Posts Tagged: growth

Opinion

SoCal air board faces new threat — Sacramento

A smog-tinged view in black and white of Century City, Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles. (Photo: Trekandshoot, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Local leadership in California faces a threat – SB 1387. This bill would reduce the influence local leaders have on a regional board – the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) – by adding even more Sacramento-appointed representatives. The bill would also allow a state agency to overrule the policy decisions of this regional board.

News

California voters: The ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’

Latinos taking the Pledge of Allegiance in Los Angeles. (Photo: Spirit of America)

Only half of California adults can be expected to vote in this year’s presidential election, and they are likely to be very different from those who do not vote—in their demographic and economic backgrounds and in their political attitudes. These are among the key findings of a report released Tuesday evening by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).

Opinion

Green energy, economic growth go together

Capturing energy from the air in the Tehachapi Pass, California. (Photo: Patrick Poendl)

We are cutting per-capita carbon pollution dramatically while growing our state’s economy. Now, for every dollar of goods and services we produce, we emit less carbon pollution than any other major economy except for nuclear-powered France. Contrary to fear-mongering by some politicians, California has cut emissions by 25 percent while growing our economy by 37 percent over two decades.

News

California urged to resolve delta, water issues — fast

A backpacker gazes at Lake Mead, which has reached critically low levels. (Photo: Oceanfishing, via Shutterstock)

Disputes over California’s fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta, the troubled heart of the drought-stricken state’s water system, must be resolved immediately because what happens there affects the western region, a top water expert says. Pat Mulroy, the former leader of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, delivered a bluntly worded warning to the California Water Policy Conference in Claremont, saying the linkage between the Delta and much of the West is clear, “yet many here in California still don’t see the connection.”

News

Latino majority in California? Not so fast …

Latinos taking the Pledge of Allegiance in Los Angeles. (Photo: Spirit of America)

California is no longer on track to become a majority Latino state – at least not before 2060, according to projections from the state Department of Finance. Demographic estimates are constantly updated, but recent projections about the state’s population had us becoming a majority Latino state before the middle of this century.

News

To have and have not: The California debate intensifies

A homeless man in a wheelchair wiping his eyes at a pier in Oceanside, Calif. (Photo: David Little via Shutterstock)

We are moving into the post-industrial age, an era of mechanized production, where machines can increasingly do jobs that used to pay real people livable wages. In California, we have strong environmental and labor regulations that did not exist at the birth of the industrial age. These rules have improved and saved lives of workers and the communities where manufacturing plants are based. But they have also driven costs of manufacturing higher.

News

Fiscal outlook brighter — but fingers crossed

Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, the Legislature's nonpartisan fiscal adviser, unveils the latest budget projections. (Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli

California, long bedeviled by daunting budget deficits, is likely to end the next fiscal year with $4.2 billion in reserve, with half that amount due to a budget-reform measure that voters approved on Nov. 4, according to the Legislature’s nonpartisan financial adviser.

News

A glimpse into Brown’s 4th term

California Gov. Jerry Brown at a public event. His wife, Anne Gust Brown, is in the background. (Photo: Randy Miramontez)

A little-known panel of Gov. Brown’s top administration officials is poised to play a critical role in his fourth and final term as governor. The newly funded Strategic Growth Council, or SGC, is a cabinet-level body with a portfolio that cuts across virtually all aspects of California government.

News

District by district, data tells the tale in California

An abstract rendering of multi-faceted California. (Flip Bjorkman)

While most indicators signal an economic upswing in California, the reality facing many residents of the Golden State is simple: On the ground, the recovery is still sluggish. Nowhere is that more apparent than in a newly developed database that includes detailed economic information on each of California’s 120 legislative districts and 58 counties.

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