By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
March 15, 2016 – 4:15 PM

• New accounting standards require pension debt to be listed
• Multibillion-dollar unfunded liabilities are emerging
• However, Fresno has state’s only pension fund surplus

Thanks to new accounting standards, California’s state and local governments are being forced to acknowledge tens of billions of dollars in previously obscure debt for unfunded pension liabilities.

Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Justice Department sees “serious” antitrust issues with Tribune Publishing’s bankruptcy bid for The Orange County Register and The Press-Enterprise and would take action to keep any merger from hurting newspaper readers and advertisers in the region, according to letter to Freedom Communications this week. Los Angeles Times is owned by Tribune Publishing.

Jonathan Lansner / Staff Writer
March 15, 2016
Updated: March 16, 2016 – 9:55 a.m.

The U.S. Justice Department sees “serious” antitrust issues with Tribune Publishing’s bankruptcy bid for The Orange County Register and The Press-Enterprise and would take action to keep any merger from hurting local newspaper readers and advertisers, according to a letter to Freedom Communications.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Volkswagen logo is displayed on a car. (Michael Probst / Associated Press)

Associated Press
March 15, 2016

Volkswagen Group’s big institutional investors, including California’s huge public pension fund, are suing the German automaker for $3.57 billion in damages over its handling of the emissions scandal, which has seen VW’s stock price shrivel by a third.

Read the rest of this entry »

State court officials said that more than 58,000 drivers have received cost reductions in traffic fines and court fees.58,000 California drivers have traffic fines and court fees cut under amnesty (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Associated Press
March 16, 2016

Tens of thousands of California drivers have had traffic fines and court fees reduced under an amnesty program pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown to help the poor.

Read the rest of this entry »

Attorney James Crawford was injured in a fight with an Orange County district attorney’s investigator at a Santa Ana courthouse. (Courtesy of Jerry Steering)

Christopher Goffard
March 15, 2016

Attorneys for a man accused in a Lake Forest assault have asked that the Orange County district attorney’s office be thrown off the case, citing “a pattern of intimidation” against defense witnesses — most recently when one of the district attorney’s investigators bloodied an attorney in a courthouse hallway.

Read the rest of this entry »