California’s assistance for the neediest endured deep cuts as state leaders closed multibillion-dollar budget deficits and weathered the financial crisis. Heading into another budget-planning cycle, the state leads the nation in poverty by one widely used measure, even though its minimum wage is among the highest. Gov. Jerry Brown has made some modest investments to
Text of Gov. Brown’s Inaugural Address: http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18828
California’s highways are experiencing record traffic as the economy improves and gas prices plummet, reversing the declines of the recession, new state figures show. Drivers traveled about 185 billion miles on state highways from December 2013 through November 2014, up almost 5 billion miles, or 2.6 percent, from the prior year, according to estimates from
Working, in America, is in decline. The share of prime-age men — those 25 to 54 years old — who are not working has more than tripled since the late 1960s, to 16 percent. More recently, since the turn of the century, the share of women without paying jobs has been rising, too. The United
The economic boom is leaving behind workers in California who lost their jobs in manufacturing and construction during the Great Recession and won't ever regain those vanished positions, according to an unsettling analysis in the UCLA Anderson Forecast, a quarterly assessment of the economy in California. The forecast also predicted improvements in the California jobless
Just weeks before the November midterms, Jim Costa was feeling good. The five-term California House Democrat was about to face off with Republican candidate Johnny Tacherra, but he felt confident enough in his chances that he was willingly giving away thousands of dollars from his campaign fund to fellow Democrats who—it was thought—needed the money
Will Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitions collide with those of the state’s other Democratic climber-in-waiting, Attorney General Kamala Harris? Both Newsom, 47, and Harris, 50, are A-list candidates for high office and share the same political consultant. No other Democrats are as well known in California, and Republicans, who lag 13 points behind on voter registration, are all but
At least four embryonic tax-hike campaigns are evident, with the biggie being whether the temporary increases in sales taxes on everyone and income taxes on the affluent, passed by voters in 2012 at the behest of Gov. Jerry Brown, will be extended. The school unions are beating tax-extension drums the loudest because they have the
Gov. Jerry Brown announced he'll combine his fourth-term inaugural address with his required annual State of the State speech. No elegant inaugural balls. No big-name concerts. Whatever Brown, 76, has to say about the next four years — probably his last stint in any elective office — he can do it in one speech. Late
The Gualco Group, Inc. is a co-founder of the pro bono California Food Waste Roundtable, with Craig McNamara, president of the state Board of Food & Agriculture, and Sue Sigler, executive director of the California Association of Food Banks. Latest development: Roundtable member Doug Rauch, retired president of Trader Joe’s, intends to open a grocery