California farmers now must abide by the nation’s strictest rules for a widely used pesticide in a change designed to protect farmworkers and people who live and work near agricultural fields but is likely to raise prices on produce.
California public schools and community colleges will reap the lion’s share of revenues from a booming economy, with their budgets growing by $7.8 billion this year and next, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed Friday.
Starting Thursday, gasoline and diesel producers will be subject to the state’s cap-and-trade system, forcing them either to supply lower-carbon fuels — which are more expensive to produce — or to buy pollution permits for the greenhouse gases created when the conventional fuel they supply is burned. In the short term, at least, that will mean higher prices at the pump, starting almost immediately.
This trend has likely helped hold back U.S. economic growth. Cities with the strongest job markets, such as New York and San Francisco, would grow even faster if more people could afford to live there, noted Jed Kolko, chief economist at the online real estate firm Trulia. The additional population would help spur further job growth, which, in turn, would strengthen the local economy and foster more of the middle-class jobs that the nation lacks.
California drivers pay a staggering $44 billion a year in extra car costs because of traffic jams that seemingly grow worse by the day, spreading potholes and outdated roads and bridges, according to a national highway advocacy group.
PG&E residential customers can expect a 5.8 percent increase in their gas and electricity bills starting in September after approval by state regulators Thursday of the utility’s request for rate hikes.
Both Chevron and its detractors claimed at least partial victory Wednesday, after city leaders approved the oil giant’s long-sought effort to begin a $1 billion upgrade of its century-old refinery, the largest in Northern California.
Deeply frustrating Silicon Valley’s tech industry, federal officials on Monday announced that the annual cap on the number of H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers has been reached less than a week after applications for the controversial program were accepted.
Since the Great Recession began in late 2007, that path has narrowed because many of the next-tier jobs no longer exist. That means more lower-wage workers have to stay put. The resulting bottleneck is helping widen a gap between the richest Americans and everyone else.
HGST, a unit of Western Digital, intends to construct two big, new buildings in south San Jose in an expansion of its campus that could create up to 1,700 jobs and help develop a transit and technology village for the area, according to documents filed with city planners.HGST, a unit of Western Digital, intends to construct two big, new buildings in south San Jose in an expansion of its campus that could create up to 1,700 jobs and help develop a transit and technology village for the area, according to documents filed with city planners.
Energy experts predict a 50-cent rise in prices over the next few weeks as supplies tighten — an annual event as refineries scale back production for maintenance, California converts to the more expensive summer blend of gasoline, more drivers hit the road and oil-exporting countries boost crude prices to around $100 a barrel.
For more than a year, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration has been describing his plan to build two massive water tunnels through the Delta as a $25 billion project.
Google (GOOG) over the last few weeks has struck deals to rent or buy more than 1 million square feet of offices in Santa Clara County, including the purchase of several Mountain View buildings in recent days, extending a stunning expansion by the Internet giant.
The economic recovery in the Bay Area and California is gaining steam, analysts said Thursday, yet the pace of job growth is being hampered by new technologies that enable employers to limit hiring. Economists with the closely watched UCLA Anderson Forecast say the Bay Area is leading the economic rebound in California, and that California is leading the nation. But the upswing is uneven. “This is a bifurcated recovery,” said Anderson Forecast senior economist Jerry Nickelsburg.
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.