Climate change is rapidly becoming America’s biggest economic and business challenge, and no state is doing more to address it than California. The Golden State has not just led the way in challenging the do-nothing policies of the Trump administration by requiring its electric companies to switch to renewable energy sources and preserving higher fuel […]
A lot has changed in California politics over the last ten years. We have gone from a novice celebrity governor to a seasoned hand to our first Gen X executive. We’ve seen record budget deficits and record surpluses. We have transitioned to a plurality Latino state and have seen the gap between haves and have-nots […]
In California, Schools & Communities First announced that it would file a new version of an initiative to require commercial and industrial properties, except those zoned as commercial agriculture, to be taxed based on their market value. Currently, Proposition 13 (1978) requires the taxable value of residential, commercial, and industrial properties to be based on […]
A press conference Tuesday by the California Business Roundtable had state, labor leaders and the business community there to call upon Governor Gavin Newsom to support a wide array of energy options to power the state of California, rather than allowing the current trend of ridding the state of oil and gas energy, and supporting electricity only. […]
California’s new online community college officially starts in eight weeks but it has yet to have a formal application for students or identify employers that will host its three new industry-certified programs. But Calbright College’s new president, Heather Hiles, said the institution is on track to meet those goals by its Oct. 1 start date. […]
Former Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature law, the Local Control Funding Formula, has frustrated researchers and advocacy groups that have wanted to verify how much of the extra money intended for targeted students has actually gone to the schools they attend — and how the funding was used. Consistent with his view of local control, Brown […]
When a preschool teacher at a San Mateo center began to struggle to interact with children, supervisors became concerned. The reason for the teacher’s drop in performance? She was hungry. “Our teachers are having to make choices between rent and food and getting to work,” said Heather Cleary, CEO at Peninsula Family Service, which runs […]
If you know anything about solar and wind farms, you know they’re good at generating electricity when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, and not so good at other times. Batteries can pick up the slack for a few hours. But they’re less useful when the sun and wind disappear for days […]
The EPA proposed a rule Friday designed to limit blue states’ ability to reject oil and gas pipeline projects. The proposed rule implements an April executive order from President Trump to rein in state use of Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. That provision of the law allows states to deny permits if leaks […]
Worries about the health of the economy and increasingly uncertain trade relations between the U.S. and China will put further pressure on global oil demand in 2019, the International Energy Agency said Friday. In its closely watched oil-market report, the IEA downgraded its forecast for global oil-demand growth for the third time in four months, […]
Dean Fealk, 46, of Piedmont, has been appointed to the California Workforce Development Board. Fealk has been partner and co-chair of the international labor and employment practice at DLA Piper since 2007 and general counsel, honorary chair and co-founder at the Halifax International Security Forum since 2011. He was an advisor on the Europe and […]
It’s been almost two years since Bill Gates announced a major shift to locally driven solutions in the education funding strategy of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the nation’s largest charitable foundation. Gates said he remains “driven by the same guiding principle we started with: all students — but especially low-income students and students […]
Two groups of multibillion-dollar hedge funds are fighting over control of PG&E Corp. in a battle with huge implications for California’s largest electric utility and the thousands of wildfire victims who hold claims against the bankrupt company. What had been a quiet tug-of-war turned into a hostile takeover battle late Wednesday. PG&E’s major bondholders, in […]
The fight to kick natural gas out of homes and businesses is intensifying. In a vote late Tuesday, Berkeley — the city near San Francisco long known for its progressive politics — banned the use of the heating fuel in most new buildings. Environmentalists are hailing it as the first city to enact such a […]
School is out for summer. But in Tracy, Calif., teachers have been hard at work. Inside the staff development training room at the Tracy Unified School District, a group of about 25 teachers and curriculum specialists gathered this summer to overhaul the district’s approach to teaching science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. The plan […]