelopment, 60 state Department of Finance officials are scouring local redevelopment budgets to determine whether their claims about existing debts and obligations are legal. Cities and other local entities that are overseeing the shutdown of...
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April 17, 2012, 12:05 AM
The fee to become a credentialed teacher would increase 27 percent under budget recommendations by Gov. Jerry Brown and the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. The state Commission on Teacher Credentialing faces a $5 million deficit in the upcoming fiscal year. Credential...
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April 3, 2012, 12:05 AM
The California High-Speed Rail Authority unveiled a new business plan yesterday slashing $30 billion from the price tag for connecting Anaheim and San Francisco. And retreating from a series of political missteps, the authority also vowed to connect its initial segment between Bakersfield and...
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March 20, 2012, 6:31 PM
The state will not appeal a court ruling that rejected its attempt to divert $1 billion from First 5 commissions, California Watch has learned. The state informed First 5 commissions of its decision Monday, the deadline for appeal. Its decision ends a yearlong budget battle and frees up...
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March 13, 2012, 12:05 AM
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote as early as today on continuing a decade-old program that compensates rural counties and schools for declining timber revenue. The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act has been a safety net for more than 700 counties nationwide that have...
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March 8, 2012, 12:05 AM
In the confusion following the end of California redevelopment agencies in February, an estimated $2 billion in the hands of local officials is in limbo. Before redevelopment agencies were dissolved, the state Department of Finance was responsible for reviewing budgets for the 400...
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March 5, 2012, 12:05 AM
Obesity is still on the rise among California students, but after years of prevention measures in schools, the rate is slowing, new research shows. More than 35 percent of students were overweight or obese in 2008, up from one-third in 2003. That's an average annual increase of 0.33...
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February 29, 2012, 12:05 AM
Proposed federal legislation would require increased timber sales in national forests to generate revenue for rural counties and schools – a plan that's at odds with other Congressional efforts to extend a decade-old program that compensates forest communities that have cut back...
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February 27, 2012, 12:05 AM
The Legislature should reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to cut funding for child care centers that serve poor children, according to the state Legislative Analyst’s Office. The cuts could lead to the closing of many subsidized child care centers, which collectively serve more...
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February 20, 2012, 12:05 AM
Fewer smokers is bad news for California’s budget. A major bond rating agency sounded an alarm this month, saying the state may have borrowed more than $4 billion against settlement money that might never materialize. A little more than a decade ago, 46 state attorneys general reached a...
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February 17, 2012, 12:05 AM
California’s 56 bar pilots provide a vital service, boarding commercial ships as they approach a buoy west of the Golden Gate Bridge and guiding them through dicey Bay Area waters. A giant sandbar in the bay gives bar pilots their name and helps make the zone one of the most treacherous ports...
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February 14, 2012, 12:05 AM
California schools will no longer lose $248 million in transportation funding under legislation Gov. Jerry Brown signed Friday – a move applauded by many education officials and school districts that had decried the loss as a disproportionate burden on rural schools. But for some,...
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February 10, 2012, 12:05 AM
It’s been more than 30 years since Kermith Walters hauled logs of pine and fir through the mountains of Siskiyou County. He says he left it behind when the habitat of a dark brown, white-speckled bird became a matter of federal law. Since 1990, when the northern spotted owl was...
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