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. […]
Democrats dream of powering society entirely with wind and solar farms combined with massive batteries. Realizing this dream would require the biggest expansion in mining the world has seen and would produce huge quantities of waste. “Renewable energy” is a misnomer. Wind and solar machines and batteries are built from nonrenewable materials. And they wear […]
Rising homelessness in California has spurred a rodent boom and resurgence of medieval disease. So naturally Democrats in the state Legislature want to ban rat poison. Earlier this year a rat infestation in downtown Los Angeles near a homeless encampment led to an outbreak of typhus. CatsUSA Pest Control, which was hired to investigate, warned […]
Our real estate market has been so good for so long that the recent slowdown in home sales and price dip has caught many sellers and a few agents by surprise. Buyers are always the first to sense when the market is changing. That’s likely because they are constantly on the internet searching for homes […]
Home builders are pulling back from new construction, the opposite of what economists say is needed to ease California’s housing affordability crisis. In the first six months of 2019, builders gained approval for 51,178 new homes in California, nearly 20% fewer than the same period a year earlier. That puts the state on track for […]
U.S. mortgage rates have tumbled to their lowest level in nearly three years, but they are unlikely to provide much of a lift to the sluggish home-sales market. Economists said the rates could provide a modest boost to sales during the final months of this year, though few expect cheaper borrowing costs to reverse the […]
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, […]
Public pension plans fell short of their projected returns this year, adding to the burden on governments struggling to fund promised benefits to retired workers. Public plans with more than $1 billion in assets earned a median return of 6.79% for the year ended June 30, the lowest since 2016, according to Wilshire Trust Universe […]