Rob Feckner, president of the California Public Employees' Retirement System board, has asked his fellow trustees to stop meeting with placement agents. Cutting contacts with placement agents is the absolute minimum board members charged with protecting retirement funds for 1.6 million California public employees should commit to, given the string of recent embarrassing disclosures about CalPERS.
Though it contained little new information, the state inspector general's report on Phillip Garrido's parole supervision still is stunning. Incompetence in the oversight of the man accused of kidnapping Jaycee Lee Dugard, and holding her captive for 18 years, defies belief.
By Melanie Sill -
Published: 12:00 am
On Wednesday, The Bee's Jim Sanders and Steve Wiegand broke news that the state's proposed water bond package included $10 million for a nonprofit tolerance center in Sacramento – a favored project of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.
By Andres Oppenheimer -
Published: 12:00 am
One year after the election of President Barack Obama, it's time to ask whether his ambitious campaign promises about Latin America are being fulfilled, or whether, like others before him, he has placed the region at the bottom of his foreign policy priorities.
By Gene Weingarten -
Published: 12:00 am
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine got some unnerving news about his health. I told him not to worry: The problem was caught early, medical science has such matters well under control, people no longer just up and die. I have a related condition, so, to further reassure my friend that his prognosis was good, I decided to consult the doctor who has been treating me for years. I called his office.
Published: Saturday, November 7 2009 - 12:00 am
You'd think that a city that's grown from 66,000 in 1920 to nearly 500,000 today might want to reconsider its nearly 90-year-old city manager form of government.
Published: Saturday, November 7 2009 - 12:00 am
A recent example in the city of Elk Grove illustrates California's tax dilemma. Elk Grove residents, like residents across the state, have faced cuts in their neighborhood parks. In June, 6,000 residents in the older, central area of the city and northern newer neighborhoods received ballots to raise a $79 annual fee to maintain parks. They roundly rejected it.
