Posted on 08/22/2011 11:26:22 AM PDT by SmithL
Gov. Jerry Brown, like his predecessors, ordered state agencies and departments this year to restrict employee travel, and after reviewing out-of-state travel requests, his office said most obeyed.
Except, in Brown's view, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which proposed as "mission critical" about two dozen international trips, including to Paris, Amsterdam, Australia and Japan.
Meeting with foreign scientists and government officials, said Robert Klein, then chairman of the stem cell research agency's independent oversight committee, was necessary to share research and pursue international funding agreements worth millions of dollars.
"More than 20 million Californians live in families where a family member suffers from a chronic disease or injury," Klein said in a June memorandum to Brown's office. "This mission-critical travel is vital to saving their lives and/or improving their quality of life."
Brown disagreed.
"Now is not the time to be lollygagging in London on the taxpayer's dime," Brown spokesman Evan Westrup said last week. "We have quite a bit to focus on here in California."
But the stem cell research agency is governed by an independent committee and does not fall under Brown's direct authority, the administration told the agency.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
But the stem cell research agency is governed by an independent committee and does not fall under Brown's direct authority, the administration told the agency.It is GOOD to be King!
Circa August 10, 2011 An audit questioned more than $140 million in bond money spent on construction across the Los Angeles Community College District. The district "could not produce complete and timely records, spent funds outside voter-approved guidelines, ignored its own procurement rules, failed to plan effectively, and provided poor oversight of bond funding," according to a pres release.
"Shoddy fiscal management and sub-par oversight of a project of this magnitude will undermine the public's trust and threaten billions of public dollars," said State Controller John Chiang.
The three bond measures: Measure J, Proposition A and Proposition AA increased average household taxes within the district an average of $123. The district also received $214 million from state bond funds. The audit found that the district misused $42.64 million in Measure J funds by using them to complete old projects that supposed to be finished under other propositions, constructing unapproved buildings and not constructing approved buildings. The district also did not provide adequate oversight according to the audit causing $28.3 million to be spent on projects that were canceled before completion.
"The audit also identified district-wide costs that were inappropriately charged to the bond funds, including $2 million for copying and binding; $1.5 million for public relations, tours and special events; and $1.5 million for photography," according to a press release. Public records show that the citizen oversight committee was passive, perfunctory and ineffective, according to a press release.
The head committee failed to issue any report for seven years while the latest meeting was found to be virtually meaningless and gave no evidence that the board had examined money spent from the bond. The audit stated that while the LACCD has spent more than $2.75 billion in its construction program, it has done so without a master plan.
The stem cell agency is one of the most transparently corrupt official ripoffs going. The head of the agency lobbied for its creation and wrote the initiative that the dumb voters of California passed to set it up with a billion dollars in bonded debt to pay off. And he lives like a billionaire on their dime. Neat.
Of course the embryonic stem cells all that money is allegedly paying for have never cured anything, and most likely never will.
If that human harvesting farm ever did come up with any discovery, on the taxpayers dime, it wouldn't even belong to the taxpayer.
This was and is evil and wrong on so many levels!
#1 - teleconferencing.
#2 - people like to come to California - and will if you invite them - but that is not as much fun as a payed vacation to Japan, I know.
You ain’t my boss, I don’t work for you, Brown!
From the web site of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine: "The statewide ballot measure, which provided $3 billion in funding for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions..." Three billion dollars for research and boondoggles!! Reading their web site demonstrates that this agency has no interest in advancing the use of adult stem cells. They are all about embryonic stem cells. It's disgusting.
You’re right, it’s three times worse than I remembered. This is why this state is doomed. An electorate that would mindlessly pull the lever for such an obvious act of public looting has no sense of responsibility or even of simple self-interest. They will literally vote for anything the media and the Democrats tell them to.
Cal. asks, “And the problem is?”
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