How did California prepare for the deadly Palisades Fire? My investigation shows in the last two years, CalFire funded just one Palisades brush clearance, leaving the community completely exposed — undermining Newsom's narrative the state is doing its part to reduce fire risk...

CA state retirement fund lost 71% of $468M put in clean energy, won’t say how https://t.co/TT9I6Whfyg

Thank you to @joffemd at @CalPolicyCenter and @DavidLoySD at @FACoalition. Do you think public pensions should be heavily invested in PE, given the volatility, costs and opacity? Or should PE be left to the private sector, where losses are owned by private investors?

Some pension funds, such as General Mills’, have succeeded by just trying to minimize big-time losses. Over one 14 year period, when General Mills’ fund never ranked above the top 27% of funds, or below the top 47%, its overall returns were in the top 4%...

Nonetheless, CalPERS is multiplying its PE investments to try to make up for its pension deficit, increasing its PE target as % of investments from 7% to 13% in 2021, then to 17% in 2022 in search of higher returns. But is this sound? ...

Unlike public equities traded on the public market, PE investments are harder to sell, and real price discovery is only made upon the asset’s sale, as NAV of unsold assets is based on what some economists call fund managers’ “guesstimates”…

Oxford economist @PELaidBare estimates CalPERS pays about 6-7% of its private equity investments in manager fees/costs each year, requiring returns much higher than the benchmark rate to really break even, let alone make up for the higher risk…

CA’s anti-transparency laws for alternative investments, including PE, mean I was sent only already-public reports, but a 2011 interview with the fund manager’s staff suggests big bets were made on American solar, which failed spectacularly as a sector (see: Solyndra)...

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:

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 🧵👇

There will be an advisory board, but the Newsom-appointed director of the governor's office, Dee Dee Myers, will have final say. Myers served as White House Press Secretary for President Clinton, and was the inspiration for C.J. Cregg on The West Wing.

@StevenGreenhut Senior Fellow at @PacificResearch and a former news editor, says it's probably unlikely the funding will go to reporters who investigate the state government. $20M per year is enough to fund hundreds of reporters...

When asked about critics' warning the fund's administration under the governor's office could reduce press independence, and why the governor signed the. bill, @GovPressOffice said "Thanks for reaching out. The signature speaks for itself" ... https://t.co/IxewRtxN1r

UPDATE: Newsom quietly signed SB 155, authorizing up to $10M per year in state funds to match private donations to a media subsidy fund ($20M for the year, thanks to $10M from Google) overseen by California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development...

A Los Angeles man is now charged with federal prosecutors for committing fraud to secure funds to purchase a lot for $11.2 million, and flip that lot shortly thereafter to Weingart, the homeless services provider building the below towers, for $27.3 million. Why would Weingart

Note: my investigation was based on initial data sent to the state, which could change in the coming months due to lags in reporting schedules, just as crime data is often not fully accurate until some time the following year.

Ring says the state needs to lease more land to timber companies, approve grazing by goats, sheep and cows, both of which could generate public revenue while reducing wildfire risk, in addition to more prescribed burns.

However, some experts such as @edring note that even if the state were to dramatically increase funding for brush clearance and other risk reduction efforts, CA would come nowhere close to managing the 50 million acres of forest and brush across the state...

This comes as Newsom vetoes SB 326, a bill that would have strengthened brush clearance requirements, citing the program's cost; estimates for the cost of the January Los Angeles fires are in the hundreds of billions of dollars...

State funding for wildfire risk reduction has also declined in recent years from $988 million in FY 2021-2022 to $210 million in FY 2025-2026, though new funds approved by voters via Proposition 4 could offset at least some of this funding decline... https://t.co/IDWOrBsU9T

After the devastating January wildfires, is California doing more to reduce wildfire risk? My investigation found under 1% of projects expedited through a March order by Newsom are reported as complete, with project activity in a key program down 22%, based on initial reports...