Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] Business Climate and Job Creation U.S. Economy Added 136,000 Jobs In September

The U.S. added jobs at a steady pace last month and the unemployment rate hit a 50-year low, signs that the economy is holding up despite a broader global slowdown.

The economy added 136,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department reported Friday. The jobless rate dropped to 3.5% in September from 3.7% in August, marking the lowest rate since December 1969 when it also logged in at 3.5%.

Many workers who didn’t reap economic gains earlier in the decadelong expansion are now experiencing record-low levels of unemployment, including the underemployed, those without a high school diploma and Hispanic men.

Read More [[link removed]] Trade Gap Widened In August

The U.S. trade gap widened in August as American consumers bought more cellphones and other goods from abroad while businesses exported more oil and autos, a sign of the domestic economy’s resilience amid a global slowdown.

The trade deficit in goods and services increased 1.6% from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted $54.9 billion in August, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The report offered a reassuring sign about the overall health of the U.S. economy and the willingness of Americans to spend despite a spate of weak manufacturing data, cooling global growth and uncertainty around the U.S.-China trade war.

“The good thing about the report is you want to see exports and imports growing.” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

Read More [[link removed]] Services Stumble Threatens Sharper Slowdown

U.S. services-sector activity last month expanded at its slowest pace in three years, prompting concerns a manufacturing downturn is spreading across the economy.

The Institute for Supply Management’s U.S. nonmanufacturing index—tracking industries including health care, finance and restaurants—slipped to 52.6 in September, the lowest reading since August 2016, from 56.4 in the prior month.

Also, data firm IHS Markit said its U.S. services index was 50.9 in September—while a slight uptick from 50.7 in August, the third-quarter average was the weakest since the same period in 2016.

Both indexes are derived from surveys of purchasing and supply executives. Readings above 50 indicate an expansion in activity, while those below 50 indicate contraction.

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Income Inequality Worsens, Widening To A New Gap

The gap between the richest and the poorest U.S. households is now the largest it's been in the past 50 years — despite the median U.S. income hitting a new record in 2018, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. income inequality was "significantly higher" in 2018 than in 2017, the federal agency says in its latest American Community Survey report. The last time a change in the metric was deemed statistically significant was when it grew from 2012-2013.

While many states didn't see a change in income inequality last year, the income gap grew wider in nine states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Texas and Virginia.

The disparity grew despite a surging national economy that has seen low unemployment and more than 10 years of consecutive GDP growth.

Read More [[link removed]] Fed's Williams, Downplaying Recession Fears, Says 'Outlook Very Favorable'

New York Fed President John Williams on Wednesday pushed back on market fears of a looming recession, saying that the baseline economic forecast remains “a positive one.”

“Right now, the outlook is actually very favorable,” Williams said during a talk at the University of California, San Diego. He said GDP growth is around 2% rate, with a “very strong” labor market and inflation near a 2% rate.

Williams noted economists have been notoriously unable to predict recessions.

“Economists are really good at saying we just had a recession. They are not so good at expecting a recession,” he said.

Where is the economy going from here? Williams said it was a “mixed picture.”

Read More [[link removed]] New California Law Allows Local Government To Form Banks

A new state law in California lets local governments form their own banks to handle taxpayer money.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that he signed a law co-authored by Assemblymen David Chiu of San Francisco and Miguel Santiago of Los Angeles.

They argued that because public banks don’t have to worry about shareholder profits, they can invest in things commercial banks are reluctant to provide, including affordable housing and infrastructure.

But they warned the approval process will be rigorous. Local governments would need a business plan and state-approved insurance. The law only allows for 10 public banks in the state, with no more than two licenses issued each year.

The law takes effect Jan. 1.

Read More [[link removed]] California's Gig Worker Law...Is Going To Fail

Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed sweeping new legislation into law that should be a game-changer for those working in the so-called gig economy. The law requires employers to provide full wages and benefits to gig workers (such as drivers for Lyft and Uber). But just like the gig economy itself, where big promises often never materialize, this law’s promise won’t come true either.

The law - and along with it, the near-term promise that things will get better for those workers struggling inside this economy - will fail because it doesn’t recognize this economy for what it is. Specifically, the law treats the gig economy as a new phenomenon and solely the result of technology—instead of a decades-long problem-in-the-making and a shift in the developed world’s economies. And, in the end, because the law doesn’t seem to recognize what it is even dealing with, it won’t be able to hold platforms like Uber, Lyft, Amazon, Facebook and others accountable.

But we don’t even have to wait for California’s law to go into effect to confirm this. In 2004, Massachusetts passed a similar law. More than a decade later, little has changed. Both laws fail because they respond to technology instead of the economy - while the tech is actually the bright spot!

Read More [[link removed]] What's Next After California Signs Game Changer Fair Pay To Play Act Into Law?

With LeBron James and Ed O’Bannon seated alongside, California Governor Gavin Newsom has officially signed the Fair Pay to Play Act into law. California on Monday becomes the first state in the country to create a legal right for college athletes to be compensated for the commercial use of their identities. The signing occurred in a Los Angeles barbershop associated with James’s HBO show The Shop: Uninterrupted.

The Act is a game changer in college sports. It makes it illegal for California colleges to deny their student athletes opportunities to gain compensation for the use of their names, images and likenesses. Stated more concisely, the Act guarantees college athletes a right to profit from their identities. The Act also authorizes college athletes to hire agents and other representatives to assist them in negotiating and securing commercial opportunities.

Read More [[link removed]] How The Central Valley Became The 'Appalachia Of The West.' Now, New Threats Loom For Economy

Pockmarked with drab storefronts, modest skyscrapers and vacant lots, the downtown core of the San Joaquin Valley’s largest city offers little to inspire confidence in its future.

Except for the stylish brick-and-glass headquarters of Bitwise Industries, where a block-long mural advertises Bitwise as the “mothership of technological education, collaboration and innovation in Fresno.”

Bitwise is Fresno’s rock star, a promising young software company that wants to build nothing less than a full-fledged tech industry in the heart of the chronically-depressed Valley.

“We can do extraordinary things in Fresno,” said co-founder Jake Soberal, a native who returned to his hometown after earning his law degree in Southern California. “There isn’t any reason why we can’t transform the economy in a decade.”

It might take longer than that.

Read More [[link removed]] The Future Of Privacy Starts In California

A landmark privacy law in California, which kicks in Jan. 1, will give Golden State residents the right to find out what a company knows about them and get it deleted — and to stop the company from selling it.

Why it matters: It could effectively become a national privacy law, since companies that are racing to comply with it may give these privileges to non-Californians, too.

The California Consumer Privacy Act will apply to companies with at least $25 million in revenue, personal information on at least 50,000 people, or earning at least half their money by selling consumers' personal information.

Next year, any Californian will be able to demand that a company disclose what data it's keeping on them — and knock it off.

Starting next July, Californians will be allowed to sue businesses for certain data breaches, and the California attorney general will be able to bring enforcement actions.

Read More [[link removed]] Poll Shows Half Of Registered CA Voters Considered Leaving The State

A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll found that more than half of its respondents had considered leaving California for financial or political reasons.

The report surveyed 4,527 individuals from different age groups, ethnicities, political parties and ideologies, regions and genders. The survey consisted of four questions and was administered through email to registered California voters — determined through a random sample — from Sept. 13 to 18.

According to the poll, 71 percent of respondents said they would consider moving because of the high cost of housing. Of those who indicated they would move, 58 percent cited high taxes, while 46 percent said they would move because of the state’s political culture.

The impact of California’s cost of housing was consistent among racial and ethnic groups in the report, but individuals between the ages of 18 to 29 who considered moving were far more likely to cite housing costs.

Read More [[link removed]] Ten Of Top 50 ‘Most Miserable Cities’ Are In California, Business Insider Says

California has the most “miserable cities” in the country, according to data compiled by Business Insider, and landed 10 cities in the list of 50 most miserable cities in the United States.

This region didn’t have any cities ranked in the top 100, and only Yuba City (159st) came in the top 200.

Rocklin is considered one of the least miserable cities in the country, coming in at 910 on the list of 1,000. Recently, Money Magazine named Rocklin one of the Top 100 Places to Live.

The Business Insider list looked into population change, the percentage of people with jobs, median household incomes, median commute times, the number of people living in poverty, and the percentage of people without health insurance.

Overall, Gary, Indiana ranked first, followed by Port Arthur, Texas and Detroit, Michigan.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change Huge Amounts Of Plastic, Much Of It From Car Tires, Washing Into SF Bay, Study Finds

More than 7 trillion tiny pieces of plastic wash from city streets into San Francisco Bay each year, a new study finds, a staggering amount of pollution that researchers weren’t entirely aware of and aren’t prepared to stop.

The microplastic, defined as plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters, are the remnants of bottles, cigarettes, clothing fibers and a seemingly endless list of plastic products. They’re pushed by rain into storm drains and carried through rivers and creeks into the bay.

Nearly half of this pollution, according to the report, consists of black rubbery fragments that the study’s authors believe are from worn tires.

Read More [[link removed]] The Home of California’s Dirtiest Air Braces For Trump’s Smog War

Kieshaun White says that he doesn’t like to talk politics when it comes to the environment. He prefers to stick to the data.

A year ago, as a high school senior, he launched a network of air-pollution sensors and real-time app to monitor breathability around his native Fresno. White founded Healthy Fresno Air, using grant funds from the city’s Boys and Men of Color group, which was recently awarded $50,000 by former President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative.

At first, he deployed a handful of monitors at high schools on Fresno’s heavily polluted southwest side; since then, he has expanded the network to other quadrants of the city. This spring, he launched a public-facing app that shows real-time information gathered by the sensors about levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10—the fine particulate matter (PM) that blow off freeways and smokestacks and into mouths and noses.

Read More [[link removed]] Refinery Problems Send California Gas Prices Soaring

With the booming economy and busy freeways, getting from place to place in the Bay Area can be time-consuming. And with a recent spike in gas prices, it’s becoming more costly as well.

The Valero refinery in Benicia is having some kind of problem that’s causing it to cut production way back. But it’s one of three refineries in the state having difficulties. Those difficulties are having a profound effect on people’s pocket books.

The sudden rise in the price of gas at the Shell station in on North Main in Walnut Creek was causing Rachael Domingo to have a moment.

“And it’s probably, what, $4.29?” she said staring at the pump. “Listen, let’s talk about it! It’s a situation and it’s a problem!”

Seemingly overnight, the price of gas has vaulted over the four dollar mark. AAA’s Michael Blasky says cutbacks at two refineries in Southern California and at Valero in Benicia are affecting the entire state.

Read More [[link removed]] How Industry 'Environmental' Group Helped Foil California's Plastics Crackdown

SACRAMENTO — State lawmakers were on the verge of passing landmark bills to combat plastic pollution when a new advocacy group with a seemingly innocuous name arrived.

Californians for Recycling and the Environment, as the nonprofit calls itself, campaigned against the legislation in social media posts and through lobbyists. The group said that if the bills to require that far less plastic go to landfills passed, “Californians (would) have to prepare for a future without toothpaste, baby formula and dog food.”

The nonprofit group, according to corporate filings, wasn’t created by Californians or environmentalists. It’s headed by two top executives from Novolex, a South Carolina-based company that is one of the largest producers of plastic packaging and bags in the country.

Read More [[link removed]] Average Gas Price In California Surpasses $4 A Gallon

Gas prices in California are nearing multi-year highs, according to GasBuddy.

Right now the state’s average is $4.029, according to AAA, and that’s three cents a gallon away from the highest since July 2014.

In San Francisco, the average price is $4.21 a gallon according to AAA.

“Unplanned maintenance issues at the Chevron and Marathon refineries in Los Angeles County are the primary reason,” AAA spokesman Jeffrey Spring said last week of the expected hike.

The hikes apparently started after the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure earlier in September, while other experts cite the recent gas tax hikes in the state.

Read More [[link removed]] California Governor Newsom And Michael Bloomberg Announce Plan To Use Satellite To Track Climate Change

Governor Gavin Newsom of California and philanthropist and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have announced a new initiative that will use satellite data to monitor climate change in California.

The duo, along with Planet, an Earth-imaging company based in San Francisco, made the announcement Wednesday at the third annual Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York. The event was held on the heels of the United Nations Climate Action Summit in the same city earlier this week.

Officially called Satellites for Climate Action, according to a press release from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the project "will bring together governments, philanthropists, environmental groups, and technology companies to use satellite technologies to monitor greenhouse gas emissions and turn satellite data into actionable information."

The initiative has three principle objectives, according to the press release. First, it will use existing observational data from Planet to survey coal-fired plant operations in California. Second, it will work on innovative satellite technologies with expanded capacities to detect gases such as carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. Third, it will develop new ways to analyze the planet that will assist conservation efforts for coral reefs, forests "and other critical natural resources."

Read More [[link removed]] Workforce Development More California Community College Students Entering, Passing Transfer-Level Math and English As A Result Of Landmark Law

More students, especially black and Latino students, are benefiting from the elimination of remedial classes in California’s community colleges, according to a new report.

An analysis released today by the RP Group, a nonpartisan organization that provides research on behalf of the California Community Colleges system, found more students enrolling in courses that offer credits eligible for transfer to a four-year college and more African-American and Latino students passing those classes.

The analysis examines the effect of a landmark state law approved two years ago — AB 705 — on the state’s 114 community colleges and their students. The law allows more community college students to take courses with credits that can be used to transfer to four-year colleges without having to take remedial classes in those subjects first.

Read More [[link removed]] Hundreds Sign Up For The New Calbright College

On its opening day, nearly 700 people submitted applications to enroll in California’s new online-only two-year institution — Calbright College.

The college was created to serve an entirely new adult and underemployed population of students who are working part-time jobs or stuck in positions that don’t pay a living wage. The California Community College system described those potential students as “stranded workers,” between the ages of 25 and 34. Despite that focus, any student can enroll in the college, which is free to students, since it is a community college.

The college’s opening day generated a lot of interest. About 655 people had started an application, of which 324 potential students are in the process of enrolling, and 11 had already enrolled with educational plans and started the self-paced programs, as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, said Taylor Huckaby, the college’s communications director.

Read More [[link removed]] Identifying Developmental Delays Is Target Of New California Law

More young children will be screened for developmental delays under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The new law, Assembly Bill 1004, requires doctors to screen children enrolled in Medi-Cal for developmental delays using surveys recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and at three specific times — 9 months, 18 months and 30 months.

The screenings are designed to help a doctor determine if the child is developing normally or has some delays that need attention. Young children might need speech or language therapy, for example, or occupational therapy to work on motor skills.

Currently, many doctors use their own questions or observations to screen children for delays rather than using the surveys and timeline recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. According to data from the California Department of Health Care Services, only about a third of children under 3 years old enrolled in Medi-Cal were reported to have received developmental screenings at the recommended times in 2015, though that may be because doctors did not all report the screenings in the same way.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing With Booming Reservoirs, What Is The Real Culprit In California's Water Scare?

Tuesday, we began a new “water year” in California.

And so, this is as good of time as any to review the water year we are closing.

Had I written this piece exactly one year ago, I would have told you that most California reservoirs are sitting at near or above average levels heading into the 2019 water year.

As it turns out, heading into the 2020 water year, the message stays the same. All major reservoirs are currently over 100% of their average for this time of year.

Shasta is 125%, New Melones is 151%, Oroville is 103%, Folsom and Don Pedro are 128%, Pine Flat is 165%, and Millerton is 171% of their average for this time of year, just to name a few.

And yes, we have gone through drought years recently.

Read More [[link removed]] Four Lessons From The Front Lines Of California's Water Wars

Four and a half years ago, during the height of the California drought, I started writing about water.

Gov. Jerry Brown had just ordered mandatory reductions for cities across the state. He told the public we must use 25 percent less water, a somewhat arbitrary number that came out of one of the many meetings going on at the time.

Outside of California, the general misimpression was that our taps would run dry and we’d move back to Oklahoma, a futile experiment in settling this state ended not by earthquake or fire, but by thirst.

In reality, Californians became more conscious about their water habits. Some people drought-shamed one another: Your showers are too long, your grass is too green, your car isn’t dirty enough.

Read More [[link removed]] How California’s Tenants Won Statewide Rent Control

California’s progressive activists won a major victory in mid-September when the state legislature passed, and Governor Gavin Newsom promised to sign, a bill creating unprecedented protections for renters facing skyrocketing rents and arbitrary evictions in a state where the increasing unaffordability of housing has reached crisis proportions.

Rent laws are typically the domain of local governments. But in February, Oregon became the first state in the nation to adopt a statewide rent-cap law. The new California law, called the Tenant Protection Act, is stronger. It limits annual rent increases to 5 percent a year plus the consumer price index, but no more than 10 percent annually. It also includes a groundbreaking provision requiring landlords to have a “just cause” when evicting a tenant, such as failing to pay rent or damaging the property.

During the campaign to pass the bill, its proponents—including its author, Assemblymember David Chiu, a San Francisco Democrat and chair of the Assembly Housing Committee—described it as an “anti–rent-gouging” law rather than conventional rent control.

Read More [[link removed]] California’s Poorest Big City Faces A Different Kind Of Housing Crisis

On a recent weekday morning in Fresno’s Addams neighborhood, 10 women gathered in the recreation room of a mobile home park. A local nonprofit had convened this meeting to assist the low-income community in this metropolis of one million in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Over the babble of toddlers playing in the back, attendees spoke in Spanish about various local needs: One person was concerned about a dangerous street crossing; others described a frustrating gap in trash pickup.

Then discussion turned to housing. “Who has heard of gentrification?” Grecia Elenes, a senior policy advocate at the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, asked in Spanish. No one raised a hand.

Elenes described the process by which wealthier and often whiter residents transform a neighborhood. Juliana Seguín, who lives with her husband and four children in a nearby three-bedroom apartment, piped up. Her month-to-month rent has climbed from $850 in 2017 to $1,550, as her complex has undergone renovations to attract a better-paid crowd, she said. Another renter in attendance, Patricia Lobato, chimed in: She had been recently forced to move, due to a giant rent hike.

Read More [[link removed]] Affordable Housing Coming To State-Owned Lots, Starting With This One In Downtown Sacramento

An affordable housing complex will be built at a downtown Sacramento lot – one of the first projects to come to fruition from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s January executive order to encourage affordable housing projects on state-owned land.

The four-story building will be constructed near the corner of 14th and O streets, just one block from Capitol Park, said Tom Kigar of the Capitol Area Development Authority, a group created by the city and state, which is developing the apartment project. The property is along a stretch of O Street CADA has targeted for redevelopment.

Construction is set to start in December 2020, and finish in December 2022, Kigar said. Retail is planned for the first floor, including possibly a coffee shop or cafe, with three floors of studio apartments above it.

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion Should College Athletes Be Allowed To Get Paid?

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed a law Monday allowing college athletes to strike endorsement deals, a move that could upend the business model of college sports that denies student athletes the ability to trade on their talent. “Colleges reap billions from student athletes but block them from earning a single dollar,” Newsom tweeted. “That’s a bankrupt model.” The professional basketball stars LeBron James and Draymond Green have also thrown their support behind the law as a matter of economic justice for their amateur counterparts.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, the nonprofit organization that administers student athletics, made over $1 billion in revenue in 2017. Much of that money is returned to member schools, which use it to fund their sports programs, coaches and administrators, as well as scholarships and supplementary academic assistance for student athletes. The athletes themselves are compensated only in financial aid and are forbidden to be paid in exchange for the use of their name, image or likeness.

Read More [[link removed]] Public Banking In California Would Help Create An Economy That Works For Everyone

You might not have felt it, but an earthquake in Sacramento rattled the financial world on Friday the 13th — and Wall Street is shook. On Sept. 13, the California Legislature approved AB857.

If signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, this bill would allow municipalities throughout California to establish publicly owned banks to invest in local communities — rather than rely on extractive Wall Street titans.

To understand how important public banking could be, one must first understand how our municipal financial system operates today with reckless abandon.

Read More [[link removed]] To Fight Climate Change, California Needs To Plug Into Offshore Wind

We all saw Greta Thunberg’s eyes. We saw her face. We heard her voice quivering as she urged the members of the United Nations last week to do more to fight back against the ravages of climate change.

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” the teenage Swedish activist said. “People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing…How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just ‘business as usual’ and some technical solutions?”

As global temperatures rise, bringing with it the fury of a generation that will have to live with the consequences, we know we need to do more—we must do more—to fight this existential crisis.

Even in California, where we have already set some of the world’s most aggressive climate goals, our 100% carbon-free targets and plans for millions of electric vehicles are only part of what’s necessary to reckon with the social and moral issues we face.

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