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One would think that the nearly universal experience of buying electricity – not to mention its indispensable economic importance – would make politicians reluctant to mess with it.

But one would be wrong. The Capitol’s denizens incessantly tinker with the state’s power system, usually in ways that cost consumers more money. And it’s why Californians are already paying power rates that are among the nation’s very highest and headed even higher very soon.

Last year, Steinberg got a bill passed that bent the CEQA rules to expedite the proposed new arena in downtown Sacramento. Two years before, the billionaire owner of Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles also got legislative relief for his proposed and still-unbuilt football stadium.

If Steinberg wants to leave an economic legacy larger than Musk’s battery factory (which, again, we support), he would use this opportunity to get CEQA fixed – not just for billionaires and sports teams – but for everyone.

Los Angeles County has established very close economic ties with China. The Los Angeles Customs District (LACD) handles over 40% of total U.S., trade with China. Indeed, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together handle nearly 37% of total trade between China and the U.S. In fact, roughly 60% of two-way trade volumes at the Port of LA and the Port of Long Beach and over 50% of the total two-way trade value at the Los Angeles Customs District (LACD) are related to trade with China.

With the U.S. economy advancing slowly but surely in 2013 and with the nation’s major trading partners in various stages of recovery or expansion, international trade at the national level grew modestly last year and let to continued improvement in the Southern California goods movement and trade picture. The Los Angeles Customs District (LACD) held onto the top spot among customs districts for two-way trade last year, while container activity at the San Pedro ports – the largest port complex in the Western Hemisphere — finally rose above the 14 million container plateau of recent years. Transportation and warehousing employment increased for the third year in a row.

Each month since April 2012 except one, Los Angeles County has seen at least 2% year-over-year job growth, compared with a 1.7% average across the country.

Unemployment fell from 3.3 to 3.2 percent for people with a bachelor’s degree or more, and from 5.7 to 5.5 percent for those with some college. But it actually rose from 6.3 to 6.5 percent for people with only a high school diploma, and from 8.9 to 9.1 percent for those without one.

Employers hired steadily in May, placing the U.S. on the one of the best four-month stretches of job creation since late 1990s and renewing optimism about the five-year-long recovery.

Nonfarm employment advanced a seasonally adjusted 217,000 last month, the Labor Department said Friday. April’s gain was revised down slightly, but the increase of 282,000 was the best in more than two years.

For people who moved from one county to another, moving because of a job-related reason rose with the distance of the move: 23 percent of moves less than 50 miles and 48 percent of those 500 miles or more. Moving for housing-related reasons showed change in the opposite direction, comprising 42 percent of shorter distance moves and 18 percent of longer distance ones.

Those serving in California’s full-time legislature earn nearly $91,000 each year, higher than in any other state in 2014. New Hampshire’s part-time lawmakers, meanwhile, make just $200 per two-year term.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach maintained their ranking as the nation’s top gateway for international trade last year and container traffic through the twin ports is expected to rise 5.5 percent this year and 5.8 percent in 2015.

A seismic expansion joint on the westbound Carquinez Bridge – similar to a dozen used on the skyway portion of the new Bay Bridge eastern span – has cracked after less than 10 years of pounding by heavy trucks, Caltrans officials said Wednesday.

“In the last five months, we’ve seen 93 projects come through the Development Review Committee process,” Swearengin said. “Nineteen of them were fast-tracked and approved literally within a matter of hours or days within coming to City Hall.”

California lawmakers and the Brown administration introduced legislation Thursday morning that seeks to lift regulatory and financial barriers to lure a proposed $5 billion Tesla Motors factory to the Golden State.

Forty-six years after Mercedes-Benz planted roots in Southern California, the luxury automaker is establishing its next phase of growth in Long Beach.

Thirteen California Indian tribes announced this week that they had struck a compromise to legalize online poker in California, but a successful law is not guaranteed because the powerful Morongo Band of Mission Indians is opposed.