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It's time again to grade the governor. Wednesday will mark one year in office for Arnold Schwarzenegger — one full year of learning on the job. How's he progressing? There is only one fair way to go about this: Split the grade in two. • One grade for politics. Give him a solid A. • A second grade for policy. He gets a generous C. A tougher grader would have given the guy a D in policy — or categorize it as substance, all that serious stuff a governor is supposed to do to solve state problems. The one problem...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Claims by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Performance Review that the state can save $32 billion over five years by reorganizing state government are overblown and the problems caused by such a massive shake-up have been largely overlooked, according to a report made Friday by the Legislative Analyst. Schwarzenegger launched the review in January to fulfill a campaign pledge to reinvigorate state government. The group issued a 2,700-page report earlier this month that offered more than 1,000 recommendations - including the slower growth of state jobs, merging dozens of departments and improving customer service. He also said the...

August 27, 2004 An Initial Assessment of the California Performance Review On August 3, 2004, the California Performance Review (CPR) released its report on reforming California's state government, with the aim of making it more efficient and more responsive to its citizens. This report provides our initial comments on the CPR report. Specifically, we: (1) provide an overview of its reorganization framework and other individual recommendations, (2) discuss the savings it assumes from its major proposals, and (3) raise key issues and considerations relating to CPR's various proposals.Introduction On August 3, 2004, the California Performance Review (CPR) released its report...

Sponsors of Initiative 884 (the billion-dollar education tax increase proposal) falsely claim the measure is targeted, accountable and efficient. They claim it will solve the crisis of low student achievement in our state. They are wrong. The initiative will actually harm students because it targets the new billion dollars toward failed programs instead of proven solutions. We owe it to students and taxpayers to solve the problems, not make them worse. Is education spending down? No. Washington is spending more than ever before on education. Per-pupil funding has increased more than 30% in the last decade (almost 17% in inflation-adjusted...

Each year the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) puts together a play book for Democrats to use in their campaigns and policy recommendations. The DLC describes these recommendations as "a ‘menu' of effective, field-tested New Democrat policy proposals from which you can model initiatives in your own states, cities and communities." Under the DLC's budget section for the 2004 campaign, performance reviews (audits) are the DLC's top priority. This recommendation bodes well for the prospect of Washington state finally adopting and authorizing independent performance audits on a bi-partisan basis. In fact, Washington's Speaker of the House, Frank Chopp, has signed the...

CHARLESTON -- Black students in West Virginia perform well in their early years, but then experience a sharp decline, said Pat Kusimo of the Governor's Minority Students Strategy Council. "Kids start out in elementary school doing much better than in middle school," Kusimo said. And by high school, "it is almost disastrous achievement." To correct the problem among the state's largest minority group, Kusimo and council Chairwoman Patricia Petty Wilson suggested a series of local meetings to provide special training for counselors and psychologists to learn how to help minority and poor children achieve. Statistics show that 90 percent of...

MIDI - YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME Mary Landrieu...she is so lame...and she really gives stupid such a bad name They'll fight 30 hours or more...the big battle in the cultural war RAT obstruction...is the game that they play...time to end it The Senate floor...a drama queen...she cannot wait to play out her scene Performance time...and the makeup's right...this is her primetime and she's ready tonight New Orleans, hang down your head.........down low You voters...oh, what you've done to us...we have to ask you - why didn't you know? Mary Landrieu...she is so lame...she gives stupid such a...

This is the complete poll on Bush's approval in general and about specific issues, as well as comparing Republicans and Democrats, as to who would handle it better. It's quite a detailed poll. It has a lot of good news for Bush, ajority approves of his handling of almost all major issues, with 71% overall rating, but there are still some issues , where people seem to be buying into the Democrats lies ( like Social security, healthcare, not recognizing the benefits of taxcuts, etc.)

<p>California's largest public pension fund, CalPERS, has made investments in private equity that have performed slightly better than the stock market overall, according to newly released records. But big questions remain about the risky nature of CalPERS' more recent investments.</p>

Itanium and Opteron contrasted Letter What are the options for Intel? By The Letternan: Saturday 09 November 2002, 10:04 THE COMPARISON SPECS on Itanium 3 and Opteron here look pretty good. This appears to show both processors passing the current fastest server chip by a significant lead. However, for x86 code, Opteron looks like it will hit the market as fast as the fastest x86 processor while Itanium 3 is a joke on x86 code. It is too bad that there are not specs available on Yamhill because I have a very strong suspicion that it was killed, not because...

Is AMD now ready to impact the enterprise space? Part three Hammer in the house [Part 1: Serious about servers ] [Part 2: Would you switch to AMD?]By Mario Rodrigues: Friday 25 October 2002, 09:39 IT IS PRETTY clear (see part two) that AMD has fully demonstrated the exacting requirements that the business world demands. Market perception of AMD's supposed inferior platform quality has taken all this time to erode. HP's decision to offer AMD supported (Compaq branded) desktop and notebook business class PCs should be all the assurance that one would need that AMD is now ready to aggressively...

Is AMD now ready to impact the enterprise space? Part two Would you switch to AMD? [To read Part One click here] By Mario Rodrigues: Wednesday 23 October 2002, 17:59 IN MARCH 2001, Web hosting company Rackspace managed over 3,000 servers. Patrick Condon, one of the company's founders, estimated at the time that 80% of their servers used AMD processors. "We use a lot of 1 GHz AMD Athlon processors. We found they are incredibly reliable," he said. "In fact, we have well over 1500 AMD-based servers that have been up and running 24 hours a day for over two...

Is AMD now ready to impact the enterprise space? Analysis Serious about servers By Mario Rodriques: Monday 21 October 2002, 18:37 OVER THE YEARS, much has been written and discussed about a perceived AMD weakness - stability. Many will remember Michael Dell's famous comment about the AMD environment being "too fragile". Unfortunately for AMD, even with the product recalls that plagued Intel over the years, this perception, like a ball and chain, had unjustifiably clasped itself to the chipmaker. Because stability is a prerequisite that has to be met before any major enterprise buyer would look at a company's products,...

<p>The Mercury News on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the California Public Employees' Retirement System, saying California residents have the right to know how the pension fund's private investments are performing.</p> <p>CalPERS provides aggregate data about the performance of its investments in venture capital and other private equity assets, but does not provide information about individual fund performance.</p>

<p>Last year, managers of California's biggest pension fund invested $25 million of public money into a high-risk hedge fund operated by the family firm of the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Bill Simon.</p> <p>Yet the public might never know how well the investment performs because the pension fund's 13-member board chose to keep secret the financial performance of the individual funds it invests in. That could change this fall if newly elected board members to the pension fund -- the California Public Employees' Retirement System, known as CalPERS -- decide to release the results.</p>

Executive pay has once again outpaced average earnings, climbing an average of 17% last year. More than 130 directors received total pay packages in excess of £1m and seven received more than £1m compensation when they left their jobs, according to the Guardian's annual survey of boardroom pay, conducted with pay consultants Inbucon. The survey shows that executive remuneration has been largely unaffected by the stock market turmoil, which has wiped billions of pounds off the value of the companies they run. Over the period studied the FTSE 100 index lost nearly a third of its value. At the same...

Why the Buzz on Hammer Just Won't QuitJust in case you haven't been paying attention, AMD's upcoming 8th generation processor has been generating a steady buzz of discussion almost since the first of the year.  This has led to an occasional outburst of exasperation from editors at various websites, some of whom have complained the web community in general is too focused upon Hammer.  Hammer is, their argument goes, an unproven product with a distant and uncertain launch date, and should not be focused on so heavily.  It's also been suggested by some that much of the Hammer hype itself...

Might Apple ditch PowerPC for Satanic chips? Citizen Smith Resolution wavering? By Tony Smith: Monday 22 July 2002, 10:17 IS APPLE SERIOUSLY thinking about switching processor platforms? There's been no end of speculative answers to that question over the past few years, but Apple itself has been resolute on the point: no we're not. That stance may have changed, if comments made by CEO Steve Jobs at the company's quarterly earnings confab. Asked whether Apple is now mooting a move to x86 chips, Jobs noted that that couldn't happen until the vast majority of its users and - more importantly...

News reports say that al-Qaeda terrorists may have smuggled shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles into the United States. We give you the full rundown on what these weapons can do, how they work, where they may come from, and how they might be used. It's all here for you, on Winds of Change!