Dennis Wagner -- Charlotte Conservative News -- October 8, 2009      California is broke. Thanks, Mexico    In hosting America’s largest population of illegal [aliens], California bears a huge cost to provide basic human services for this fast growing, low-income segment of its population. A new study from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) examines the costs of education, health care...

Bill Gross -- PIMCO Foundation -- October 2, 2009      Doo-doo economics    Once "golden" and the land of entrepreneurial opportunity, the state has turned from filet mignon to ground chuck and its residents are now on a short leash as opposed to masters of their own universe. Unemployment at 12.2% is near the nation's highest and its Baa bond rating is the country's lowest. Its schools are abysmal, competing with Louisiana and Mississippi for the lowest rating in the federal government's National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Brenda Walker -- VDare.com -- October 1, 2009      California nightmaring, with mass immigration a key demon    The Golden State has been drowning in a maelstrom of self-created misery. A budget crisis of monumental proportions is exacerbated by one of the country's worst unemployment rates, 12.2 percent in August. -- But what's really disturbing is the refusal of Sacramento to make the fundamental changes needed...

John C. Dvorak -- Market Watch -- September 24, 2009    California must go bankrupt    Various economic reports have come and gone over the past few months, but the worst so far, at least for California, is the latest UCLA Anderson Forecast. It painted a grim picture for the Golden State, with unemployment going above 12% and lingering in the double digits until 2012...

Andrea Peters -- World Socialist Web Site -- September 21, 2009      Unemployment in California reaches 70-year high     Official unemployment in California, the most populous state in the US, has reached a new historical milestone. At 12.2 percent in August, it is now at the highest level since 1940. It has risen 4.6 percentage points over the course of the last year alone...

San Jose Business Journal -- September 13, 2009     California cash falls short of new budget targets    California’s controller said the state’s general fund revenue in August was $237 million below estimates made in the 2009-2010 budget. -- That’s 3.6 percent lower than estimates in the recently amended budget act, said John Chiang in his office’s monthly report...

Contra Costa Times -- Walnut Creek, Calif. -- September 12, 2009      Illegal alien health care costs state $1 billion annually    The latest dust-up over President Barack Obama's health care-for-all mission -- Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., angrily calling Obama a liar during a nationally televised speech -- underscored conservatives' fears that illegal immigrants would benefit from efforts to expand coverage...

Los Angeles Times -- September 3, 2009      Even higher taxes coming for Californians    Reporting from Sacramento - While Californians are still feeling the sting of income and sales tax hikes signed into law earlier this year, now comes news that state tax authorities plan to take a little more from their pockets. -- For only the second time in 30 years, the tax board is lowering the point where each tax bracket begins, bumping many people into a higher category...

The Town Crier -- September 2, 2009      Wonder why California is broke? Senior illegal aliens!     Yes, there are plenty of reasons, and here is just one! California gives over and above what the feds give to Illegal Aliens. Yesterday I was at my doctor's office and picked up a booklet funded 'with a generous grant from the Calif. Bar Foundation', titled, "Seniors & the Law" A Guide for Maturing Californians...

Director Blue -- September 1, 2009      CNBC: Democrat utopia of California "nation's worst credit risk"    Two decades of unchecked liberal leadership have led California straight into the crapper. The state is so financially desperate it "is borrowing money to repay the money it is borrowing which was used to repay some IOUs". -- Sounds Madoff-esque to me. -- And who would loan funds to "the nation's worst credit risk"? To the capitol of the country's mortgage fraud crisis? To a primary instigator of the illegal immigration and public sector union debacles?

Alex Alexiev -- National Review -- August 27, 2009      Catching up to Mexico     California’s financial unraveling has prompted a long-overdue debate about taxes, regulation, and government spending, but the state’s media and government continue to ignore what could be an even greater problem: the irreparable damage to California’s human capital that nearly 30 years of unrestrained illegal immigration has achieved...

American Patrol Report / Business Insider -- August 24, 2009      JP Morgan bails out California    Glenn Spencer said Obama would bail out California. Turns out, he did....

Los Angeles Times -- August 21, 2009     Unemployment in California hits post-World War II high    California's jobless rate reached a fresh post-World War II high in July, climbing to 11.9%, a sobering reminder that though the nation's deep downturn may be nearing its end, the state's employment woes are far from over. -- Golden State employers cut their payrolls by 35,800 jobs in July...

KNX-AM 1070 -- Los Angeles -- August 21, 2009      Change?: "Tent City" rapidly growing in Sacramento    Sacramento's homeless rate is rising fast. With more foreclosures, jobs lost and full shelters, all you have to do is walk downtown or cruise the American River and you'll meet people who are homeless for the first time. -- The sea of tents along the American River is hard to miss, and their number is growing...

Associated Press -- August 21, 2009      California unemployment rate climbs to 11.9%    California's unemployment rate climbed to 11.9 percent in July, the highest number in modern record-keeping. -- That's an increase from 11.6 percent in June and considerably higher than the jobless rate of 7.3 percent a year ago. -- The U.S. Department of Labor also reported Friday that 87,000 Californians lost jobs last month...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- August 21, 2009      Cash for clunkers.... California style    California is so broke that the Governator has stooped to this...

Sacramento Bee -- August 8, 2009       Recession isn't over for California    The layoffs tapered off in July and the economy seems poised for recovery. -- Except in California. -- Wall Street and the White House celebrated a relatively upbeat national unemployment report Friday, marked by lower-than-expected job losses in July... [See Cal Meltdown Watch]

Courthouse News Service -- August 8, 2009     California won't accept its own IOUs    Small businesses that received $682 million in IOUs from the state say California expects them to pay taxes on the worthless scraps of paper, but refuses to accept its own IOUs to pay debts or taxes. The vendors' federal class action claims the state is trying to balance its budget on their backs...

American Patrol Report Feature -- August 7, 2009          California Collapsing --Tens of Thousands of Criminals to Roam Streets    Jerry Brown, Calif. Attorney General: The state releases 10,000 prisoners a month. That's 120,000 inmates are going out the door every year and now the courts are saying no, you got to let out another 40,000. Well, it isn't that simple because almost as fast as you let them out, they're committing crimes and so they're coming back...

Robert J. Samuelson -- Washington Times -- August 3, 2009     California's reckoning.... and ours    ...Here's the national lesson. There's a collision between high and rising demands for government services and the capacity of the economy to produce the income and tax revenue to pay for those demands. That's true of California, where poor immigrants and their children have increased pressures for more government services...

Los Angeles Times -- July 31, 2009      California's default rate soars to 9.5%    About 1 in 10 Californians with a home loan is now in default, and there's growing evidence that the mortgage meltdown is spreading to commercial real estate. -- The home mortgage delinquency rate -- the percentage of borrowers who have missed several payments and are in the first stage of foreclosure -- climbed in June to 9.5% in California and 9.9% in Los Angeles County...

Associated Press -- July 29, 2009       Bond analyst skeptical of California's new budget    A bond analyst was skeptical Monday about California's revised budget, saying it was filled with accounting tricks that would do little to improve the state's poor credit rating. -- In addition, lenders may not be satisfied with California's latest spending plan, which combines $15 billion in cuts to education, prisons, parks...

William Busse -- The Examiner -- July 23, 2009      California slashes budget; illegal immigration ignored    Details of California’s 26.3 billion dollar budget deficit deal, reached Monday after intense negotiations during a period where the state issued IOU’s, reveals a significant reduction in across the board state services. -- The state K-12 school system and community colleges will suffer the most severe cuts...

Los Angeles Times -- July 23, 2009      Opposition to state budget deal mounts    Sacramento --- Less than 24 hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders announced a plan to close California's massive budget deficit, Los Angeles County officials moved to sue the state, a union for government workers said it might strike, and Republicans threatened to back out of the deal over a provision to cut the number of prison inmates by 27,000...

KFI-AM -- Los Angeles -- July 23, 2009        Governors John and Ken on CNBC     KFI's John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou appear on CNBC with Jane Wells, discuss their 'Heads on a Stick' campaign, etc.

Wall Street Journal -- July 21, 2009      California budget deal closes $26 billion gap     Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California legislative leaders Monday said they reached a compromise to close the state's $26 billion budget shortfall. -- Under the plan, state lawmakers would cut $15 billion in spending. The rest of the gap would be filled by taking funds from local governments and through one-time fixes and accounting maneuvers.

Larry Kelley -- Townhall.com -- July 15, 2009      California crack-up    While Karl Marx believed that socialism—and ultimately communism—would replace capitalism as the morally superior societal system, it was Margaret Thatcher who observed, "The trouble with socialism is that it always runs out of other people's money."

Agence France-Presse -- July 12, 2009      Cash-strapped California quizzes Jackson costs    Disgruntled Californians, their state broke and in budget meltdown, are asking why taxpayers should foot the bill for Michael Jackson's million-dollar memorial last week. -- While the largest state in the union has long reveled in its glitzy image as a home to the stars, some officials, faced with a deficit expected to stretch to 24 billion dollars...

Rick Newcombe -- Wall Street Journal -- July 11, 2009      Why we'll leave Los Angeles    forget about it. This city is fast becoming a job-killing machine. It's no accident the unemployment rate is a frightening 11.4% and climbing. -- I never could have imagined that, after living here for more than three decades, I would be filing a lawsuit against my beloved Los Angeles and making plans for my company, Creators Syndicate, to move elsewhere...

Sacramento Bee -- July 11, 2009     Most banks hold firm, refuse to cash state's IOUs    By refusing to honor billions in state-issued IOUs beyond Friday, California's largest banks intensified the state budget crisis and created potential cash-flow problems for vendors and local governments. -- The big banks, led by Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase, held firm...

Los Angeles Times -- July 10, 2009      Deficit may trigger anti-illegal immigration ballot measure    As California lawmakers struggle with a budget gap now grown to $26.3 billion, one of the hottest topics for many taxpayers is the cost to the state of illegal [aliens]. -- The question of whether taxpayers should provide services to illegal residents became a major political issue in California's last deep recession...

Wall Street Journal      Big banks don't want California's IOUs     A group of the biggest U.S. banks said they would stop accepting California's IOUs on Friday, adding pressure on the state to close its $26.3 billion annual budget gap. -- The development is the latest twist in California's struggle to deal with the effects of the recession...

Sky News -- July 7, 2009      Arnie's finances hit as Jacko bill mounts     With questions remaining over how Los Angeles is going to meet the costs of a memorial for Michael Jackson, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been hit with another financial setback. -- Credit rating agency Fitch downgraded the Golden State's debt to the lowest level in the US as LA prepared to honour the King of Pop....

Wall Street Journal -- July 7, 2009     Fitch again cuts California rating as budget battle continues     Fitch Ratings cut California's long-term general obligation bond rating by two notches to BBB, the second cut on the rating since late June, based on the state's inability to achieve an agreement on its budget and cash flow solutions amid its severe financial crisis...

Kevin Hassett -- Bloomberg -- July 6, 2009     California's nightmare will kill Obamanomics    Last week, we discovered that the state of California will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. -- With California mired in a budget crisis, largely the result of a political impasse that makes spending cuts and tax increases impossible, Controller John Chiang said the state planned to issue $3.3 billion in IOU’s in July alone...

New Geography -- July 6, 2009      In California, the canary is dead    Canaries were used in early coal mines to detect deadly gases, such as methane and carbon monoxide. If the bird was happy and singing, the miners were safe. If the bird died, the air was not safe, and the miners left. The bird served as an early warning system....

Washington's Blog -- July 2, 2009      Economy bigger than Russia, Brazil, Canada, India or Spain is about to default     An economy bigger than Russia, Brazil, Canada, India or Spain is in imminent risk of defaulting on its debts. -- Which nation am I talking about? -- Not a country... but the state of California. -- California’s GDP was around $1.812 trillion in 2007... [See Arnold Watch]

Associated Press -- July 2, 2009      Feds could seize Calif. parks if closed by budget    California officials said Wednesday they are trying to avert the federal government's threat to seize six parks that could be closed to help reduce the state's ballooning budget deficit. -- National Park Service Regional Director Jonathan Jarvis warned in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that all six occupy former federal land that could revert to the U.S. government...

San Francisco Chronicle -- July 2, 2009      Why one state agency won't accept California IOUs    Barring a last-minute agreement in Sacramento, the state of California will start paying some of its bills with IOUs on Thursday. -- The state would like banks and others to accept IOUs as a form of payment. But one state agency, the Board of Equalization, will not accept IOUs as payment for sales taxes...

Associated Press -- July 1, 2009      Schwarzenegger declares California fiscal emergency    Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a fiscal emergency to address California's deficit and has ordered state offices closed three days a month to save cash. -- The Legislature will have 45 days to send him a plan to balance the state's budget, which ended the fiscal year with a $24.3 billion deficit...

San Jose Business Journal -- July 1, 2009      California blows budget deadline, IOUs expected soon    The IOUs aren't in the mail but they are soon likely after California political leaders failed to reach a last-minute deal on fixing a $24.3 billion budget deficit Tuesday night. -- As a result, the state whose economy is bigger than all but seven countries in the world is getting ready to issue IOUs beginning Thursday... [Related item]

KCBS-TV -- Los Angeles -- June 30, 2009      California likely to run out of money at midnight    A midnight deadline loomed Tuesday as California lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dueled over ways to cut into a $24.3 billion budget deficit or face having to issue IOUs to cover the state's bills. -- Democrats lawmakers, the majority in both houses, tried two approaches Monday but both failed...

Orange County Register -- June 30, 2009      State might not be able to avoid issuing IOUs    With the clock ticking down on the current fiscal year, lawmakers and the governor appeared Monday like they might not be able to cut a deal to address California's $24.3 billion deficit before the state is scheduled to start issuing IOUs this week...

Associated Press -- June 30, 2009      Ailing California economy could prolong US recession    California faces a $24 billion budget shortfall, an eye-popping amount that dwarfs many states' entire annual spending plans. -- Beyond California's borders, why should anyone care that the home of Google and the Walt Disney Co. might stop paying its bills this week?

Financial Times -- London -- June 30, 2009      Deficit forces California to issue IOUs     California is preparing to issue IOUs to its creditors this week as it grapples with an unprecedented cash crunch and prepares to begin its new fiscal year deep in the red. -- Once the US’s richest state, California now has the dubious distinction of having the worst credit rating in the country...

NBC News -- June 29, 2009      Washington to California: Drop dead    With California’s state government deadlocked over a $24 billion hole in its budget, the Golden State is hurtling toward financial apocalypse. -- Washington’s response? Deal with it yourselves. -- California is the world’s 8th-largest economy, home to one out of every eight Americans and the holder of 55 electoral votes...

Patrick J. Buchanan -- The American Conservative -- June 26, 2009     As California goes (broke), so goes the nation...    In just a few weeks time, California hits the wall. -- And Americans should take a good, long look at the fiscal and social wreck of the Golden Land, because California is at a place to which all of America is heading. -- In May, when five fund-raising proposals were put on the ballot, Gov. Schwarzenegger pleaded...

American Patrol Feature -- June 25, 2009      The Great California Depression (Sinkhole) -- Will It Take Us All Down?    California could begin issuing IOUs on July 2 unless the governor and lawmakers reach a budget deal, the latest challenge for the financially strapped state. -- On Wednesday, the state starts "a fiscal year with a massively unbalanced spending plan and cash shortfall not seen since the Great Depression..."

Barry Jantz - Flashreport -- June 24, 2009      California Budget Update: Oh, we get to see it now, thanks    At a time that common-sense legislators and a philosophy of full accountability are calling for opening up the budget process to the eyes of the public, the powers that be still can't even find a way to open it up to those being asked to vote....

NPR -- June 24, 2009    Why Obama has to bail out California, but won't    Each year about this time, the nation turns its weary eyes to Sacramento, where the perennial late-June budget crisis has the Golden State on the verge of bankruptcy. -- This year, the numbers are gaudier than ever. The state must close a $24 billion gap between revenues and expenditures...

Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D. -- Money and Markets -- June 22, 2009       California collapsing    Washington and Wall Street seem to be treating California as if it were a sideshow in the financial circus of these turbulent times. -- It’s not. -- California is home to the largest manufacturing belt in the United States and to Silicon Valley, the nation’s largest high-tech center...

Associated Press -- June 21, 2009      Budget crisis forces deep cuts at California schools    California's historic budget crisis threatens to devastate a public education system that was once considered a national model but now ranks near the bottom in school funding and academic achievement. -- Deep budget cuts are forcing California school districts to lay off thousands of teachers, expand class sizes, close schools, eliminate bus service...

American Patrol Report Feature -- June 20, 2009     California: "A Wide Swath of Social Damage"    ...California is about to witness a "wide swath of social damage" because the power elite, led by the Los Angeles Times, have defeated every attempt by citizens to stop illegal immigration. (Of course Obama won't let it happen for obvious reasons.)

Los Angeles Times -- June 19, 2009      California unemployment rises to 11.5% in May    California's unemployment rate shot up to its highest level in the post-World War II era. -- The state lost 68,900 jobs during the month of May, pushing the unemployment rate to 11.5%, the California Economic Development Department said this morning...

Business Week -- June 17, 2009      California's Economy: Too big to fail?    California's economy is in deep distress. Political gridlock is preventing tax increases and spending cuts, and the recession has pushed its deficit over the edge. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals to fix the mess have been rejected by California voters, most recently on May 19...

Washington Times -- June 17, 2009     Schwarzenegger's deficit plan hit    Counties and cities across California are protesting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to raid their property- and gas-tax funds to help plug a $24 billion budget hole that threatens to bankrupt the state within weeks. -- The recession and plunging revenues already forced local governments to make deep budget cuts.. .

Los Angeles Times -- June 16, 2009      Budget woes, building drop-off may prolong state's hardships    California still faces significant difficulty, in part because of the state's budget woes, economic forecasters at UCLA say. Unemployment in the state will reach 12.1% by the end of this year and will not return to single digits until late in 2011, economists predicted in the quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast...

American Patrol Report Feature -- June 16, 2009     The California Threat: Will fiscal collapse destabilize world?     The Obama administration has turned back pleas for emergency aid from one of the biggest remaining threats to the economy -- the state of California. -- Top state officials have gone hat in hand to the administration, armed with dire warnings of a fast-approaching "fiscal meltdown" caused by a budget shortfall. Concern has grown inside the White House in recent weeks...

Times of London -- June 13, 2009      Judgment Day: Broke California faces shutdown at Arnie Schwarzenegger's hands    The state of California is in crisis and time has almost run out. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor, has spent this week haggling with state legislators to agree cuts to basic services in one of the world's largest economies...

American Patrol Feature -- June 12, 2009     The Big Secret: Proposition 187 Is The Law in California     ...American Patrol Report: The California Constitution mandates that any statute passed by the people must be enforced unless found to be unconstitutional by an appellate court. Proposition 187 was never tested at the appellate level and Gov. Schwarzenegger could enforce it if he wanted to...

Los Angeles Times -- June 11, 2009      Schwarzenegger threatens to shut down state government    Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed Wednesday to let California government come to a "grinding halt" rather than agree to a high-interest loan to keep the state afloat if he and the Legislature do not close the yawning budget gap in coming weeks. [This is the same jackass who is happy about invaders getting taxpayer- funded benefits]

Reuters -- June 11, 2009      California nears financial "meltdown" as revenues tumble    California's government risks a financial "meltdown" within 50 days in light of its weakening May revenues unless Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers quickly plug a $24.3 billion budget gap, the state's controller said on Wednesday...

Sacramento Bee -- June 8, 2009      Early release for immigrant inmates raises questions     Juan Pedro Panuco said he and other immigrant inmates at Folsom State Prison have heard that California is so cash-strapped, some of them could get sprung early and then deported. -- "Some of them are excited," said Panuco. He's not.. -- At 36, he's been in California since he was 18...

Glenn Spencer -- American Patrol Feature -- June 7, 2009      Big Myths Exposed: Illegal immigration has destroyed California    In an Internet video interview of Gov. Schwarzenegger, Sacramento Bee columnist Daniel Weintraub said that when Schwarzenegger first ran for office the budget was "the number one, number two and number three issue" before the public. Myth. Gray Davis was recalled and Schwarzenegger elected governor in large part because Davis signed a bill giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens...

Orange County Register -- Santa Ana, Calif.-- June 7, 2009    RINO Arnie "happy" invaders get state services    Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he's "happy" illegal [aliens] get state services and says they're not to blame for California's $24.3 billion budget gap. -- Schwarzenegger, an immigrant himself, says the estimated $4 billion to $5 billion the state spends on illegal [aliens] annually is a "small percentage" of the deficit...

Los Angeles Daily News -- June 4, 2009      State budgets cuts said to be "catastrophic" for Los Angeles County    The Los Angeles County government stands to lose a "catastrophic" $1.8 billion under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget-balancing plan, officials said Wednesday. -- In a report to the Board of Supervisors, CEO Bill Fujioka warned that the county could lose $1.5 billion in state revenues through June 30, 2010...

San Jose Mercury News -- June 3, 2009      Governor calls for releasing 58,000 offenders from prison    Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared Tuesday that devastating cuts in the state budget are unavoidable, but said they could lead to lasting reforms and a revived economy. The governor's remarks raised the curtain on what is sure to be another round of contentious negotiations as lawmakers grapple with general-fund revenues that have plummeted 27 percent...

Sacramento Bee -- June 3, 2009      Governor: 'Our wallet is empty'    Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dusted off his first-term playbook Tuesday in a rare legislative budget address. The Republican governor asked lawmakers to use the state's $24.3 billion deficit as a chance to "blow up the boxes" of state government and challenge public employee unions, dominant themes during his first two years in office...