Brickbat: Not Counting Every Penny

Read the original at Reason ↗
Cite

Oliver, C. (2026, October 14). Brickbat: Not Counting Every Penny. Reason. https://reason.com/2026/10/14/brickbat-not-counting-every-penny/

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Reason · collected 2026-10-14 · by Charles Oliver

Quick Summary

A California state audit revealed significant misuse of taxpayer money within several state agencies, including malpractices in the Controller's office under Malia Cohen. The audit found that over a year, senior officials deliberately avoided recovering $33,000 in salary overpayments to two employees by canceling payroll deductions and failing to implement an alternative repayment plan as required by law. Additionally, the report highlighted instances of out-of-state remote work in violation of state rules, leading to an overall identification of approximately $885,000 in wasted or improperly used public funds across nine cases involving multiple agencies.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-14, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

A California state auditor found that Malia Cohen's office deliberately stalled for over a year to recover more than $33,000 in salary overpayments from two employees, violating state law by failing to collect one employee’s debt. The audit also revealed that two managers worked remotely from Idaho, Tennessee, and Alabama despite restrictions on out-of-state telework. Across nine cases involving multiple state agencies, about $885,000 in taxpayer money was wasted or improperly spent. This investigation highlights issues of waste, mismanagement, and misuse of public funds within California's state agencies.

Written for “Budget Cuts Criticism” on 2026-10-14, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.35, but every quote it verified points right, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 78695: score contradicts its own evidence · logged 2026-10-14

Story

📰 Budget Cuts Criticism
Economy/Business · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Controller Malia Cohen’s office is out of control different event · 50%
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 6% hedged 1 of 17 📰 publisher trust 67
“While both articles discuss issues in Malia Cohen's office related to overpayments and financial mismanagement, they refer to different aspects of the same broader set of problems rather than a single specific incident.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
6
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 6 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
66/100
Reason's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Economy/Business
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-14 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Reason · 710 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)
2026-10-02
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2026-09-26
"I Will Not Stand for Being Jerked Around … by Any Lawyer Who Practices Before Me"
2026-09-18
New Article: Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections: Bringing Clarity To The Necessary and Proper Clause
2026-09-05
Lawyers' Responsibility for Hallucinations in Briefs That They Sign

Who wrote this

Charles Oliver
25 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
🔮 Supporters say the program will help struggling newsrooms survive.
2026-10-13 · mixed framing · Brickbat: Paying the Piper
🔮 Body camera footage shows that officers apparently did not consider that Page might be experiencing a medical emergency, despite his confused behavior and difficulty following commands.
2026-09-30 · assertive framing · Brickbat: Bad Dog
🔮 Stephens replied that he would have sued, to which Bell replied that qualified immunity would have protected him.
2026-09-29 · assertive framing · Brickbat: Evidence Is Overrated
🔮 The bureaucrats suggested that full hearing videos and transcripts should instead be made available, potentially with comments disabled, so the public could see the complete context.
2026-09-22 · mixed framing · Brickbat: Unclipped
🔮 Education Department officials say they withheld the test results to protect student privacy and prevent the release of information that could identify individual students, but critics argue that the privacy explanation is a cover for hiding how poorly many public schools are performing.
2026-09-18 · mixed framing · Brickbat: Testing Our Patience
🔮 The girls, along with several other children, twisted the swing's chains so it would spin them around, and the swing eventually broke.
2026-09-17 · assertive framing · Brickbat: Swing, Swing
🔮 The companies will face greater transparency requirements and government oversight.
2026-09-15 · assertive framing · Brickbat: E.U. Blues
🔮 Immigrant-owned small businesses in East Harlem that spoke out against Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan for city-owned supermarkets say they are suddenly receiving more New York City sanitation fines than normal, and some believe it is retaliation.
2026-09-14 · mixed framing · Brickbat: Keeping the Peace
🔮 Officials from the Department of Labor and Industries received a complaint claiming the volunteers are not handling the dangerous items safely and could be exposed to blood-borne diseases or other risks.
2026-09-10 · mixed framing · Brickbat: Clean Break
🔮 A member of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang from Port Willunga, South Australia, has been arrested and charged with breaching a firearms prohibition order and being unlawfully present at a shooting gallery.
2026-09-04 · assertive framing · Brickbat: Duck and Cover
Also by Charles Oliver
Brickbat: Paying the Piper
2026-10-13 · Reason
Brickbat: …in All the Wrong Places
2026-10-09 · Reason
Brickbat: Wrong Door
2026-10-07 · Reason
Brickbat: No Right to an Attorney
2026-10-05 · Reason
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 25 articles by Charles Oliver →

Topics

Alabama California Idaho Tennessee

Subjects

Alabama GPE · 1× California GPE · 1× Cohen PERSON · 1× Idaho GPE · 1× Malia Cohen PERSON · 1× Tennessee GPE · 1×

Narrative

The investigation found that for over a year, senior officials in Cohen's office deliberately stalled the recovery of more than $33,000 in salary overpayments to two employees, canceling a required payroll deduction while considering an alternative plan to seek state payments on the employees' behalf.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-14
2026-10-14 · Reason
Brickbat: Not Counting Every Penny · assertive framing

Claims (6 extracted, 0 hedged)

A California state auditor found waste, mismanagement, and misuse of taxpayer money inside several state agencies, including the office of state Controller Malia Cohen, which is responsible for managing state finances and payroll. asserted
which → find → finances
The investigation found that for over a year, senior officials in Cohen's office deliberately stalled the recovery of more than $33,000 in salary overpayments to two employees, canceling a required payroll deduction while considering an alternative plan to seek state payments on the employees' behalf. asserted
officials → find → behalf
Officials never carried out that plan, and asserted
Officials → carry → plan
the auditor concluded that the office violated state law by failing to collect one employee's debt. asserted
office → conclude → debt
The investigation also found that two managers worked remotely from Idaho, Tennessee, and Alabama despite rules restricting out-of-state telework. asserted
managers → find → telework
Across nine cases involving multiple state agencies, the auditor identified about $885,000 in wasted, misused, uncollected, or improperly spent public funds. asserted
auditor → involve → funds
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