News

North Carolina is close to dropping one of the most extensive programs for awarding tax breaks to film companies, in what would be a high-profile retreat from an arms race among states to lure Hollywood productions.

U.S. consumer sentiment retreated in August from last month’s six-year high, though Americans were slightly more upbeat in their outlook than earlier in the month, a survey released on Friday showed.

For the fourth consecutive summer, teen employment has stayed anchored around record lows, prompting experts to fear that a generation of youth is likely to be economically stunted with lower earnings and opportunities in years ahead.

Governor Jerry Brown’s administration has pulled the plug on efforts to amend Proposition 65, California’s toxics warning law, through legislation this year.

California electric rates are among the highest in the country and it is likely that the lion’s share of future rate increases will be borne by commercial and industrial customers, such as public agencies. Why? Because California has embarked upon a significant number of policies that necessarily impact the state’s electricity supply and delivery system. As a result, electric rates continue to rise and ratepayers, including public agencies, are searching for ways to respond to the spiraling costs of this necessary service.

Seduced by generous subsidies, Germans are embracing the ambitious project with such fervor – installing solar panels on church roofs and converting sewage into heat – that instead of benefiting from a rise in green energy, they are straining under the subsidies’ cost and from surcharges.

GO-Biz Director Kish Rajan Debuts New On-line Permitting Tools and Provides Overview of the Governor’s Economic Development Initiative

California sold $764 million in debt Tuesday at lower-than-expected interest rates, a vote of investor confidence in the state’s improved finances.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved plans by the Walt Disney Co. to build a high-tech film and television production studio complex on sprawling ranch land in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Los Angeles’ new mayor has vowed to help stanch the flow of film and TV production jobs out of Hollywood, starting with the appointment of a film czar at City Hall. But to make a real difference, Eric Garcetti needs to convince skeptical state pols to combat the lure of rich tax incentives from outside California.

If you harbor reservations about California’s business climate, or its attractiveness to commercial ventures, it can only mean you have yet to make the acquaintance of Kish Rajan, the state’s director of business and economic development. When the former Walnut Creek councilman talks about what lies ahead, he sounds as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve.

Real estate brokers through the Lake Tahoe and Reno markets say sales of upper-end homes have been buoyed since the start of the year by California residents who make no bones about their desire to get beyond the reach of the Golden State taxman.

It’s an uncomfortable point of notoriety for a city with pockets of fabulous wealth that craves civility and political correctness. For the record, Palo Alto has “unhoused individuals,” not homeless people; and an Opportunity Center as opposed to a homeless shelter.

Massachusetts retained its No. 1 spot as the state with the most R&D jobs in biotech (27,883), according to an annual industry report published by MassBio, the state’s industry trade group, and released this week. California ranked second with 23,438 biotech R&D jobs. But from 2007 to 2012 — among the darkest days for the biotech industry as investors retreated from the sector — those California jobs grew by 4,304, or 22.5 percent. That beat Massachusetts by almost two-to-one.

Substantially overhauling the 40-year-old California Environmental Quality Act may still happen, but with just two weeks remaining in the legislative session, it probably won’t happen this year.