On Friday, the average for a gallon of regular in the Los Angeles area was higher than $4 for the first time since July, according to daily fuel price reports by AAA and GasBuddy.com. The recent surge in regional fuel prices has left local drivers paying more on average than motorists anywhere else in the U.S.
Kish Rajan has stepped down as director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, the agency said Thursday. He’s taking a job as president of the Southern California Leadership Council, a nonprofit focused on economic policy issues.
Rather then trying to convince nations to impose the costs of more expensive clean energy on their citizens, it is time to raise the white flag on carbon targets and present a new approach that will actually help mitigate climate change: focusing on driving technological innovation to make clean energy affordable for all.
The homeless population jumped 12% in the last two years in both the city and county of Los Angeles, driven by soaring rents, low wages and stubbornly high unemployment, according to a report released Monday.
State Water Resources Control Board officials said Monday that they expect to issue “curtailment orders” soon to the state’s most senior water rights holders, effectively shutting off the flow of river water to some of the major agricultural districts in California.
Gov. Jerry Brown says critics of his water tunnel plan who haven’t spent 1 million hours studying it — as his administration has — should just shut up. . . only a government could spend that much time on a project and not turn a shovel.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s January proposal underestimated the amount available in the coming fiscal year by as much as $3.9 billion and most likely by around $1.3 billion, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. The updated numbers will come this week in Brown’s May revision.
. . . the California Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau recommended, and Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones approved, a 5 percent reduction in base premiums paid by employers for coverage – although their costs would remain the nation’s highest, averaging $3.48 per $100 of payroll in the latest survey.
While supporters view charters as an effective means to help kids circumvent some of the poorest-performing public schools, the teachers’ unions argue charters have unfair advantages. So the California Teachers Association has sponsored a package of bills designed to “level the playing field” or hobble charter schools with bureaucracy — depending on one’s perspective.
The WCRI, based in Cambridge, Mass., said that in 2013, the first year the reform took effect, the average medical payment per claim declined by 5 percent after steady increases over the preceding half-decade. The decline in California also contrasted with medical cost increases in other states, the study noted.
On Monday the Santa Ana-based for-profit shut down its remaining 28 schools, which no buyer would purchase amid the government’s regulatory ambush. The closure displaces 16,000 or so students—many mere months away from graduation—and 2,500 workers.
In a news release Sunday, Corinthian said it has had trouble selling its schools because local and federal authorities sought to “impose financial penalties and conditions” on prospective buyers.
Since 2008, the CalChamber has identified bills that will improve the state’s job climate and stimulate the economy, designating these proposals as job creators. In general, the job creator bills include solutions that will enhance the state’s economy . . .
“Some years back, Soitec Solar arrived in San Diego with the promise of good jobs and the ability to deploy industry-leading solar technology at prospective local solar sites. Yet, these local solar projects – centered in the San Diego County community of Boulevard – were tied up with the county for roughly three years, just receiving approval from the Board of Supervisors this February. Untangling the causes for this outcome after the fact is difficult, but one major issue was the desire to avoid or appease the local planning group’s absolutist opposition. The result was an unnecessarily belabored process under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). “
It may be one of the thorniest, and most critical, votes the California congressional delegation has faced in decades, a proposal pitting Silicon Valley and Hollywood against big labor over a trade pact the Obama administration calls a linchpin of its economic agenda.