Senate Select Committees Not Worthwhile, Columnist Says

In a Sacramento Bee opinion piece, columnist Dan Walters writes that the state Senate has several select committees that "rarely, if ever, meet, and just as rarely produce worthwhile research and appear to exist mainly to give senators extra, off-the-books staff." He adds that a hearing held last week by the Senate Select Committee on Charity Care and Nonprofit Hospitals "appeared to be no more worthwhile than the non-activities of the non-meeting committees."

• "Dan Walters: A 'Hearing' That Was a Charade" (Walters, Sacramento Bee, 8/22).