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California

• November 4 -- California Dreaming of Stem Cell Success
Dean Murphy repeats the optimistic Democratic line on stem cell research -- but is it accurate?

• November 10 -- “Apocalypse Pretty Soon,” Starring Undertaxed California
Brent Staples finds a villain more terrifying than any movie monster--Proposition 13, the 1978 California ballot initiative that capped property taxes.

• November 6 -- California Education Down for the Count Due to Tax Cuts
Michael Winerip finds a familiar bogeyman for failing California schools: "After Proposition 13 was passed in 1978, capping taxes, California's spending on public education plummeted and never recovered."

• November 6 -- Schwarzenegger, The Burning Man?
Charlie LeDuff interviews American Indians who suffered in the California wildfires--and passes along anti-Schwarzenegger conspiracy-mongering. Was the recall to blame for the fires?

• October 16 -- Bush's Tax Cuts Have Cost California
Bush is going to California, but Times reporters warn the state not to expect too much: "Tax cuts and the cost of the war on terror have emptied the federal treasury, leaving little for California and other hard-pressed states."

• October 13 -- Nagourney's Non-Story on Conservative California Worries
Adam Nagourney files another evidence-thin non-story on how Schwarzenegger's win could be bad news for Republicans: "Mr. Schwarzenegger's sweeping victory stirred anxiety among some conservatives." But Nagourney comes up with just one.

• September 29 -- California Needs Higher Taxes, Part 1
Charlie LeDuff characterizes the campaign of Arnold Schwarzenegger (now leading in the California governor’s race) as a feel-good exercise that ignores the need for tax hikes: “Promising deliverance without sacrifice and a balanced budget without tax increases…”

• September 29 -- California Needs Higher Taxes, Part 2
Dean Murphy is another Times reporter suggesting Schwarzenegger would have to raise taxes as governor, claiming the “state's formidable obstacles to raising taxes” have “tied [Gray] Davis's hands in keeping the state fiscally afloat. On the bright side: a Schwarzenegger win could mean a tax hike.

• September 26 -- Ashcroft, Bush, and the Beatniks
Dean Murphy visits San Francisco’s famous beatnik bookstore, City Lights, and invests the aging pre-hippie bohemians with dissident allure: “Yet in the era of George W. Bush and John Ashcroft, the dissident Beat voices are enjoying a renaissance of sorts….”

• August 25 -- Conservative California Cannibalism

• August 22 -- Krugman the Inexplicable
Paul Krugman’s “Conan The Deceiver” tries to defend California Gov. Gray Davis: “Although news reports continue, inexplicably, to talk about a $38 billion deficit, the projected gap for next year is only $8 billion.” It’s not “inexplicable.” It’s in the governor’s own budget for 2003-2004, and Davis said the same thing months ago.

• August 11 -- Puffing Up Huffington
Two stories on California’s surreal governor’s race try to make Arianna Huffington more palatable, calling her “populist” and “progressive.” Would it kill the Times to call the liberal Huffington “liberal?”

• August 11 -- Weird Science On the Times Copy Desk
A scary subhead to a story on a California ban on flame-retardant chemicals (“Agent Tied to Learning Disorders in Children”) isn’t backed up by the story itself.

• August 8 -- Schwarzenegger, “The Villain”
Charlie LeDuff’s piece on the California recall election brings up “tabloid accounts of groping and boorish behavior on movie sets” against Arnold Schwarzenegger, proving the Times has changed its tune on scandal-mongering since Bill Clinton.

• August 7 -- The Running Man
The Times story on California’s recall vote notes Sen. Feinstein is out, while action-hero Arnold and “populist” Arianna are in, and offers its readers snob appeal: “Instead of talking about issues like nuclear proliferation and appropriations, as Ms. Feinstein did, Mr. Schwarzenegger made light of his decision to run….” And is Arianna Huffington really a populist independent or just another left-winger?

• August 1 -- Krugman’s Dubious Proposition
Paul Krugman’s op-ed on California’s massive deficit absolves Democratic Gov. Gray Davis of blame and instead fingers the 25-year-old tax-limiting measure Proposition 13, which he claims “led to a progressive starvation of California's once-lauded public schools.”

• July 25 -- Can’t “Recall” Reagan as California Gov.?
The Times piles on Rep. Darrell Issa, who led the recall drive against Gov. Gray Davis of California: “Democrats today said he would be the ‘poster child’ of their antirecall campaign, mainly because he is the sort of conservative Republican who has traditionally fared poorly in statewide elections.” Conservative California Govs. Ronald Reagan and George Deukmejian might disagree.