In his first month in office, Mayor Ed Lee assembled a team of energy experts to help San Francisco meet its ambitious goal of having all electricity in the city come from renewable sources by the end of 2020. But over the past year, Lee has overseen the evisceration of a renewable power program that clean-energy
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas announced Tuesday that he has picked Chicago to host his much-anticipated museum of art and movie memorabilia, in a major victory for the nation's third-largest city. San Francisco and Los Angeles also had sought the museum. Lucas said in a written statement that he hopes to open the Lucas Museum
BAKERSFIELD — The diner on 24th Street serves salsa as well as homemade jam, and cactus-leaf scrambles share a place on the menu with chicken-fried steak and eggs. Over the clatter of coffee cups, it’s difficult to tell which tables are chatting in Spanish and which in English. To understand the complicated and emotional politics
National Republican leaders are toasting primary season as a smashing success over activist conservatives that has put the hard right on the ropes and given the Washington GOP the slate of candidates it wanted for 2014. Those victories, however, have come at a staggering cost — and Republicans are painfully aware of the price of putting
When Jerry Brown first ran for governor in 1974, primary turnout was 54 percent. This month, only about 25 percent of the state’s 17.7 million registered voters, and about 18 percent of those legally eligible, actually cast ballots, continuing California’s steady decline to one of the nation’s lowest rates. We speculate endlessly about causes of
Fueled by partisan and geographic differences, satisfaction with the Legislature continued a downward swing that began after a state senator was arrested on corruption charges earlier this year, according to a Field Poll released Friday. About a third of voters – 35 percent – approved of the job lawmakers are doing, while nearly half –
Economists with UCLA’s Anderson School of Management found that Silicon Valley had the highest rate of job growth in the state during the last year, at 4% -- more than double the national average. Employment numbers in Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Ventura County and Orange County also outperformed the national average, according to the
CalPERS’ health care premiums are going up again for hundreds of thousands of public employees and their families, although 40 percent of CalPERS members will see their rates decline. The 2015 CalPERS premiums, closely watched in the health care industry because of the pension fund’s size and clout, will be a decidedly mixed bag. Blue Shield of
Full funding of the troubled California State Teachers Retirement System was approved by the Legislature last weekend, with most of the additional $5 billion coming from school districts that get no offsetting money from the state. With only one “no“ vote, lawmakers approved Gov. Brown’s plan to phase in a massive rate increase over seven
A survey of the tricolored blackbird population released Wednesday found that just 145,000 birds remain in California, down from millions a century ago when large flocks were said to blacken the sky. Perhaps most alarming to scientists is the bird's recent rate of decline. The survey, led by UC Davis in conjunction with the U.S.