For more than a decade, California has won high praise from environmentalists for its stringent greenhouse gas restrictions. But a new report shows that despite the enormous costs of this effort, the state is doing a worse job at cutting CO2 emissions than the rest of the country, while badly hurting its working families. . […]
Statewide elected officials and lawmakers in California will be getting a 3 percent raise at the end of the year. The California Citizens Compensation Commission approved the salary increases Tuesday, continuing a pattern of steady increases over the last seven years that adjust for inflation.
The news of Ontario’s impending withdrawal from the bi-national cap-and-trade program, after less than a year of partnership, has landed with a thud. The retreat of California’s largest emissions trading partner is a function of politics as much as policy, but the sting to the state’s ambitions is no less felt. The incoming premier of […]
This paper examines California’s GHG reductions between 2007 (when the landmark Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) took effect), to 2017, when the California Air Resources Board adopted the most recent “Scoping Plan” prescribing existing and proposed new GHG reduction mandates (Scoping Plan) that CARB deems required to achieve the state’s legislated mandate of reducing […]
If the rate increases are approved, a typical SDG&E customer’s bill would go up nearly $14 per month. For businesses, that could be much higher. “We’re over half a million dollars a year in electric power,” said Todd Roberts who is president of Marine Group Boat Works in Chula Vista. He said his business employs […]
Inside these restaurants, it’s evident that the forces making this one of the most expensive cities in America are subtly altering the economics of everything. Commercial rents have gone up. Labor costs have soared. And restaurant workers, many of them priced out by the expense of housing, have been moving away. Restaurateurs who say they […]
Los Angeles has missed the final cut for a U.S. Army procurement center headquarters, according to a media report. Military.com reported on June 19 that Army Col. Patrick Seiber, spokesman for the U.S. Army Futures Command Task Force, confirmed to that publication that five cities were still under consideration for the procurement headquarters: Austin, Texas; […]
Economists are raising their estimates of second-quarter U.S. growth after new government figures showed a smaller-than-expected trade deficit for May. The Commerce Department on Wednesday reported the trade deficit in goods narrowed 3.7% in May from the prior month, as exports climbed 2.1% and imports rose a more modest 0.2%. Export growth adds to the […]
LAUSD and other K-12 districts have recently seen a 50 percent increase in per-pupil financing from taxpayers, much more flexibility to spend special-purpose money, and extra aid to raise academic achievement of poor and/or English-learner students. However, the district’s enrollment is declining, mandatory payments into employee pension systems are rising sharply to shore up their […]
The Oakland school district ignored standard accounting practices and inappropriately manipulated taxpayer funds, actions that in some cases amounted to the misuse of state or federal funding, according to a report by an independent state agency that provides fiscal oversight and support to schools. The report by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or […]
The cutbacks were necessary even though Gov. Jerry Brown’s recently signed a budget expanded state education spending by $3.9 billion or just over 5 percent, according to reports. It’s the seventh year in a row that Brown has expanded school funding; however, students and teachers aren’t feeling the difference, according to Alex Barrios, chief communications […]
Overall, 2016–17 scores changed little from 2015–16. This is quite different than in the previous year, when students made large gains. This pattern is consistent across the seven racial and ethnic groups reported by the CDE. The previous higher growth rate may have resulted in part from systemic factors, such as better understanding of the […]
The state of California already sitting on a record surplus would benefit from an additional revenue windfall thanks to two decisions handed down by the United States Supreme Court. The question is what would the state do with that new money? Initial estimates following the Supreme Court’s decision allowing taxing of Internet sales is that […]
OUSD will get much worse. School budgets in California are supposed to be extra healthy during bull markets, when tax revenues swell from capital gains. But the other side of that coin is that California schools are expected to suffer financial distress during bear markets when capital gains decline. If OUSD is in trouble in […]
Statewide, only a few majors are gender balanced—meaning that half the bachelor’s degrees are awarded to women and half to men. In 2016, according to federal data, among the 22 most popular majors in California’s public and private nonprofit colleges, more than 60% of the bachelor’s degrees in 10 majors and fewer than 45% of […]