04/29/2024

News

This company bags San Francisco for Portland

San Francisco bag-maker Chrome Industries is the latest apparel company to move operations to Portland. The company said its headquarters will relocate there in early April.

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Tesla switches on Gigafactory

The Palo Alto-based company began “mass production” of its lithium-ion battery cells Wednesday at its plant outside Reno, Nevada. The company has already partnered with Panasonic Corp. to build the batteries, which will be used in Tesla’s energy-storage products and in its Model 3 sedan, the company said in a blog post.

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Arizona Welcomes Uber Self-Driving Program After It Ditches California

“Arizona welcomes Uber self-driving cars with open arms and wide open roads. While California puts the brakes on innovation and change with more bureaucracy and more regulation, Arizona is paving the way for new technology and new businesses,” said Gov. Ducey. 

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Transamerica to close L.A. and Folsom offices, cutting hundreds of jobs

Financial services and insurance company Transamerica said Thursday that it will close its office in Los Angeles, cutting about 315 jobs.

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Here’s why California’s high-speed rail system wants permission to buy foreign train components

The California High-Speed Rail Authority filed a waiver request earlier this week with the Federal Railroad Administration that would exempt the authority from the “buy America” requirements of federal law because no U.S. passenger train manufacturers currently exist.

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German automotive supplier signs massive lease near Tesla

Eureka Landing will house around 200 employees and manufacture dashboard subassemblies for Tesla. The project will be finished later this month and SAS will move in January, after improvements are made in the HVAC and electrical systems.

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Is electric car start-up Faraday Future already running out of cash?

Faraday hasn’t paid $21 million due in September, with bills totaling an additional $25 million due for October and $12 million for November, according to Aecom, a multinational engineering firm. The Los Angeles company is the prime contractor for Faraday’s car factory under construction in North Las Vegas, which, if completed, is expected to turn out 150,000 cars annually.

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Electric carmaker that shortlisted Sacramento picks Arizona, according to report

Atieva, the electric carmaker that placed Sacramento on a short list this year for locating a car manufacturing plant, has selected a site in Arizona, according to the tech news site Recode.

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More California Companies Hearing ‘Move to Our State’ Pitches

Proving that for every action there is a reaction, new business-bashing actions applauded by Gov. Jerry Brown have boosted efforts by other states to recruit California companies to their friendlier locations. . . The representatives are able to project significant operating cost reductions when it comes to labor, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, health care, taxes, facility leases or purchases, regulatory compliance and transportation. Affordable housing in other parts of the country also make it easier for companies to attract and retain employees.

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Verizon to close Rancho Cordova centers; 1,000 workers offered out-of-state relocation

Verizon said the workers – approximately 700 in customer service and 300 in telesales – will be offered the opportunity to relocate to other customer service call and telesales centers outside of California.

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Dan Walters: Would Proposition 55 increase California’s losses to other states?

The temporary hike did not cause a noticeable outward flow, despite some anecdotal accounts. But Jerry Nickelsburg, who studies California’s economy for UCLA’s Anderson Forecast, suggests in a new report that making the nation’s highest marginal income tax rates at least semi-permanent could trigger flight.

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Urbanism, Texas-Style

Though California, with 12 percent of the American population, has more than 35 percent of the nation’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare caseload—with Latinos constituting nearly half the adult rolls in the state—Texas, with under 9 percent of the country’s population, has less than 1 percent of the national welfare caseload. Further, according to the 2014 American Community Survey, Texas Hispanics had a significantly lower rate of out-of-wedlock births and a higher marriage rate than California Hispanics.

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Motion Picture Association Fails to Refute Damaging Film Tax Credit Study

The studies, published by The American Review of Public Administration and American Politics Research, examine why states adopted or terminated film tax incentive programs and measures the effects of film tax credits in 40 states on employment and wages from 1998 to 2013. The authors found that sales tax waivers had no measurable effects; transferable tax credits had a small, sustained effect on employment but no effect on wages; and the most generous form of tax credit, refundable credits, had no employment effect and a temporary wage effect. Spending more on incentives had no lasting impact.

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‘Undersupply of Lunchables’ leads Kraft Heinz to keep Fullerton plant open, saving hundreds of jobs

“Given what’s happening in California, where we have a lot of legislative costs imposed on employers, and we have employers leaving California, this is pretty remarkable,” said Patrick Kelly, treasurer and principal officer of Teamsters Local 952, the union representing some of the factory’s workers.

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Where Apple Has Quietly Built Its Biggest Campus

Apple has quietly moved thousands of employees into a campus that is bigger than any other that the company currently has—and it’s not its Cupertino, Calif. headquarters.

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