Free Republic

The state auditor is deepening her probe into why state transportation officials withheld vital Bay Bridge documents and is threatening subpoenas for the first time. In a letter sent Monday to state Transportation Secretary Sunne Wright McPeak, State Auditor Elaine Howle demanded an investigation into why an April 2004 Caltrans report was never turned over to her office. It showed Caltrans knew the bridge repair program had shattered the budget by $1 billion. "I first learned of this document's existence at the (Jan. 26 Senate Transportation) committee hearing. I am very disturbed by Caltrans' failure to provide the draft quarterly...

Guest columnist King County voters in good hands By Corky Mattingly Special to The Times I've been particularly troubled by one recurring comment regarding the gubernatorial recount in King County. It pertains to county Elections Director Dean Logan's professionalism and integrity. There also have been suggestions that Logan's decisions are based on partisan politics and are without justification or regard to Washington state law. As president of the Washington State Association of County Auditors, I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. All 39 counties conducted the recount process according to the rules currently in place, which are...

According to conventional wisdom, making government responsive is a conservative issue. All Democrats care about, after all, is making government bigger and more intrusive, not making it leaner and more efficient. So now that Democrats control both houses of the state legislature and the governorship, forget about something like performance audits of state agencies, right? Au contraire. While you might expect Olympia Dems to concentrate on predictable liberal issues--gay rights, tax increases, transit funding--they are instead coming out of the blocks by stealing a page from the Republican playbook: They're talking about making government accountable. Performance audits appear to be...

If you want to witness Washington state lawmakers make critical decisions affecting your pocketbook or business, you once again have two choices – watch on TVW or from the public galleries in the Legislative Building. Legislators are again working in the beautiful, 76-year-old edifice that was refurbished at a cost of $120 million. Aside from the gubernatorial controversy, lawmakers will be debating answers to vital fiscal questions: 1. Will they stick with the priorities of government, or raise taxes? 2. Will they eliminate waste? 3. Will they make it easier to retain workers by reforming the costly workers’ compensation and...

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Kevin Shelley bent rules, missed deadlines and failed to do proper paperwork as he spent millions of dollars in federal election money, state Auditor Elaine Howle told a legislative committee conducting its first hearing Monday to investigate the embattled state elections official. Howle meticulously told the Joint Legislative Audit Committee that Shelley's management failures, which also included the questionable use of federal money, added up to "disregard for proper controls and poor oversight" of money given California to modernize its voting systems. But a representative of Shelley's office testified under oath that much of the...

Brock ousts Ready November 3, 2004 By John Zicconi Vermont Press Bureau BURLINGTON — Republican Randy Brock made history Tuesday, unseating two-term incumbent Auditor Elizabeth Ready to become the first African-American to win a Vermont statewide election. Along the way, he won by a comfortable 10-point margin, garnering 52 percent of the vote to Ready's 42 percent with more than 92 percent of the vote counted. "I am looking forward to changing the tone at the top," Brock said Tuesday night. "We're going to focus not on finger-pointing, but on keeping people out of trouble." Ready declined to make a...

A city official who questioned the outcome of a police investigation into alleged eavesdropping during an audit of the city's botched deal for Cisco Systems equipment said Monday that he is now confident about the police department's findings. He also no longer believes his e-mail messages were intercepted. ``I'm convinced, my staff is convinced: It did not happen,'' said City Auditor Gerald Silva, whose suspicions late last month launched a high-tech criminal probe into whether San Jose's former chief technology officer, Wandzia Grycz, had spied on e-mail exchanges between Silva and City Attorney Rick Doyle. The two men had detected...

Term limits for the top five? The court ruling didn't apply to the governor and 4 other elected leaders, but they haven't indicated that challenging the law is in their plans. By Ilene Olson rep3@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - Since Wyoming's term-limits law for legislators was overturned, many have wondered what that could mean for the law that requires the state's top five elected officials to step down after eight years of service. In a decision last week, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled the law limiting legislators to 12 years of service in the House of Representatives...

<p>RELATED STORIES • Fletcher leads for governor • How the poll was conducted • Top Democrats chide local GOP • Poll results Democrat Greg Stumbo continues to lead in the three-way race for attorney general, while the state auditor's race remains a virtual tie, according to The Courier-Journal's latest Bluegrass Poll.</p>

Lifelong Democrat announcing her run for state auditor A lifelong Democrat and former deputy state auditor planned to switch party affiliation today and take on her former boss for the elected position of state auditor. Lisa Thornburg, former deputy state auditor and lifelong Democrat, planned to say this morning that she changed party affiliation because the state needs a change, according to a copy of her speech provided to the Daily Mail. So why not just take on current auditor and Democrat Glen Gainer? Thornburg said she has found herself voting Republican more and more in the past years. "I...

<p>Former Louisiana Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle said Friday he's probably more familiar with how to cut the waste out of the state's budget than any other gubernatorial candidate.</p> <p>Kyle paid a short visit to Monroe to discuss the lack of leadership statewide in the efforts to bring economic development to the state.</p>

Brad Moore initiated is campaign on the final filing day for candidates for statewide offices, along with four other Republican candidates. Each assumed they might be the sole candidate for the Primary election. Mr. Moore was concerned about the amount of time a state-wide campaign demanded but wanted to make sure a qualified candidate represented the Commonwealth and the Republican Party. With a background in both business and law, Mr. Moore was prepared to conduct a candidacy stressing the need for enforcing business fundamentals, e.g., fiscal responsibility, and combining that with the legal knowledge to interpret legislative guidance. After withdrawing...

<p>The political arm of the Kentucky Right to Life Association, the state's leading anti-abortion group, has endorsed Republican Ernie Fletcher and Democrat Jody Richards for governor in the May 20 primary election.</p> <p>The endorsement could be a greater boost for Richards, who has trailed in fund-raising and polls in his Democratic race with Attorney General Ben Chandler and businessman Bruce Lunsford.</p>

NEW YORK -- The parting of ways last week between Calpine Corp. (NYSE:CPN - News) and its former independent auditor, Deloitte & Touche LLP, was a mutual decision and wasn't based on any unresolved disagreements, Calpine said Friday. The San Jose, Calif. power company and the accounting firm had previously wrangled over the accounting treatment of power sales agreements associated with power plants for which Calpine had used sale-leaseback transactions. Such transactions are central to Calpine's business model. Calpine agreed in early March to reclassify two sale-leasebacks as financial transactions instead of operating leases. In a Form 8-K filing to...

<p>SACRAMENTO - In the wake of the Oracle software contract debacle, the state auditor on Wednesday blasted the Davis administration for shoddy oversight that allowed agencies to abuse the system by pushing purchases through quickly, but not necessarily for the best value.</p>

<p>Former state auditor Dan Kyle says he will be "the anti-corruption governor."</p> <p>"Absolutely," he said. "I've spent 13 and a half years fighting corruption in this state and I don't intend to give that up now or ever."</p> <p>Kyle, officially announced his candidacy for governor as a Republican at Pride Flight Services Monday at the Alexandria International Airport after making earlier stops in Baton Rouge, Kenner, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Shreveport and Monroe to make his announcement.</p>

** 2003 KENTUCKY ELECTIONS UPDATE ** Time is running out for anyone who wants to file for a State Constitutional Office this year in Kentucky. The deadline is Tuesday, January 28th, at 4pm. You have two weeks left. Folks, if you go to the Kentucky State Board of Elections , you will see that, right now, there are NO Republicans filed for the offices of State Auditor , State Treasurer , and State Agriculture Commissioner . Only ONE Republican (Jack D. Wood, Valley Station) has filed to run for Attorney General and only ONE Republican (Trey Grayson, Ft. Mitchell) has...

Convicted felon's primary victory stuns Missouri GOP By MATT STEARNS The Kansas City Star Al Hanson, Missouri's surprise Republican nominee for state auditor, didn't feel much like talking the morning after his upset victory over the state GOP establishment. "I'm really not that interested in giving any interviews," Hanson said Wednesday by phone from his Concordia home. "My wife and I are going to take a few days and get away for a while. We'll be putting something like this off for at least a week." Turning down free media coverage might be a questionable strategy, given the Republican Party's...

Duncan Agrees to work with prosecutorsA senior Arthur Anderson auditor was charged Tuesday with a single obstruction charge, and has agreed to plead guilty to thwarting the government's invesitgation into the collapse of Enron Corp, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.