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Meanwhile, legislators who voted to abolish redevelopment have been writing proposals to re-establish it, with changes, under some other name.

Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley multimillionaire and registered Republican who once ran for governor and, briefly, U.S. Senate, wants state voters to endorse the wage jump that he predicts would nourish the economy and lift low-paid workers from dependency on food stamps and other assistance bankrolled by taxpayers.

American employers added a disappointing 74,000 jobs in December, a tally at odds with recent signs that the economy is gaining traction and moving beyond the supports put in place after the recession.

U.S. payrolls rose by 74,000 last month, the smallest monthly gain in three years, the Labor Department said Friday. The figure marked a sudden pullback from growth of 200,000 or more in the prior two months.

The Labor Department said the unemployment rate fell to 6.7% from 7%, though the decline was largely the result of people leaving the workforce. Economists had expected a gain of 200,000 jobs and a 7.0% jobless rate, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey.

California reported the largest drop in new claims of 14,635. It attributed the change to fewer layoffs in the service industry.

The California Department of Water Resources is planning to draft an emergency drought declaration for Gov. Jerry Brown’s consideration as dry winter conditions continue.

Private-sector payrolls increased by 238,000 positions in December, according to the national employment report compiled by payroll processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. and forecasting firm Moody’s Analytics. The gain is the highest ADP estimate since November 2012.

In their first legislative hearing for the year, the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment struck down a bill that would have allowed employers to negotiate a weekly schedule with non-exempt employees to work 10 hours in a day for four days without overtime pay.

California’s two top legislative leaders — both Democrats — have their eyes on 2014 as California faces big challenges in continuing to improve the state’s still underperforming economy.

After four years of a fragile and uneven recovery, the U.S. job machine is likely to kick into high gear in 2014. Even recession-battered states such as Arizona and Florida are expected to generate jobs at a healthier clip.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation plans to reduce flows in the river from the current 1,100 cubic feet per second to 800 cfs starting tonight, then in stages each night afterward until flows reach just 500 cfs on Friday, said Tom Gohring, executive director of the Sacramento Water Forum.

The City of Calistoga has pumped the last drop of drinking water it can from its main reservoir. No rain this winter would mean no water at all from behind the Kimball Dam next summer.

The sinuous Colorado River and its slew of man-made reservoirs from the Rockies to southern Arizona are being sapped by 14 years of drought nearly unrivaled in 1,250 years.

Ecologists warn that economic growth is strangling the natural systems on which life depends, creating not just wealth, but filth on a planetary scale. Carbon pollution is changing the climate. Water shortages, deforestation, tens of millions of acres of land too polluted to plant, and other global environmental ills are increasingly viewed as strategic risks by governments and corporations around the world.

California reported the largest drop in new jobless claims of 5,429. It attributed the change to fewer layoffs in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries.