Bankrupt and borrowing for unemployment insurance

ProPublica's Unemployment Insurance Tracker reveals that California is the largest among 25 states in the category of bankrupt unemployment insurance funds. Currently, according to ProPublica, the state has borrowed $6.5 billion from the federal government, has $113.8 million in the trust fund now and ProPublica predicts the state will be insolvent in six months. No other borrowing state has borrowed more than $1.5 billion (Indiana).

These numbers are a gauge of several factors: the price California pays for being the largest state; the over-concentration on one industry which, having been manipulated by the'big banksters, has laid off huge numbers of people -- from framers to tellers in formercommunity banks -- a catastrophy that has devastated the entire economy, down to what you choose to buy your grandchild at WalMart, who goes to the farmers market these days, and everything in between. The economy has been contracting since before Obama took office.

As pressure builds on the unemployment insurance fund, as debt on the borrowing comes due, what will be the impact on benefits and the impact -- given the state's other billions in debt -- on the state's ability to remain a solvent government?

In an election year, there will be distractions aplenty in the airwaves. Candidates will be supporting or possibly opposing publicly funded projects as vast as a high-speed railway system connecting north and south, a peripheral canal and new reservoirs, but the Badlands Journal editorial board aims to gather what accurate information exists on the state's ability to pay for services to people right here, right now, in the present rather than in the usual La-La Land of our Speculator Class. The Plutocrats do not just influence the government of California from the Legislature to City Hall -- they own the government of this state. They aim to persuade the public to further indebt the state, on top of its already junk-bond status of indebtedness, to underwrite with public funds projects that will enrich the plutocrats and further concentrate the wealth in this very small, parasitic class of people.

1-20-10 Los Angeles Times/Capital Weekly

26 lawmakers admit not disclosing gifts ...Patrick McGreevy

http://co113w.col113.mail.live.com/default.aspx?n=1301621687 [2]

At least 26 state legislators have admitted they failed to report accepting gifts from lobbying groups and will pay fines for violating financial reporting laws.

The fines are the first penalties revealed as part of an investigation by the state's political watchdog agency into suspicions that 38 state lawmakers – including Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) — and 15 staff members failed to disclose gifts. The gifts included sports and concert tickets, meals, spa treatments and hotel rooms; those who gave included a casino, horse-racing track, union, bank and various other interest groups.

The investigation by the Fair Political Practices Commission, one of the most extensive in recent years, involves much of the leadership of the Legislature, according to state records.

The fines range from $200 to $1,000 each; those who have agreed to pay include Bass, Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta), Senate Minority Leader-elect Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) and Assembly Majority Whip Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco).

"They absolutely should know better," said Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies. He said it was not surprising that so many leaders are involved. "Those in power get more goodies than those not in power. The wealthy get wealthier," Stern said.