Democratic fissures over California’s cap-and-trade mandates deepened on Thursday, with a key moderate Democrat introducing a bill to push back a looming rule expected to cause a spike in prices at the pump.
Nearly 80% of the state was under “extreme” drought conditions in June, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map. Within that area, the amount considered to be in the highest category of drought — “exceptional” — grew from 33% in May to 36%.
As Americans drive to barbecues and the beach in coming days, they will be paying more for gas than on any Independence Day weekend since the record highs of 2008.
A gallon of unleaded gasoline cost an average of $3.67 Wednesday, almost 20 cents above last year’s price, according to automobile club AAA. In California, drivers have been paying well over $4 a gallon for weeks.
U.S. employers added jobs at a robust clip in June and the unemployment rate fell, signs of labor-market strength as the economic recovery heads into its sixth year.
Nonfarm employment advanced at a seasonally adjusted 288,000 last month, the Labor Department said Thursday. The combined gains for the prior two months were revised up 29,000. April’s 304,000 increase was the strongest since January 2012.
California was one of the states that has managed to regain all of its jobs — barely. Its job growth from January 2008 to May 2014 was 0.4%, sitting in the middle of the pack compared to other states.
Lawmakers, including State Senators Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and Norma Torres, D-Chino, spoke out against a program they say would amount to a new gas tax at a press conference held at the Pacific Mountain Logistics facility in Ontario on Wednesday. They were joined by representatives from areas of business, including Gayle Covey, executive director of the San Bernardino Farm Bureau, and Tracy Rafter, CEO of the Los Angeles Business Federation.
Of the nearly 64,000 who received a single associate degree in the 2012-13 academic year, the median student took 4.1 years, the nonprofit Campaign for College Opportunity said.
Thanks to high birth and immigration rates over the last several decades, California has one of the nation’s lowest proportions of over-65 residents – but it also has one of its higher elderly growth rates, a new Census Bureau report reveals.
Why has the labor market contracted so much and why does it remain depressed? Major subsidies and regulations intended to help the poor and unemployed were changed in more than a dozen ways—and although these policies were advertised as employment-expanding, the fact is that they reduced incentives for people to work and for businesses to hire.
About 956,000 Sacramento residents were employed in 2013, compared to 982,000 in 2007, the year before the recession began. Sacramento has added another 14,000 jobs so far in 2014 but still lags behind the pre-recession total. The United States as a whole has regained all of the jobs lost during the recession.
There’s also an element of hypocrisy. The state’s Democratic politicians have uniformly rejected criticism that the state’s high taxes and dense regulatory thicket discourage job-creating investment. But if that’s true, why then do they then offer subsidies to certain favored industries to keep them from fleeing . . . Rather than handing our money to particular industries or companies, wouldn’t it be fairer – and more seemly – to make California more attractive to all would-be job creators and avoid the shadowy politics of targeted subsidies?
Despite the steadily decreasing unemployment rate, a majority of voters describe the employment situation in the state as very serious. Sixty-four percent say jobs are difficult to find in their communities, while just 21 percent have the impression they’re widely abundant.
The U.S. economy contracted at a much steeper pace than previously estimated in the first quarter, but there are indications that growth has since rebounded strongly.
Seven of the lowest rated cities in the country were found in California – of 82 cities rated, San Jose was #68, Santa Rosa #70, Riverside #71, Los Angeles #74, Oxnard #76, San Diego #78, and Sacramento #82. Sacramento was rated the worst city in the country for small business.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation has released its annual Enterprising States study, offering an in-depth look at the free enterprise policies being implemented to promote economic growth at the state and local levels. . . The 2014 report relates these policies and practices to the need for collaboration between education, workforce development, and economic development to positively combat the nation’s growing skills gap.
