The state has spent billions of dollars on homelessness in recent years. So why is the crisis getting worse instead of better? That’s what a bipartisan group of California legislators is trying to get to the bottom of by calling for a first-of-its kind, large-scale audit of the state’s homelessness spending. The state has stepped […]
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Grand Jury Report Blasts Auditor-Controller, Auditor-Controller Says it’s All Incorrect
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury has interjected itself directly into the county’s auditor-controller race. Less than a week before Election Day, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury poured gasoline on what was already considered to be the county’s most contentious political race yesterday, issuing a largely scathing report stating incumbent Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez’s […]
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Police and Prison Guard Misconduct and Bias: Audit Asks State to Step In
Police departments and state prisons aren’t doing enough to identify and punish bias among their officers and the state should do more to combat the problem, a state audit found. The audit, released this morning, recommended that the state Justice Department more regularly investigate how local police departments and sheriff’’s offices handle such alleged incidents, […]
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Audit: California Utilities Aren’t Doing Enough to Reduce Wildfire Threats
As record-breaking drought fuels another potentially dangerous wildfire season, the state auditor reported today that state officials are failing to hold California’s electric utilities accountable for preventing fires caused by their equipment. The report to the California Legislature found that the new Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety approved utility companies’ wildfire prevention plans even when […]
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Auditor-Controller Working to Meet State’s Hard March 16 Deadline for Delinquent Report
The State Controller’s Office has clarified that the final demand letter sent from the Attorney General’s Office to Humboldt County Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez threatening to fine her $5,000 if she failed to turn in a long-overdue 2019-2020 financial report was not, in fact, a mistake, as Paz Dominguez suggested at the March 1 meeting […]
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State Threatens Auditor-Controller with $5K Fine for Delinquent Fiscal Report
Facing a threat from the State Controller’s Office sent through the California Department of Justice that it intends to exercise all of its authority under the law — including pursuing a $5,000 against her personally — if Humboldt County fails to turn over a statutorily mandated financial statement that’s more than a year overdue, embattled […]
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Audit Reveals Failure to Test Millions of Babies for Lead
Millions of California toddlers who should have been tested for lead exposure have not received state and federally mandated blood tests, in part because the health hazard — a particular threat to poor children — has not been prioritized by public health agencies, a recent state audit shows. In a searing review of a problem […]
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Slush Fund or Healthy Reserves?
Both the California State University system and Humboldt State University have sharply disputed a June 20 report from the California State Auditor’s Office, which charged that the CSU system is sitting on an undisclosed $1.5 billion budget surplus, which included more than $62 million from HSU. The bombshell report and subsequent pushback have left lawmakers […]
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Does California State University have a $1.5 billion slush fund?
A report released by California’s state auditor this week looked like a bombshell: California State University has been sitting on a $1.5 billion budget surplus, it found, failing to fully disclose the existence of the money to legislators and students even as it raised tuition and lobbied for more state funding. That includes $62.4 million […]
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A ‘Dark Day’ at KHSU
The first sign arrived yesterday afternoon, when KHSU staff members received an email from Craig Wruck informing them there would be a mandatory meeting for all paid staff today at 9 a.m. “I apologize for the extremely short notice, but this is an important meeting,” Wruck wrote. When staff arrived for the meeting this morning […]
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What’s behind all those DMV voter-registration snafus? ‘Motor voter’ may have launched with makeshift computer system
Editor’s note: Today is the last day to register to vote in California in order to participate in next month’s midterm elections. For more information or to register online, visit here. The DMV gave the public a series of piecemeal explanations as it acknowledged making more than 100,000 errors in recent months in registering Californians […]
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Sundberg's Chances to Take the Fifth and Why it Takes So Long to Count the Votes
By the time this paper hits newsstands, it will have been a week since Election Day and a fifth of the county’s electorate remains on edge, awaiting the results of a nail-biter of a supervisorial race currently separated by just 33 votes. With the final and generally definitive post-election tally at least a week away, […]