Sunday, September 14, 2025

CalPERS’ Bad Numbers: CEO Marcie Frost’s Multi-Hundred Thousand /Year Advisor Randle Communications Missing from Board Reports

A remarkable series of accidents led to the CalPERS board not being told how much CEO Marcie Frost’s advisor Randle Communications costs.

Sediment, Big Spring Run, and River Restoration to Pre-Colonial Times

A geological paradigm shift?

2:00PM Water Cooler 9/10/2020

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

Links 9/10/2020

‘Dereliction of Duty’: Outrage as USPS Board Issues Gushing Praise for DeJoy Amid Mail Slowdowns, Medicine Delays, and Straw-Donor Scandal

The latest sordid episode in the teardown of the US mail service.

What Rent Drop? Listed Prices Aren’t Budging Where COVID-19 Hit Hardest

New York City disproves popular beliefs about flight from cities and rent declines.

How US Consumers Use Their Stimulus Payments

Contrary to right wing beliefs, giving citizens stimulus payments didn’t lead them to loaf.

2:00PM Water Cooler 9/9/2020

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

Regressive Taxation Must Be Reversed

Discussing taxation proposals by inequality mavens Emanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman.

Links 9/9/2020

Democracy Scares, from the Destruction of Bryan to the Abdication of Bernie: Why America Desperately Needs a Second Populist Movement but Ain’t Gonna Get One an interview + Review of The People, No! A Brief History of Anti-Populism by Thomas Frank

Thomas Frank explains why populist campaigners face such a hostile environment now.

Brexit: Pear Shaped

A desperate Government Brexit ploy, perhaps conceived to increase its negotiating options, has quickly become an own goal.

How Warming Will Widen the Italy North-South Economic Gap

In Italy and elsewhere around the globe, climate change will worsen existing inequalities, researchers say.

2:00PM Water Cooler 9/8/2020

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

Treating Offenders: They Tried To Make Me Go to Rehab and I Said “Yes, Yes, Yes”

A new study on custody treatments of juvenile offenders finds rehabiltation reduces recidivism compared to coercive regimes.