Face it, it’s a disgusting mess. And they’re going to make you eat it.
Calif. Rail Authority Tried to Intimidate Consultants to Hide $1B Cost Overrun
The estimated cost of the initial segment of California’s bullet train, Golden State Governor Jerry Brown’s pet project, has (excuse the pun) just shot up from $6.19 billion to $7.13 billion. If this is the only overrun encountered in this opening phase, which would be atypical, and if the California High Speed Rail Authority has similar experiences during the remainder of the project, assuming it’s ever completed, its cost will rise from a currently estimated $68 billion to about $78 billion.
Obviously a big cost overrun is news. But normally, evidence of an attempted government coverup of such an overrun is even bigger news. But not at the Los Angeles Times. The paper’s Ralph Vartabedian kept it out of his headline and waited until his story’s ninth paragraph to note it. Even then, his description was needlessly vague.
What kind of interest would the LAT have in telling their readers about corruption. They endorsed all the people, and their appointees, who committed the corrupt behavior. It’d be like telling readers “Vote for the guy we didn’t endorse.”