California Roundup: Professors Can't Do Math

* Another day, another multi-billion-dollar explosion in government employee pension costs. The University of California system is on the hook for $20 billion thanks to a 20-year-old decision to stop paying into the retirement system (in the belief that it was overfunded). Aside from demonstrating the limits of college-level math skills, this screwup adds more complexity to California's public sector pension crisis, as UC system employees are outside the purview of the governor and thus are not part of the big pension rollback Gov. Schwarzenegger is trying to get.

* Speaking of stalled pension rollbacks, Dan Walters checks on the health of Assembly Bill 1987, which started out as an anti-pension-spiking law, got amended to the point that it became a pro-spiking law, and now has been re-amended into what may be a "marginal improvement."

* HAMPellujah! Latest hardworking American who has been helped to stay in her home after a mortgage default: Real housewife of Orange County Alexis Bellino.

* Public Policy Institute of California says, "California loses very few jobs to other states," and argues that the state's low scores on business climate rankings result from "a definition of 'business climate' that's far too limited." John Seiler at CalWatchdog does an extensive coulda-fooled-me in response.

* Don't blame us! California turns out to be near the bottom of states in per-capita federal spending.