Obama administration lawyers have asked the US Supreme Court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by eight states including California, New York City and three land trusts six years ago, seeking tougher restrictions on carbon dioxide releases by utilities than those set by the federal government, according to the San Francisco Chronicle's Bob Egelko. Justice Department lawyers argue that federal primacy, in the form of recent EPA regulations, give the federal agency and Congress the sole power to regulate greenhouse gases.

The California Inspector General's office says a contractor hired to weatherize homes, and paid for by federal stimulus funds, overbilled the state agency overseeing the money by $34,803, Timothy Sandoval of CaliforniaWatch reports. The report also notes that workers and supervisors performing weatherization renovations on homes have not been adequately trained,

The nation's biggest public works project could end up as the biggest boondoggle in history, according to Mike Rosenberg and Gary Richards of the San Jose Mercury News, who scour up a myriad of reasons why linking California's major cities by high speed rail will be a colossal failure.

[caption id="attachment_9474" align="alignleft" width="95" caption="Jerry Brown"][/caption] Maligned mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be taken to the woodshed by California's attorney general after the companies warned lenders about supposed dangers associated with energy efficiency loans tied to home mortgages. As Dow Jones Newswires reports in The Wall Street Journal, state Attorney General Jerry Brown said Tuesday he was initiating “major action” against the companies

In Los Angeles, where the car has been king at least since the Pacific Electric’s Red Cars were junked, there’s real hope that an innovative federal-state-local funding plan will get trains back on track. As Dan Weikel noted recently in the Los Angeles Times, officials hope their innovative funding plan will entice

Governor David Patterson of New York is going out not like a lame duck, but like a fighting cock (reference to his illustrious predecessor unintended).  He's calling for the New York State legislature to work a full five-day week and for state employees to take a one-day-per-week furlough until the state budget is approved. 

By Marci Greenstein It’s hard to find any hopeful news about the housing crisis.  There was a sharp decline in home sales in December.  And the federal Home Affordable Modification Program, which was supposed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, is not working.  But Ruth Simon of the Wall Street Journal highlighted ...

By Marci Greenstein Prisons are in the news these days.  The Washington Post’s Keith L. Alexander profiled another innocent person who was released from prison after 28 years based on DNA evidence.  The same week, Carrie Johnson of the Post covered the Justice Department’s disturbing report on the widespread sexual abuse of juveniles in detention facilities.  The report says that 12% of adolescents are abused by inmates or prison staff.  Johnson notes that the report comes as those advocates say that the Obama administration is moving too slowly on reforms that would reduce rape in U.S. prisons and as corrections officials are pressing Justice to overhaul reform proposals it is reviewing. These stories are likely to fade away unless the press keeps the spotlight on them.  By contrast, another kind of prison story is likely to gain traction among policymakers -- a proposal by California’s Governor to shift funds from prisons to schools, as reported by Judy Lin of the Associated Press.

By Marci Greenstein The Massachusetts program to help low-income smokers kick the habit is an example of government money well spent.  As Abby Goodnough reports in today's New York Times, the state’s Tobacco Suspension and Prevention Program has resulted in a ten percent (30,000 people) drop ...

Truly original thinking is unusual in a state bureaucrat who has been on the job for 36 years.  But that appears to be the case with David Bronner, head of Alabama's public pension system.  Dan Luzadder of the New York Times brings us the story of Bronner has moved in recent years for Alabama to invest its public pension fund in revamped luxury hotels, office towers and even a cruise ship dock in Mobile, golf courses across the state, and New York City Class A office space to boot.  The result is a state pension fund, at $28 billion, that is more than fifty times as large as it was when Bronner took over in 1973. Most pension funds for public employees just invest in stocks and bonds -- and many such funds are in very deep trouble.   What Bronner and the people of Alabama have done is different -- they've invested pension monies in their own state, bringing benefits to both.  Luzadder writes that Bronner "has invested in real estate as a way to create cultural changes in the state."