News

Company: Rhythm & HuesCA Net Job Gain/Loss: -200Reason: LayoffCity/Region Losing Jobs: Los Angeles, CANotes: Layoffs as part of company bankruptcy filing

A vast, untapped oil reserve in California is emerging as perhaps one of the state’s best opportunities to improve its still struggling economy, but exploration and production efforts face resistance from the powerful environmental lobby and Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration, which appears not fully sold on the potential.

Last November, Californians risked their money on state government. Despite five years of closed businesses, lost jobs, and replacement jobs that pay far less, Californians trusted the state with more of their hard-earned money. With some of the highest tax rates in the nation, Governor Jerry Brown has declared California’s government is on the road to solvency.

After years of losing jobs to lower-cost, overseas operations, several Rust Belt states are seeing a resurgence of manufacturing, led surprisingly by Michigan.

The battle lines are being drawn in the upcoming legislative fight over California’s environmental review laws.

MOUNTAIN VIEW — Silicon Valley’s job growth has returned to dot-com boom levels and San Francisco has emerged as a major new tech hub. But good times have not returned for all area residents and ethnic groups.

Company: Home DepotCA Net Job Gain/Loss: 900Reason: ExpandCity/Region Gaining Jobs: San Diego County, CANotes: Seasonal workers

Texas doesn’t have redwood forests, a spot on the Pacific, Hollywood or a team in the last Super Bowl or World Series. But it doesn’t have California’s taxes either.

Business Climate: Last year’s tax hike was a short-term fix, at best, for the Golden State’s woes. For lasting prosperity, job creators need to trust the politicians. Right now, they don’t.

Three of California’s former governors have banded together to urge an overhaul of the state’s landmark environmental law, saying the 40-year-old measure needs to be “modernized” to help speed the Golden State’s economic recovery.

During his State of the State address, Gov. Jerry Brown laid out his vision of investing in public infrastructure, reinvesting in public schools and universities, assuring a safe and reliable water supply, and shifting toward cleaner energy. To accomplish these goals, the governor called on state leaders to engage in a number of necessary actions including meaningful regulatory reform, with particular focus on modernizing the 40-year-old California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.

More than two-thirds of California business leaders see the state as an extraordinarily difficult state in which to operate, a new survey by the California Business Roundtable has found.

There has always been a certain level of competitiveness among the States. Of course, the football rivalry between Michigan and Ohio State is legendary. But, on a more serious note, economic competitiveness goes all the way back to colonial days.

California is widely viewed as one of the most anti-business states in the nation, bristling with high taxes and onerous regulations that drive companies away. The state also is seen as a leading generator of high-paying jobs in growing industries, attracting more than half of the nation’s venture capital investment.

Comparing California to other states has become a common exercise among politicians, academicians and in the media.