TAX BYTES

Not too trashy

An ex-sanitation worker for Los Angeles County is one of the top 100 highest pension earners in the CalPERS and CalSTRS systems, according to the Sacramento Bee, drawing the sum of $345,417 per year.

Moonlighting on the Bullet Train?

Two employees at California State University, Fresno, took long breaks and sometimes left the campus, skipping 5,100 hours of work over five years and getting paid $111,000 for it.

Asleep at the wheel

A Department of Motor Vehicles employee slept at her desk for more than 2,200 work hours between 2014 and 2017, costing state taxpayers over $40,000.

No charge

In 2013, a manager at California State University, Dominguez Hills, ordered his staff to buy a $7,000 electric vehicle quick charger, without checking to see if it was compatible with the campus energy system. It wasn’t. Five years later, it still hasn’t been installed.

Enough research already

The National Institutes of Health spent $356,000 studying whether Japanese quail are more promiscuous on cocaine. Scientists say we could learn whether cocaine leads to high-risk behavior.