Reader Reactions

Reader reaction to “Retirement Debt: What’s the problem and how does it affect you?“ I just finished reading the CALmatters article about public pensions. It has a lot of detail, and seems reasonable. However, it is not complete. I am a retiree in the County of Ventura retirement system. Our system does not pay for […]

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Reader Reactions

• March 7, 2018

Reader Reactions

‘Pensions stabilize economies in financial downturns’

Reader reaction to “Retirement Debt: What’s the problem and how does it affect you?“ Here’s the other side of the story of what happened when a community switched from a defined benefit pension to a defined contribution 401(k) plan. It also happened like this in San Jose, when Chuck Reed tried to do the same […]

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Reader Reactions

• March 7, 2018

Reader Reactions

Education is getting better for California kids

This letter to the editor is in response to Is California’s investment in needy students paying off? Few signs yet that achievement gap is closing CALmatters reporter Jessica Calefati relies on faulty research, narrow metrics and insufficient data to make sweeping generalizations and unsubstantiated conclusions about the effectiveness of California’s landmark Local Control Funding Formula. Calefati’s […]

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Reader Reactions

• June 28, 2017

Health

Reader reaction: A dentist questions safety paradigms

This letter was written in response to A child’s death and the power of the dental lobby, which CALmatters published on April 13, 2016. “There is no evidence that dental anesthesia under this model of care carries a greater risk than dental care with a second anesthesiologist present,” Alicia Malaby, spokeswoman for the California Dental […]

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Reader Reactions

• April 26, 2016

Economy

Opinion: Why California should follow its cities to a higher minimum wage

With wages stagnant, inequality growing, and Washington, D.C., gridlocked, states and cities are taking matters into their own hands by raising the minimum wage. Before 2012, only five local governments in the United States had their own minimum wage laws; now about 30 do. At the forefront are 15 California cities and counties, the largest […]

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Expert Perspectives

• November 22, 2015

Reader Reactions

Opinion: Increasing minimum wage is wrong tool to alleviate poverty

Of late, the minimum wage battle in California appears to be never-ending. No sooner did California increase its minimum wage to $9 per hour in 2013 (slated to increase to $10 per hour in January 2016), did some legislators attempt to accelerate and further increase the minimum wage. More recently, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee […]

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Expert Perspectives

• November 22, 2015