The income gap between African Americans and whites in California has reached its widest point in decades, a trend that reflects a broader, growing chasm between the state’s wealthy and poor, experts said.
We applaud the governor’s efforts to protect our environment and address climate change. But the proposed goals will not come cheaply, with additional costs pinching the wallet of every Californian. We feel the need to ask an important question: How do we get there without emptying our pocketbooks and further burdening millions already living in poverty?
Data released today by the BLS indicates that the electricity price indexes hit all-time highs for the month of December and for the year. 2014 was the most-expensive year ever for electricity in the United States.
U.S. consumers are seeing prices rise at the slowest annual pace in more than five years, largely thanks to a global plunge in oil prices, presenting a potential complication for the Federal Reserve as it looks to raise interest rates this year.
The Port of Oakland has reached an all-time high in cargo volume last year, and that’s largely because the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles diverted some of their cargo north, the Sacramento Bee reports. In December, the Southern California ports rerouted a total of 74,356 containers to Oakland.
The move — which means another loss of a publicly held company for the capital region — was effective Wednesday. But it is not a surprise.
Jobs in the the solar sector have jumped 86% since 2010 and employment is expected to continue to rise in 2015 and 2016, although an expiring tax credit may stunt growth, according to the report. . . About 62% of installation firms said they would lay off workers once the 30% federal investment tax credit expires and reverts to 10% in 2017.
California is overtaking Brazil as the world’s seventh-largest economy, bolstered by rising employment, home values and personal and corporate income, a year after the most-populous state surpassed Russia and Italy.
Economic activity in the Twelfth District continued to improve moderately during the reporting period of mid-November through late December 2014. Overall price and wage inflation remained modest. Retail sales and demand for business and consumer services increased moderately. Overall manufacturing activity picked up, while agricultural conditions were mixed. Real estate activity advanced, mainly in the commercial construction sector. Lending activity was mixed.
Federal spending on such side projects has increased 38% since 2008, while highway spending is flat. Here’s what the politicians won’t say: Simply using the taxes that are supposed to pay for highways to, well, pay for highways makes the HTF 98% solvent for the next decade, no tax increase necessary.
In practice, Proposition 103 prevents insurers from offering time-sensitive rate adjustments that allow consumers to realize the benefits of competition. This out-of-date and clumsy initiative also inhibits companies from creating and offering new insurance products, as is necessary for transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft.
California farmers now must abide by the nation’s strictest rules for a widely used pesticide in a change designed to protect farmworkers and people who live and work near agricultural fields but is likely to raise prices on produce.
Now, with congestion worsening at the nation’s busiest seaport complex and the Pacific Maritime Association’s suspending all ship-unloading on night shifts, all eyes turn to the warring longshore workers union and their employers, the PMA, to quickly resolve a contract through federal mediation.
Taught by local construction workers, young men and women on the margins learn how to operate heavy equipment at Job Corps’ sprawling Meadowview center before they move to “The Ranch,” Operating Engineers Local 3’s Rancho Murieta training grounds. There, they receive seven weeks’ more paid instruction with the opportunity to apprentice with the union and work with local construction firms.
Those additional pension costs steadily increase until 2046. That year, districts are expected to spend an additional $9.3 billion over what they would have under the prior structure. The state would contribute an additional $2.2 billion that year, and teachers would chip in $1 billion.