The Legislature went home for a month Thursday, but not before handing aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp. a controversial $420-million tax break.
Branded as a sweetheart deal for Lockheed, the bill sailed through the Assembly and Senate — but only after critics forced state officials to pledge that they would seek a similar incentive for aerospace rival Northrop Grumman.
In a blow to San Diego’s economy, Active Network will relocate to Dallas thanks in part to an $8.6 million check from the Texas Government.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced Thursday that the Active Network, which specializes in cloud-based software, will open a headquarters in downtown Dallas, and create 1,000 jobs at an average salary of $72,000 per year. This is the second San Diego company owned by Vista Equity to be lured to Texas this year. In February, Perry authorized $4.5 million to Websense to move its headquarters to Austin.
Democratic fissures over California’s cap-and-trade mandates deepened on Thursday, with a key moderate Democrat introducing a bill to push back a looming rule expected to cause a spike in prices at the pump.
Nearly 80% of the state was under “extreme” drought conditions in June, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map. Within that area, the amount considered to be in the highest category of drought — “exceptional” — grew from 33% in May to 36%.
As Americans drive to barbecues and the beach in coming days, they will be paying more for gas than on any Independence Day weekend since the record highs of 2008.
A gallon of unleaded gasoline cost an average of $3.67 Wednesday, almost 20 cents above last year’s price, according to automobile club AAA. In California, drivers have been paying well over $4 a gallon for weeks.
U.S. employers added jobs at a robust clip in June and the unemployment rate fell, signs of labor-market strength as the economic recovery heads into its sixth year.
Nonfarm employment advanced at a seasonally adjusted 288,000 last month, the Labor Department said Thursday. The combined gains for the prior two months were revised up 29,000. April’s 304,000 increase was the strongest since January 2012.
California was one of the states that has managed to regain all of its jobs — barely. Its job growth from January 2008 to May 2014 was 0.4%, sitting in the middle of the pack compared to other states.
Currently, Los Angeles has a living wage ordinance that requires that city contractors pay at least $12.28 per hour without health benefits, or slightly less with health benefits, according to its Bureau of Contract Administration website.
Lawmakers, including State Senators Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and Norma Torres, D-Chino, spoke out against a program they say would amount to a new gas tax at a press conference held at the Pacific Mountain Logistics facility in Ontario on Wednesday. They were joined by representatives from areas of business, including Gayle Covey, executive director of the San Bernardino Farm Bureau, and Tracy Rafter, CEO of the Los Angeles Business Federation.
Of the nearly 64,000 who received a single associate degree in the 2012-13 academic year, the median student took 4.1 years, the nonprofit Campaign for College Opportunity said.
About 215,000 state employees will be seeing a few dollars more in their next paycheck. Some workers say getting the more than four percent raise in one lump sum would be better.
Thanks to high birth and immigration rates over the last several decades, California has one of the nation’s lowest proportions of over-65 residents – but it also has one of its higher elderly growth rates, a new Census Bureau report reveals.
An independent hearing officer Monday dealt a major setback to Los Angeles’ effort to rein in public employee pension costs, concluding that elected officials violated labor law when they voted to roll back retirement benefits for new civilian workers without negotiating with labor leaders..
SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said late Monday night that they have agreed to a 24-hour extension of the film and TV contracts that were set to expire at midnight June 30.
The Senate Finance and Governance Committee approved the measure, Assembly Bill 2389, but only after adding amendments to limit its effect on the state’s treasury, which proponents said could undermine hopes of gaining the project in competition with other states and companies.