News

Company: Southern CA EdisonCA Net Job Gain/Loss: -350Reason: LayoffCity/Region Losing Jobs: San Clemente, CA

Company: XyratexCA Net Job Gain/Loss: -320Reason: Layoff, Move Out of CountryCity/Region Losing Jobs: West Sacramento, CACity/Region Gaining Jobs: Mexico

California Governor Jerry Brown is scheduled to reopen a trade office in China, the state’s third- largest market, after exports to the world’s most populous nation slipped in 2012.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Just before officials at the Port of Los Angeles unanimously approved a plan for a vast new railyard last month, the mayor of Long Beach was incensed. How dare they, he angrily asked at a public meeting, value the lives of residents on Los Angeles’s side of the border more than those who live in his city.

Covered California — the state’s new health insurance exchange created as part of the federal health care law — announced Fresno will be the site of one of its three future call centers, creating almost 500 jobs. The center is scheduled to open in the fall with a location to be announced soon.

Company: Walt Disney Co.CA Net Job Gain/Loss: -150Reason: LayoffCity/Region Losing Jobs: Burbank, CANotes: Layoffs in movie studio division

Sacramento, California – Today, three bills by Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez passed their first policy hurdles with strong support in Assembly policy committees.

California’s high school graduation rate is continuing to rise, especially among African American and Hispanic students, according to figures released Tuesday by the state Department of Education.

SACRAMENTO — For years, California’s business leaders have lamented that the state’s 43-year-old environmental law is too often used to protect everything but the environment.

President Obama assured donors earlier this week that the administration can tackle pollution without hurting consumers. Expect his nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy, to use a similar argument when she heads to Capitol Hill next week for a confirmation grilling by Republican senators.

Last year California voters approved two tax increases aimed at bringing billions more dollars into state coffers. But that hasn’t stopped revenue-hungry lawmakers in the Legislature from seeking further tax hikes. It’s almost as if they think we can tax ourselves into prosperity.

California Governor Jerry Brown will lead a trade and investment delegation of 75 members on a one-week visit to China beginning next Wednesday. Brown and the delegation will visit Shanghai next Friday when the California-China Trade & Investment Office will reopen after a similar one closed in 2003. The office is to be funded with $1 million in private-sector funds raised by the Bay Area Council, a business group in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Hiring slowed sharply in March, with the economy adding only 88,000 jobs, the lowest monthly gain since last June. Economists surveyed by CNNMoney were expecting an increase of 190,000 jobs. The unemployment rate slipped to 7.6%, according to a Labor Department report released Friday.

Women in California hold just 30 percent of green jobs statewide, making the Golden State’s industry gender gap No. 13 nationwide, according to a new report. The Washington-based nonprofit Institute for Women’s Policy Research released the first-of-its-kind national report earlier this week, which ranked Washington D.C. as the nation’s best state for women in green jobs and Maine as the worst.

SACRAMENTO — While much of the squabbling over California’s high-speed rail project has focused on its huge construction price tag, the cost to taxpayers just to plan the bullet train is also soaring.