Californians’ reliance on TV for their political news is declining, while an increasing number of people are using the Internet for political coverage, according to a report from the Public Policy Institute of California.
OPINION: California is the largest market in the United States and is among the largest in the world. It is estimated that more than a million Californians are gaming online through overseas sites, which we know to be dangerous for gamers. These black market sites for Internet gaming offer no consumer protections.
OPINION: The Internet helps every business sector in every region across the state, especially in Fresno and throughout the Central Valley. While the region is often known for agriculture, it should also be recognized for some of the exciting restaurants, art venues, and specialty retail stores that are flourishing in the area as well.
Comcast company trucks await assignments. (Photo: Associated Press, Gene Puskar)A national merger between communications giants Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable could lead to an unprecedented consolidation of California cable and broadband markets. The pending $45 billion merger would grant Comcast — already the state’s No. 1 cable provider — a greater share of the California market, stretching from northern California and San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento region, down the Central Valley through the Los Angeles basin, east to the Nevada and Arizona lines and southeast to the Mexico border.
OPINION: Advances in technology are changing the way we live, work and play. By simply going online, a bed and breakfast in San Luis Obispo can book rooms, a salon owner in Pasa Robles can market her team of stylists, and farmers in Watsonville can let buyers around the world know when to expect their shipments of strawberries.
An illustration of an online poker player. (Photo: photosani)Thirteen of California’s casino-owning tribes have agreed on a plan to legalize internet poker in California, a move that could tap an estimated $845 million market and create the nation’s largest online poker system. One major tribe, the Banning-based Morongo Band of Mission Indians, was not a party to the agreement.
OPINION: The California legislature seems closer to licensing and regulating online poker. Now, only a few, yet significant, outstanding issues stand in the way as California poker players wait patiently on the sidelines for state lawmakers to act.
A computer keyboard flanked by the elements of traditional poker. (Photo: Pedro Sala)As negotiations intensify over establishing internet poker in California, a study commissioned by several casino-owning tribes says online gaming could result in $845 million in revenue and more than 2,600 new jobs by 2020. The figures stem in part from an analysis of legislation that was considered – and rejected — by lawmakers last year. Similar legislation is the focus of negotiations this year, but so far an agreement has proven elusive.
Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, reversing an earlier position, says he has joined a group opposing online gaming because of concerns that young people could be harmed. “I was once on the wrong side of this issue – speaking for and supporting internet poker – but I have since learned about some of the tactics used by online gaming companies to lure young people,” Brown wrote in an open letter.
A critical sticking point in private negotiations over authorizing internet poker in California became public Thursday when a tribal chairman announced his intention to bring in an international online gaming firm as a subcontractor to conduct operations in California – but only if the state approves the new legislation.