NATIONAL
January 28, 2012 | Christi Parsons and Kathleen Hennessey
President Obama embraced the idea of federal action to restrain the rapidly increasing cost of higher education, giving a boost to a long-simmering policy idea that has gained steam amid growing frustration with rising tuition. His proposal that colleges and universities cut costs or risk losing out on some federal aid was part of a larger package of ideas for college affordability unveiled by the president on Friday in a speech at the University of Michigan. Obama wants to increase funds for higher education, mostly through an expansion of federal loan programs.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
August 9, 2011 | Ruben Vives
The state retirement system has slashed the benefits of scores of top-paid local government officials as part of a review of overly generous public pensions prompted by the Bell scandal. Although the California Public Employees Retirement System has cut the benefits of individuals in the past, this review is its largest systematic effort to examine and possibly adjust high-end pensions. So far, the state retirement board has reviewed 2,250 retirement payments and found that 329 needed to be reduced, mostly because employers incorrectly reported employees' pay. They include a former general manager at the Serrano Water District in Orange County whose pension was reduced because the salary it was based on -- $206,668 -- was too high.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2011 | By Duke Helfand, Los Angeles Times
For the first time, California's largest nonprofit health insurer has released the salaries of its 10 highest-paid executives in response to a new state law intended to keep healthcare insurance costs under control. The top earner at Blue Shield of California was Chief Executive Bruce Bodaken, who made $4.6 million last year — more than four times the salary of his counterpart at the state's largest for-profit insurer, Anthem Blue Cross. San Francisco-based Blue Shield revealed Bodaken's salary in documents filed with the state's insurance commissioner, who had demanded the information under the law that allows regulators to examine executive salaries and other criteria to determine whether insurance rate increases are "unreasonable.
BUSINESS
April 23, 2010 | Evan Halper and Marc Lifsher
— Across California, state and local leaders are moving to confront the cost of public employee retirement packages — an escalating financial burden that threatens to choke off funding for other government services. Legislation now being debated in Sacramento would curtail pension benefits to future state employees. Elsewhere, city and county governments are looking at a variety of measures, including raising property taxes to cover shortfalls and reducing payments to retirement funds.
NATIONAL
March 29, 2010 | By Nicole Santa Cruz
Taylor Sanford Jr., a 76-year-old Texan who fell in love with the Arizona desert, couldn't imagine being unable to visit Lost Dutchman State Park to see its scattered fields of golden wildflowers. So Sanford strode into a community meeting here recently and wrote a check for $8,000, the estimated cost of keeping the park open for a month. The retired airline captain is just one of many who are donating money or time in hopes of saving Arizona's suffering state parks. Since 2007, the Legislature has reduced park funding by almost 80%. Facing one of the steepest budget shortfalls in state history, Arizona lawmakers cut an additional $3.9 million from the system this month.
ENTERTAINMENT
March 24, 2010 | By Mike Boehm
The slashing of Los Angeles' municipal arts offerings is underway, with seven layoffs to take effect April 1 and eight more expected when the fiscal year ends June 30, as City Hall tries to cope with a budget crisis. Olga Garay, executive director of the Department of Cultural Affairs, said Monday that she had to figure out how the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro and the William Grant Still Arts Center in West Adams will be staffed after the April 1 layoffs of their directors. And the City Council may get an earful at its meeting Wednesday from supporters of four neighborhood arts centers -- two in Barnsdall Park in Hollywood, two next to the Watts Towers -- that are among nine facilities City Hall wants to unload on private nonprofit operators, in hopes of cutting jobs.