Judge’s Double-Dipping Pool 

With public pension costs going through the roof, the stock market flat, and a shortage of tax dollars to make up the difference, politicians everywhere say they’re looking for ways to force “double-dippers” — government workers who have retired once and gone on to other taxpayer-paid posts — to surrender some of the money. One local example is U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan, appointed to the bench here in 1998 by President Bill Clinton. A former deputy district attorney and state superior court judge, Whelan collects two public pensions in addition to his salary: $42,414 annually from the County of San Diego and $44,433 from the state’s judicial retirement system, according to his financial disclosure filing for 2010. Federal district judges currently make $174,000 a year