03/28/2024

News

LA Has Worst Big-City Roads in the Nation, a Study Finds

The roads in greater Los Angeles are the most deteriorated in the United States, which costs Southern California drivers more than $800 a year, according to a national transportation analysis released Thursday.

Read More

Borrowing Eats Up Smaller Share of California Budget

“The cost of financing California government with bonds is expected to consume 7.7% of the state’s general fund tax revenue over the next year, according to a new report from the state Treasurer Bill Lockyer.

The total bill is pegged at $7.5 billion for principal and interest. That’s a reduction from last year, when it totaled $8.6 billion and was 8.8% of revenue.”

Read More

LA County Leads California in Poverty Rate, New Analysis Shows

“Los Angeles has the highest poverty rate among California counties, according to a new analysis announced Monday that upends traditional views of rural and urban hardship by adding factors such as the soaring price of city housing.

The measurement, developed by researchers with the Public Policy Institute of California and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, found that 2.6 million, or 27%, of Los Angeles County residents lived in poverty in 2011. The official poverty rate for the county, based on the U.S. Census’ 2011 American Community Survey, is 18%.”

Read More

Gov. Brown Signs Bill to Raise Minimum Wage to $10 an Hour by 2016

Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that will raise California’s minimum wage to $10 an hour by 2016, a move celebrated by workers but criticized by many businesses.

Read More

Best States for Doing Business in 2013

Virginia and North Dakota top the list of the best states to do business in 2013, according to Forbes’ annual study. At the bottom is Maine, which has been at No. 50 for four straight years. California is ranked No. 39. The best ranked states tend to have a wealth of incentives for companies and also economies that are recovering more robustly from the Great Recession. Now in its eighth year, the annual ranking takes into account factors such as labor, supply costs, the regulatory environment and growth prospects.

Read More

Op-Ed: California’s Water House of Cards

California uses more of it than any other state: Nearly 20% of all groundwater withdrawals in the United States occur in California. The importance of this underground water source to the socioeconomic and environmental health of our state cannot be overemphasized.

Read More

Chamber of Commerce Successful Against Most “Job Killer” Bills

“The giant lobbying group, which represents 13,500 large and small employers, posted a near-perfect score in efforts this year to defeat legislation it labeled “job killers.”

This year, the chamber went gunning for 38 such bills. Only one made it through both the Democratic Party-dominated Legislature and landed on the governor’s desk.”

Read More

Global Warming “Hiatus” Puts Climate Scientists on the Spot

Since just before the start of the 21st century, the Earth’s average global surface temperature has failed to rise despite soaring levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases and years of dire warnings from environmental advocates.

Read More

Job Outlook Bleak for Southland Teenagers

Teenagers and young adults are still mired in dire levels of unemployment in Los Angeles County, years after the recession officially ended. New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that last year, the unemployment rate for Angelenos ages 20 to 24 had stagnated at 19%. Joblessness was even higher for Angelenos between the ages of 16 and 19, with 41% of those in the labor force still unemployed, according to the new estimates from the American Community Survey.

Read More

Poverty Kept Rising in Los Angeles Post-Recession, New Data Show

Poverty continued creeping upward in the Los Angeles area last year, long after the declared end of the recession, new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show. The numbers are another sign of continued suffering after the economic downturn: More than 17% of people in the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana metropolitan area lived below the poverty line last year. That number rose year by year since 2007, when roughly 13% lived in poverty. . . . “What is significant and new is that poverty is not rising and falling with the rest of the economy, it is just continuing to rise,” wrote Bill Parent, associate dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. “This is a terrible ‘new normal.’ The rising tide isn’t lifting all the boats.”

Read More

Retail Sales Up Less Than Expected Last Month, Inflation Remains Low

Back-to-school shopping failed to boost the pace of consumer spending last month and retal sales growth unexpectedly slowed, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Read More

Calfiornia Job Growth has Slowed, UCLA Economists Say

Economists at the UCLA Anderson Forecast said Thursday that the pace of job growth has slowed in the Golden State, raising fears that structural problems in the labor market will temper future employment gains. UCLA economists said in their quarterly forecast that a large proportion of California workers’ education and training is obsolete for jobs in technology and other industries that require “21st century” skills.

Read More

Southern California Home Prices Level Off

Southern California home prices stayed flat in August for the second straight month, an indication the market may be normalizing after a period of torrid price hikes.

Read More

Editorial: Stepping Up from Flipping Burgers

Fast-food workers want raises, but the bigger challenge is to help them advance into better jobs.

Read More

California Hotels are a Hot Investment Again, Study Finds

Nearly 180 California hotels changed hands in the first half of 2013, a 12% increase from the number sold in same period last year, according to a mid-year report by Irvine consulting firm Atlas Hospitality Group.

Read More