My latest: CA hired a Chief DEI Officer to integrate DEI "into every aspect" of its retirement fund, "including investment practices", "equity-driven investment outcomes," and hiring DEI acolytes for proxy voting.

She has no finance experience; CalPERS has a $166B shortfall... So who is new DEI chief Shari Slate? Slate spent 20+ years as a diversity executive (CVS/Cisco), and has served on the California State University system's board, and on the World Economic Forum's Global Futures Council for Social Cohesion (2/4)

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My latest: California’s main public pension fund, CalPERS, poured $468M into “clean” energy private equity, losing 71% (with taxpayers on the hook) while fund managers earned at least $22M. Due to anti-transparency laws, we can't really know how the money was lost 🧵👇 Had the $ invested in the CalPERS Clean Energy and Technology Fund been put in the S&P 500, it would be worth ~$3B, not $138M. CalPERS only has enough $ for 79% of promised benefits, leaving ~$180 billion shortfall, with the state/taxpayers on the hook:
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In an unprecedented move, the California legislature has passed a bill creating a news media subsidy program overseen by Gov. Gavin Newsom, which media experts say will discourage news organizations from holding the government accountable and reduce press independence (1/4) @Rebuild_News, a coalition of 3,000+ newsrooms, warned against giving the governor’s office power to “pick winners and losers.” Yet the bill, rushed through in a week, seems to do exactly that under the "Civic Media Program" (2/4)

California says its roads have improved 29% since Newsom took office in 2019. But it turns out the state is now just measuring 65% less roadway than it did under Jerry Brown; is the state just measuring the good roads? I went to Caltrans and USDOT to find out.
1/ In 2019, 15,000 miles disappeared. The second year, another 14,000. By 2022, another 6,000 were gone. Given these changes happened under the Newsom administration, I reached out to the governor's office for answers.
2/