In the the heart of California’s drought-parched Central Valley, fruit and vegetable supplier to the nation, a water district is defying a federal order to give some endangered trout a 3.9 billion gallon water ride out to sea. And it could be the first skirmish in a much wider conflict.
“First do no harm,” admonishes the Hippocratic Oath. That’s also a good prescription for the California economy. We’re certainly doing much better than during the Great Recession, but the state’s business climate still is not nearly as welcoming as in many other states.
Among the high-profile proposals CalChamber is targeting are SB 350 (Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles), a push to increase California’s use of renewable energy to 50 percent by 2030 that is backed by billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer; AB 357 (Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco), requiring retail and food service businesses to provide employees at least two weeks’ notice of their schedules; and SB 3 (Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco), another effort to raise the minimum wage.
It also framed another issue: When do licensing agencies cross the line that separates ensuring professional competency from protecting the regulated profession’s monopoly?
With California slogging into its fourth year of withering drought, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered mandatory water reductions of 25 percent in cities and towns across the state.
“A new white paper from CalChamber summarizes current employment law trends and offers practical advice for employers to minimize their potential workplace law liability. The white paper analyzes the “mixed bag” of employment law developments from new legislation and court decisions. “
The new organization, called the Economic Innovation Group, is premised on the idea that policy solutions to some longstanding economic challenges might break through with better engagement from successful private-sector investors and entrepreneurs.
The supervisors agreed to weigh the impact of not only requiring a higher baseline pay for their roughly 100,000 employees — the largest local government workforce in the United States — but also for county contractors and businesses in those unincorporated areas.
“Gas prices are higher in California than almost anywhere else in the nation, albeit markedly lower than they were a year ago. And there are reasons for that disparity. California’s fuel taxes are among the highest in the nation, the state Air Resources Board just imposed cap-and-trade fees on fuel, and the state requires unique, smog-fighting formulations.”
On Jan. 30, Californians paid an average of $2.43 for a gallon of gasoline, the lowest since May 2009, according to fuel tracking group GasBuddy.com. It shot up 93 cents in a month and has since been fluctuating around $3.20, nearly 80 cents more than the national average.
The legislation from Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, a Los Angeles Democrat, would increase the paid family leave program up to 10 weeks instead of the current maximum of six weeks, and would increase wages earned during that time on a new formula based on a worker’s regular wages.
Despite the large increases in economic inequality since 1970, American survey respondents exhibit no increase in support for redistribution, in contrast to the predictions from standard theories of redistributive preferences. . . In particular, the two groups who have most moved against income redistribution are the elderly and African-Americans, two groups relatively more reliant on it.
Cap-and-Trade revenues are primarily being spent in the southern Central Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California. Though there are clear guidelines for geographically allocating 25% of the Cap-and-Trade revenues, clear guidelines have not been established to geographically allocate the remaining 75%. This report outlines three potential principles for allocating the remaining funds geographically
For 90 minutes, clean energy production was slashed 1,142 megawatts, enough electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes, while dirtier power from less flexible sources stayed on to keep the system stable. . . It was the largest curtailment of green energy last year, according to grid operators, and it highlights a hurdle for Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to increase the state’s reliance on renewable energy. Peak demand for electricity rarely coincides with the brightest sunshine or the strongest winds, so finding a way to store clean power and deliver it when needed will be critical as California relies more on renewable energy.
“I hate to say this, but there’s no such thing as ‘green energy,’” says Doug Bell, a wildlife program manager for the East Bay Regional Park District who’s witnessed the deaths of hawks, owls, falcons, meadowlarks, robins and golden eagles. He and other environmentalists blame wind turbines for 10,000 bird deaths per year.