An owner of a small business is ready for customers. (Photo: SaiArLawKa2, via Shutterstock)OPINION: As the fifth largest economy in the world, California is home to heavyweight economic industries: Silicon Valley, the entertainment industry, agriculture, tourism, and more. But anyone who lives here knows that there’s also a boom in the number of people who are starting their own microbusinesses.
Counting the cash. (Photo: NATNN, via Shutterstock)When Steve Swanson decided to stop accepting cash at his longtime chain of Sacramento area dry cleaning stores, it seemed to make all the sense in the world. “Cash was such a small portion of our operation,” he says. “Some days we might have only a few dollars for a whole day.” But soon he might not have a choice.
Stem cells for treating cancer in microtubes. (Image: Science Photo, via Shutterstock)Backers of the financially stressed California stem cell agency yesterday filed their proposed ballot measure to refinance the agency with $5.5 billion if voters approve it in November 2020. The complex, 30-page initiative would also restructure a number of aspects of the agency and provide for financial assistance for patients and their families who might be involved in clinical trials.
Two students at a crossing in the Mission Beach area of San Diego. (Photo: Conchi Martinez, via Shutterstock)California public schools will be getting a big infusion of cash — a very, very big infusion — if voters approve an unprecedented trifecta of multibillion-dollar measures aimed at next year’s statewide ballots. First, there’s a $15 billion plan, financed by bond borrowing, for construction projects for K-12 and higher education. Gov. Newsom signed the bill and placed it on the March ballot.
A correctional facility in Salinas operated by The GEO Group. ((Photo: GEO Group website)So you think privately run prisons are a Republican thing? Perhaps in Texas and Tennessee. But in deep blue California, it is the Democrats who take in the most contributions from for-profit correctional corporations, primarily Florida’s The GEO Group and the Tennessee-based CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America.
Photo illustration, political cash on the move: IQoncept, via ShutterstockWhen California introduced its Cal-Access campaign finance website, “There was nothing like it in the country,” said Rob Lapsley, who was under-Secretary of State in 2000, the year the campaign disclosure tool made its debut. Fast forward 15 years: What was once cutting edge is now obsolete. “The current system is broken, literally.”
After former CalPERS chief executive officer Fred Buenrostro pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud conspiracy last week, he now must earn a reduced sentence by helping prosecutors convict the man who allegedly bribed him, Alfred Villalobos.
Election 2014: Gov. Brown on Wednesday signed into law new disclosure rules for nonprofits, a move prompted by the 11th-hour flood of stealth cash that roiled the November 2012 elections. The bill takes effect in July – after this year’s primary elections but in time for the general election.
The state’s elections officer on Tuesday cleared the way for the measure’s backers, led by organized labor, to circulate petitions for signatures of registered voters. The proposal needs the signatures of 504,760 voters to qualify for the November ballot. The deadline to submit the signatures to election officials is July 10
An effort to beef up campaign disclosure rules prompted by the dramatic, multimillion-dollar infusion of stealth cash into the November 2012 elections could be on the governor’s desk by the end of the month – in time for this year’s races.