Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News California Board Diversity Mandate Spreads To Other States, Washington

As SB 826 passed into law with Democratic backing, it faced threats of legal challenges.

Former SEC Commissioner Joseph Grundfest argues that the law is vulnerable to challenges based on equal rights protections and because it applies to companies based in California but incorporated out of state.

Still, Robert Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, an organization of business leaders in the state, said in an interview that he hasn’t heard of any businesses interested in suing to halt the law.

Lapsley attributed companies’ acceptance of the mandate to trends already afoot in the business world. He said board gender diversity was already increasing, adding that the optics of a lawsuit could also be a factor.

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation Economic Growth Slowed To 2.1% In Second Quarter

The U.S. economy slowed but still grew at a solid clip in the second quarter as strong consumer spending offset a drop in business investment, keeping the decadelong expansion on track amid trade tensions and cooling global activity.

Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services produced across the economy, rose at a 2.1% annual rate in the second quarter, adjusted for seasonality and inflation, the Commerce Department said Friday.

That marked a pullback from a 3.1% pace in the first quarter, when growth was partly driven by a jump in inventories and exports and a fall in imports—factors that reversed in the April-June period.

President Trump said on Twitter Friday morning that the 2.1% figure was “not bad considering we have the very heavy weight of the Federal Reserve anchor wrapped around our neck.” Mr. Trump has attacked the Fed for months and called for the central bank to cut interest rates to boost growth.

Read More [[link removed]] Economic Growth Didn’t Hit 3% Mark Last Year, Revised Data Show

U.S. economic growth didn’t hit the Trump administration’s 2018 target of 3% or better after all, according to revised government data showing a slower pace of expansion in the final quarter than previously estimated.

Gross domestic product, a broad measure of the goods and services produced, was up 2.5% in the fourth quarter of 2018 from a year earlier, the Commerce Department reported Friday. That was down sharply from its most recent estimate of 3%, and was largely due to lower business investment and exports than previously estimated.

Measured another way—total output for 2018 compared with total output for 2017—the economy grew 2.9% last year. That figure was unrevised from the government’s earlier estimates, and it marked the strongest yearly pace of growth since 2015.

Read More [[link removed]] California Tax Collections Soared Last Year, Giving The State An Extra $1 Billion

California brought in $1 billion more than projected in its last financial year, the state’s Department of Finance announced Friday.

It’s a sign the state’s unusually long period of economic growth is still going.

The news comes just after Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers last month approved a $215 billion state new budget, which relies on a big projected surplus to fill the state’s reserve accounts with more than $19 billion. That money is intended to save lawmakers from having to make deep cuts when the next economic recession hits.

The unexpected bump announced Friday means the state’s general fund revenue was 0.7 percentage points higher than predicted when lawmakers approved last year’s budget.

Read More [[link removed]?] Unemployment In Sacramento Region, California Ticks Up In Latest Jobs Report

The greater Sacramento area’s economic expansion cooled off slightly this past month, as the regional unemployment rate climbed and job growth slowed down.

The Sacramento-area unemployment rate stands at 3.8 percent as of June, up from last month’s record low of 3.1 percent in May but still below the unemployment rate one year ago at 3.9 percent, according to the California Employment Development Department. This takes into account Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties.

This mirrors the nation’s unemployment rate of 3.8 percent for the same period but stands below the state’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, which was higher than the revised May figure of 3.5 percent, according to the EDD.

Read More [[link removed]] Ninth Circuit Withdraws Opinion Regarding Retroactivity Of Dynamex v. Superior Court, Will Certify The Question To The California Supreme Court

Employers in the Golden State are well aware that last year in Dynamex v. Superior Court the California Supreme Court adopted the ABC test for determining whether workers are employees or independent contractors. In the most recent development in the Dynamex saga, the court will now decide whether the new test should be given retroactive, or only prospective, application.

Background

On April 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in Dynamex, entirely redefining the standard for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor for purposes the California Wage Orders. At that time, California courts and state agencies had long applied the standard the court itself adopted in 1989, in S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (Borello). In Dynamex, the court replaced the Borello test with the “ABC test,” an entirely new and different test that was, until then, not a feature of California law.

Despite its stated intention to “clarify” the law, the court failed to address the critical issue of retroactive versus prospective application of the new test. The employer filed a petition for rehearing, asking the court to resolve this apparent oversight. The court denied the petition for rehearing. The court’s opinion became final as of June 20, 2018.

Read More [[link removed]] Has The Time Come For City-Run Public Banks

“We planted a seed,” tweeted Public Bank L.A., the day the organization’s ballot measure—which would have created the country’s first city-led public banking institution—failed last year in Los Angeles. “This is just the beginning.”

Turns out they were right. After voters in L.A. rejected the measure that would have allowed the city to divest funds from Wall Street banks and create their own public banking institution at the local level, Public Bank L.A. converged with Public Bank San Francisco and coalitions in eight other California cities and regions to form a united public banking front. And now, a state assembly bill, AB 857, that would make it legal for each of these cities to open local banks, cosponsored by San Francisco Assembly member David Chiu and Los Angeles Assembly member Miguel Santiago, has advanced through the California Assembly and into Senate committees.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change Bypassing Trump, California Reaches Fuel-Efficiency Deal With Automakers

California has struck a deal with four major automakers to boost their vehicles' fuel-emissions standards, escalating the state's standoff with the Trump administration over federal efforts to freeze such improvements.

The deal announced Thursday commits the automakers to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants from their cars and light-duty trucks. That will require an increase in overall mileage to roughly 50 miles per gallon by model year 2026, one year later than fuel-efficiency targets that had been set by President Barack Obama's administration, which the Trump administration is moving to roll back.

Ford, Honda, BMW of North America and Volkswagen Group of America signed on to the deal with the California Air Resources Board, promising to implement the targets across their entire fleet, regardless of what the federal government does.

Read More [[link removed]] Touring Oil Spill Site, Newsom Calls For Greater Oversight of California Petroleum Industry

Gov. Gavin Newsom, in the Central Valley on Wednesday for a firsthand look at one of the largest oil spills in California history, vowed to go beyond the state’s already aggressive efforts to curtail the use of fossil fuels and seek a long-term strategy to reduce oil production.

Newsom also signaled a sharp break with that past by criticizing existing oversight of the oil industry as too permissive. He promised to begin by retooling the state’s top oil regulatory agency, state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources.

The Democratic governor made the comments after arriving in the Kern County town of McKittrick on a 100-plus-degree afternoon, just a few miles from the Chevron oil well field where roughly a million gallons spilled into a dry creek bed. Chevron officials blamed the spill — with was about two-thirds water and one-third oil — on an old well that the company recently recapped.

Read More [[link removed]] Soberly Understanding The Numbers Behind Renewables

Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom are recent countries to declare a climate emergency. Neither country has an economy as large as California’s. We are the fifth largest economy in the world, and like the rest of the world we are using more not less energy, according to the British Petroleum (BP) 2019 Statistical Review of Energy.

Energy analysts who either pro-renewable, pro-fossil fuel, or ones who consider an all-of-the-above approach, the best solutions would tell you there are scientific and economic constraints to entirely phasing out fossil fuels. The American Green New Deal wants do away with all fossil fuels from the U.S. power grid by 2030, and alleviate gasoline and petroleum from the transportation sector without giving details for how that would work.

Governments led by Green parties in the U.K., Canada and the U.S. Democratic Party continue down this path of rapidly scaling down fossil fuels. The BP Review, however, conservatively estimates that 80 percent of the world’s energy needs are being met by fossil fuels, and by 2050 believe renewables only have the capacity to reach 25-30 percent of global energy needs.

Read More [[link removed]] Workforce Development Opponents Urge CSU To Reject 4th Year Of High School Math Or Related Courses For Admission

The 23-campus California State University system on Tuesday launched what promises to be four months of contentious and soul-searching debate on whether to require a fourth year of high school math or a quantitative reasoning course for freshman admissions starting in 2026.

CSU trustees heard details of the administration proposal and intense opposition from some 30 speakers from community organizations, civil rights groups and educational access programs. Those critics warned that the new requirement would especially hurt low-income, black and Latino students who are more likely to attend high schools that don’t offer the necessary courses.

The criticism provided a preview of what trustees may expect in August when they will hold a full hearing on the matter. A decision by CSU trustees is expected in November.

Read More [[link removed]] California State University Increases Application Fee To $70 Per Campus

California State University trustees voted Wednesday to increase the cost of applying to each of the system’s 23 campuses from $55 to $70 starting in the fall, the first increase in 30 years.

Despite last-minute efforts by opponents to block the fee hike or to phase it in more slowly, the full board voted 12-6 for the higher costs to go into effect this year. The increase would still allow low and moderate income students to receive up to four fee waivers. Under the new plan, officials say that even more students would be eligible for the waivers.

The $15 increase in each application fee is estimated to produce about $7 million in additional revenue to run the application portal and help offset admissions review costs. Officials said that those programs are operating at a loss since revenue has not gone up in three decades and that other university funds are subsidizing them.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing Startup's Answer For High-Priced Silicon Valley Housing: Homes In Backyards

Make extra crash — right in your backyard?

That’s the proposal from new startup Rent the Backyard. The company is tackling rising home prices in the San Francisco-Bay Area by building backyard studio apartments, and splitting the rental profits with homeowners.

“This is a long-term partnership that we have with the homeowner,” Rent the Backyard Co-Founder Brain Bakerman told Yahoo Finance during a recent interview.

Homeowners can make $10,000 to $20,000 in additional income each year, according to the company.

“We try to make the process as fast as possible for the homeowner,” Bakerman said. He explained the entire operation — from filing permits to completing construction — takes about 4-5 months, at which point “a homeowner can start seeing rental income.”

Read More [[link removed]] A City Waiting To Grow: Orland's Housing Crisis

Peter Carr is well acquainted with the housing crisis currently facing Butte County.

The city he manages, Orland, has waited years to add thousands of new homes. After the Camp Fire, those homes are needed more than ever in Orland and in other rural towns near Chico.

As the city manager of Orland since 2012, Carr has seen many new developments since the easing of 2008’s Great Recession. He speaks with pride about the town’s history and work toward growth, including the recent rebranding of the city as the Queen Bee Capital, inspiring new landmarks like The Hive and celebrations like the Queen Bee Harvest this year.

He’s also tired of seeing the city passed over, as he sees it, in many ways, by builders and business chains alike. Over 200 acres of land stand ready for development and possible housing around the city, with some parcels purchased and subsequently abandoned since the recession.

Read More [[link removed]] Gov. Newsom Plans To Spend $1 Billion To Bring Drinking Water To Small Communities

In the heart of California's $20 billion agricultural industry, there are tiny, low-income communities that have to survive on bottled water.

That’s because their local systems are too small and can’t upgrade their facilities to adequately filter out the pesticides and contaminants from their local water supply.

Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill that borrows $130 million each year for a decade from a fund — meant for greenhouse gas emissions — to create a stash that will help expedite those fixes.

State Sen. Bill Monning, who represents a large district along the central coast, has been pushing for this for years.

“It’s going to be a long road to remedy these different water systems around the state,” Monning told KCBS Radio, “but having a reliable funding source, an administration that’s committed to it and working with local communities, we can start making progress tomorrow.”

Read More [[link removed]] California's Troubled Bullet Train Project Getting One Of The Biggest Management Upheavals In Years

The California bullet train project is going through one of its biggest personnel upheavals in years, several months after Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed he would be “getting rid of a lot of consultants.”

Brian Kelly, the rail authority’s chief executive officer, said in an interview Thursday that he could not comment on three specific management moves The Times has learned about, but said some are designed to address the project’s multiple challenges.

“I am starting a reorganization of this authority so we can deliver what we have promised,” Kelly said in an interview. “And they will continue. There are going to be a lot of changes in the next few weeks and months.”

California has repeatedly rejiggered the project’s management over the years, in response to setbacks in meeting schedules, budgets, land acquisition requirements in building the nation’s first bullet train, which would ultimately connect Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Read More [[link removed]] Feds Give California Environmental Oversight On High-Speed Rail Project

The Trump administration has given California permission to oversee federal environmental reviews for its high-speed rail project.

It comes as the administration is simultaneously trying to cancel a nearly $1 billion federal grant for the project. California won about $3.5 billion in federal help during the Obama administration to build the first phase of a high-speed rail line connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The administration delayed giving California authority to oversee the environmental reviews for about a year and a half. The California High-Speed Rail Authority announced Thursday it has won approval.

Brian Annis, the authority's chief financial officer, says the designation will speed up California's process for completing environmental reviews on the rail line.

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion California Refuses To Enlist Clean, Cheap Hydropower In Fight Against Climate Change. It Makes No Sense

Is the cleanest, greenest electricity in the world green enough for California?

For years, the people of the Northern San Joaquin Valley have been trying to get hydropower recognized for what it is: the original source of clean electricity. Our efforts have been stymied by people who feel entitled to decide what is, or isn’t, green enough.

That’s why I have begun the process of modifying our state Constitution to recognize safe, abundant, carbon-free hydropower as a reliable source of renewable energy in our fight against climate change.

I have authored Assembly Constitutional Amendment 17 to place this question before California’s voters. We’ve also begun the process of qualifying a ballot measure if the Legislature fails to act on ACA17.

At the very least, it should start an important statewide conversation.

Read More [[link removed]] Even Car Companies Aren't Going Along With Trump's Rollback Of Mileage and Emissions Standards

President Trump is hellbent on rolling back the nation’s fight against climate change. But he’s increasingly going it alone.

Even some of the companies whose water he’s eager to carry aren’t interested in his help.

On Thursday , four of the world’s largest automakers announced they will, in effect, ignore the Trump administration’s plan to relax fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards. Instead, the companies sided with California in the federal-state standoff over clean-car standards, and said they will voluntarily make their vehicles more fuel efficient.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is confident the agreement with Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW — which together sell about 30% of all vehicles in the U.S. — will prompt other automakers to follow suit.

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