Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News President Bernie Sanders: Here's What It Would Mean For California

California is already one of the nation’s most liberal states, but a Bernie Sanders presidency would kick the state’s progressive tilt into overdrive.

Still, in many policy areas, Californians would feel far less of an impact than residents of more conservative states.

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Sanders also plans to virtually eliminate the nation’s fossil fuel industry — he would ban production in the U.S. and eliminate imports and exports — and largely replace it with publicly owned utilities. He also wants to provide displaced energy workers with five years of salary, job training, housing assistance and job placement.

The speed and scale of those changes concern people in California’s business community.

Sanders’ timeline for the changes is “completely unrealistic,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, which represents some of the state’s largest companies. “It reflects how he would try to transform California’s economy through energy policy.”

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation Europe Girds For Trade Battle With U.S.

European politicians said they are prepared to defend themselves and would retaliate against any American tariffs, after President Trump set his sights on the continent as the next front in his global fight over trade.

With a first-phase China deal in his pocket, Mr. Trump said he wants to reach an agreement with the European Union before the U.S. presidential election, and threatened to levy tariffs if talks failed.

“They’re going to make a deal, because they have to. They have to,” Mr. Trump said in a television interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum here. “They have no choice.”

France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, who was also making the rounds at Davos, quickly shot back. “If we were to be hit by American tariffs, we would have no choice but to retaliate,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Business Activity Increases In Early 2020

Business activity in the U.S. improved in early 2020, contrasting with weaker economic performance in some of the world’s other major economies.

Data company IHS Markit said Friday that its composite purchasing managers index for the U.S., a measure of activity in businesses, posted a ten-month high of 53.1 in January, up from 52.7 in December. A level above 50 points to growth in business activity, while a reading below that mark points to contraction.

IHS Markit said the pickup was due to growth in the services sector. Manufacturing PMI dipped to 51.7 in January, from 52.4 a month earlier.

The data “highlight a manufacturing sector that is not out of the woods yet, with goods producers seeing only modest gains in output and new orders,” said IHS Markit economist Sian Jones.

Read More [[link removed]] Bubble Watch: California Business Growth Slows By Half In A Year

In 2019’s first nine months, California’s business output grew at a 2.3% average annual rate, No. 21 among the states. GDP is the broadest measure of economic activity. That’s a slower pace than for all of 2018 when California’s economy grew at a 4.3% rate, No. 2 nationally between Washington (5.8%) and Nevada (4.2%).

California’s economy has cooled from a U.S. leader to middle-of-the-pack status. Whether that’s part of expected ebbs and flows of the cycle or a signal of trouble ahead, is obviously the big question.

Let’s first look at what my trusty spreadsheet tells us how far California’s economy has come out of the Great Recession. The third quarter’s advance marked the 38th consecutive quarter of positive growth and 29th straight three-month period with economic growth exceeding the rest of the nation.

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Regulator To Move On Low-Income Lending Overhaul Without Fed

A top U.S. banking regulator said Wednesday he plans to push ahead with a proposal to overhaul rules governing billions of dollars of lending in low-income neighborhoods despite objections from the Federal Reserve.

Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting said he doesn’t see time to compromise with the Fed regarding a December proposal that would update federal regulations under the Community Reinvestment Act. The proposal was crafted jointly by his office and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

“There is a structured process now that’s in place,” Mr. Otting told reporters. He said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will receive comments on its proposal until March 9 and issue a final rule about 60 days later. “You know, there’s limited ways that the Fed could catch up with us on that.”

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Economic Activity Slumped In The Fourth Quarter, According To New Data From Yelp

The U.S. economy was weak in the fourth quarter, and growth is projected to drop further in the first three months of 2020, according to a new economic indicator based on Yelp Inc.’s proprietary data on Thursday.

The California based business directory service and crowd-sourced review forum YELP, +0.34% said the results suggests fourth-quarter GDP growth will come in below the third quarter’s 2.1% annual growth rate. The Commerce Department will release its first estimate of Q4 GDP on Jan. 30.

Yelp said it designed its Yelp Economic Average (YEA) report to be a benchmark of local economic strength, based on data from millions of local businesses and tens of millions of users on the on-line listing service’s platform.

Unlike existing economic indicators, Yelp said the index will measure local, rather than national, economic strength. The firm tracks the health of consumer demand and business growth. The firm has information on millions of brick-and-mortar businesses and consumer demand. The data does not cover on-line shopping.

Read More [[link removed]] The CTA Really Wants The Split-Roll Property Tax Initiative On The Ballot. Union Members Don't Seem So Enthused

The California Teachers Association has made the passage of a split-roll property tax initiative its top priority for 2020, allocating an initial investment of $6 million for the campaign. But three months into signature-gathering to place the measure on the November ballot, the union is having a difficult time elevating its members to the same level of enthusiasm.

The Schools and Communities First campaign has set a goal of 1.6 million signatures by the March 4 filing deadline. The plan was to have volunteers, particularly union members, collect 450,000 signatures, while signature-gathering firms made up the difference. Each union involved with the campaign was given a quota, and CTA’s is 150,000 signatures.

The overall collection rate has been steady. The campaign reached 250,000 signatures after about a month, and 500,000 after about two months. The latest information I have states the campaign has reached 745,000 signatures.

Read More [[link removed]] Membership In Government Unions Falls To A 20-Year Low

Government-union membership fell again in 2019, continuing a decade-long decline. Workers in public-sector unions now number 7.066 million, representing a drop of nearly 100,000 in one year and the smallest government-organized labor membership in 20 years. Since 2009, when the ranks of government-union members peaked at 7.896 million, public-labor groups have lost more than 10 percent of their membership. The percentage of government workers belonging to unions has dropped to 33.6, the smallest proportion of the government workforce since 1978. The most recent numbers illustrate how government unions continue to suffer from the hangover of the recession of 2008-2009, in part because of a slow rebound in government employment during the economic expansion that began in 2010. The numbers may also reflect some losses that unions have suffered in the wake of the 2018 Supreme Court Janus decision, which gave public-sector workers the right to opt out of joining a union or paying fees.

The trends are particularly ominous for public unions because 2019 should have been the year that they started bouncing back. In the tenth year of an economic expansion, state tax and local collections grew robustly, increasing by 9 percent in the second quarter and 5.6 percent in the third quarter, according to government surveys. States and municipalities subsequently hired more workers. The number of local government employees, for instance, jumped by nearly 100,000 in 2019, to 14.573 million. But these gains haven’t translated into increases in union membership, particularly in municipal government, the largest segment of public-sector employment. The total government workforce in America has returned to its pre-financial crash levels, but union headcount has failed to follow suit.

Read More [[link removed]] Californian Credit Scores Take Nation's Second-Largest Jump

The average Californian’s credit score may be middle-of-the-pack nationally, but only one state had a bigger improvement as the economy rebounded during the last seven years.

Credit watcher Experian’s annual report on national trends in “FICO” credit scores showed that last year’s California average of 708 was up two points in a year. That ranked 27th among the states. Credit scores reflect bill-paying abilities and are an important factor in how consumers obtain loans and what interest rates are charged.

The national average FICO score rose as well to a record high of 703 in 2019. That’s up from 701 in 2018. A 700 score is a critical credit quality yardstick for lenders and 59% of Americans hit or exceeded this lofty level of creditworthiness last year — a record high share.

At the state level, 2019’s highest scores were found in Minnesota at 733, its eighth-consecutive year leading the nation. Next best was North Dakota and South Dakota at 727. Worst? Mississippi and Louisiana at 677 then Texas and Alabama at 680.

Read More [[link removed]] AB 5 In California: Amid Lawsuits, Ballot Measure Push And Confusion, Lawmakers Promise To Refine Law

California’s controversial new "gig economy" labor law that went into effect Jan. 1 is already facing fierce opposition from industries that depend on contracted labor, sparking widespread concerns over how it will be implemented.

AB 5 — which takes aim at employee misclassification in the gig economy — has been legally challenged by the trucking industry, freelance media creators, and, of course, tech titans who have built their app-based empires using non-employed labor. Uber, Lyft and DoorDash have poured $90 million into a push for state voters to weigh in on the issue by ballot initiative in November.

While Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, the San Diego Democrat who championed the bill in the legislature, says there are plans in place to change the language in the legislation to address some concerns, she says some of the pushback is due to widespread misconceptions about the law.

Read More [[link removed]] Uber Is Letting Drivers Set Their Own Fares, So Why Could They End Up Making Less Money?

For the first time, Uber is allowing drivers to have control over the fares they charge riders. But given the fierce competition across ride-hailing apps, industry experts say this could lead to a price-cutting battle between drivers vying for riders.

Uber said on Tuesday it is testing the feature at three California airports — Santa Barbara, Sacramento and Palm Springs. Drivers can charge more than the base fare Uber would otherwise charge riders, but only in multiples of 1.0 to 5 and in increments of 0.1.

Drivers will be allowed to set fares lower than the base fare starting next week.

“I don’t see anyone raising rates and getting rides,” said Jay Cradeur, founder of the Rideshare Dojo site and a driver for ride-hailing companies, including Uber and Lyft LYFT, +0.06% , in the Bay Area . “Even if there’s a price surge most drivers are going to go low because they know they’ll get more rides.”

Uber’s announcement comes after California enacted legislation in September aimed at reclassifying independent contractors, or “gig workers” such as drivers for Uber and Lyft, as employees.

Read More [[link removed]] Southern California Home Prices And Sales Surged In December

Southern California home prices in December rose by the most in 19 months, the latest sign that the housing market is gaining steam after a prolonged slowdown.

The six-county median sales price hit a new all-time high of $550,000 last month, a 7.2% increase from a year earlier, according to data from DQNews. Sales, meanwhile, surged 22.1% from December 2018 — the largest gain since late 2016.

The dramatic bounce of sales and home prices reflects the depressed state of the market a year earlier. At the time, concerns over affordability and the direction of the economy were heightened. The stock market had plunged and some would-be buyers wondered if prices would follow. Sales in December 2018 dropped 20% from a year earlier.

“December 2018 was a really weird month,” said Christopher Thornberg, founding partner at Beacon Economics.

Read More [[link removed]] California Governor Urges Judge To Reject PG&E Bankruptcy Plan

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is urging a federal judge to reject Pacific Gas and Electric’s blueprint for getting out of bankruptcy and renewing his threat to lead a bid to turn the beleaguered utility into a government-run operation.

In a court filing Wednesday, Newsom’s lawyers gave a sternly worded rebuke of PG&E’s plan, escalating the intrigue in a year-old bankruptcy case that will determine the fate of the nation’s largest utility. PG&E is trying to dig out of a financial hole created by more than $50 billion in claims stemming from a series of catastrophic wildfires that have been blamed on the San Francisco company.

Although he doesn’t have the power to block PG&E’s preferred route out of bankruptcy, the Democratic governor has tremendous leverage because the company’s plan hinges on its ability to draw upon a special insurance fund California created last summer to help insulate utilities from potential wildfire losses in the future.

PG&E did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read More [[link removed]] Celebrities Back California Bill To Cut Single-Use Plastics

A push to pass first-in-the-nation California proposals to limit single-use plastic containers and other items drew support from actor Jeff Goldblum on Wednesday.

Environmental groups hail the proposal as a landmark attempt to cut down on 75% of waste from plastic items like takeout boxes, food containers and utensils.

"I feel like we're on the brink of accomplishing something," Goldblum said, likening the proposal to President John F. Kennedy's 1961 moon shot speech.

The two bills, one in the Assembly and another in the Senate, would require companies to reduce single-use packaging as much as possible by 2024 and ensure products made or imported into California after 2030 are recyclable or can be composted.

Both stalled last year amid heavy opposition from business, agriculture and packaging industry groups. They argued the restrictions on single-use plastics are vague and would burden manufacturers. They also say it gives the state recycling department, CalRecycle, overly broad authority to establish new requirements for businesses.

Read More [[link removed]] Recology Beings Funding $4.5M Ballot Initiative To Tax Plastics In California

This proposal has been discussed by Recology for more than a year, with CEO Michael Sangiacomo making the stance official in a December 2018 San Francisco Chronicle op-ed. The idea gained momentum after California lawmakers were unable to pass a major set of packaging bills before their session ended last September.

Those bills were among the most contentious in a busy session for recycling legislation, attracting a range of reactions and heavy lobbying activity. In its final form, the legislation's requirement for recyclability by 2030 would have covered a broader range of packaging types than just plastic. It would have also set a 75% waste reduction target.

Yet, as Recology has argued, these new requirements wouldn't have come with a funding source to help enact the infrastructure changes that many believe are necessary to make them possible. That issue was a key talking point in final negotiations, but also remains challenging because a supermajority vote would be required to pass funding policy.

Read More [[link removed]] Lessons From California’s Diverse Cities

America's big cities are becoming increasingly diverse – and California's urban centers are leading the way.

The state was home to seven of the country's 10 most diverse big cities in 2018, according to a U.S. News analysis of recent census data. Those cities span the state, and include Stockton, Sacramento, Fresno, Oakland, San Jose, Long Beach and Los Angeles.

The diversity of California's cities mirrors the demographics of the state, which is home to large immigrant enclaves from more than 60 countries, and where no one racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of the population. Yet California's urban areas – which contain 94% of the state's population and each with their own unique challenges – are worth a closer look as the rest of the country edges toward "majority-minority" status and more people identify as multiracial.

"California is America, just sooner," says Manuel Pastor, a sociology professor at the University of Southern California and director of the school's Program for Environmental and Regional Equity and its Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change Select SF Restaurants Tack On 'Optional' Surcharge To Fight Climate Change

It is called the Restore California or Zero Foodprint surcharge, and the group behind it is the Perennial Farming Initiative, a group started by Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz, who co-founded Mission Chinese Food, Commonwealth, and The Perennial in SF — the latter two of which shuttered in 2019. The mission, as Eater reports, is to collect funds and then distribute grants to "help local farmers implement climate beneficial farming practices," while also helping restaurants to "reduce and offset their carbon footprint." In short, the group is seeking to "unfuck the planet," as they say on a signup page. The program is working in cooperation with California's Healthy Soils Program, and the California Air Resources Board, and the first grants are expected to be dispersed in May 2020.

As the group explains, with California boasting a restaurant industry worth an annual $97 billion in revenue, it would only take 1 percent of the state's restaurant to adopt the surcharge to raise $10 million per year. And that money could be put toward encouraging farming that traps more carbon in the ground, rather than releasing more into the air.

Read More [[link removed]] Oil Industry Subpoenas Aim To Harass And Intimidate, Consumer Group Says

Litigation is nobody’s idea of fun (except, perhaps, lawyers), and that’s certainly true for anyone dragged into a lawsuit without being either a plaintiff or defendant.

That’s the situation facing Consumer Watchdog, the Santa Monica-based consumer group, which has spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of billable hours fending off a shower of subpoenas issued by big oil companies in connection with lawsuits to which the group isn’t a party.

Chevron and Exxon have served seven nonparty subpoenas on Consumer Watchdog since 2009, the group says. Over the last year or two, those companies and others in the oil industry have gotten “more and more aggressive,” says Jerry Flanagan, Consumer Watchdog’s chief counsel.

Read More [[link removed]] New York Is Kicking California's Butt In Building Electrification

Two states on opposite sides of the nation have come to the same conclusion: They cannot meet their ambitious climate goals without electrifying buildings.

New York and California are often jockeying to be seen as leaders in the clean economy. Last week, duel announcements from the two public utilities commissions, the bodies that regulate the states’ electricity and natural gas infrastructure (among other things), revealed the "competition" is not very close. New York is winning.

A look at the states’ policies show the states have also, to this point, prioritized different approaches to spur on electrification. New York is focused on incentivizing fuel switching, while California is focused on restricting new natural gas. While both theoretically would get to the same targets — customers foot the bill for all-electric appliances, which ultimately will save them money on utility bills and help the state reach climate goals — the two policy approaches read differently to consumers.

Read More [[link removed]] Green Groups Criticize Automakers Over Support For 'More Carbon Pollution'

A coalition of environmental groups are publicly calling on automakers to drop their support for the Trump administration’s move to prevent California from setting its own fuel efficiency standards.

The five organizations took out an advertisement in The Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press and The Sacramento Bee that reads: “Why are some automakers suing for more carbon pollution?”

It was followed by an open letter asking automakers General Motors, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Hyundai, Kia and Mitsubishi to “immediately withdraw from litigation against existing clean car standards.”

The letter was signed by leaders of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense Fund, the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Read More [[link removed]] Trump Promised His Mileage Standards Would Make Cars Cheaper And Safer. New Documents Raise Doubts About That.

President Trump has said his plan to weaken federal mileage standards would make cars cheaper and “substantially safer.” But the administration’s own analysis suggests that it would cost consumers more than it would save them in the long run, and would do little to make the nation’s roads safer.

The revised Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles rule, which has not been released publicly, would require automakers to increase the average fuel efficiency of the nation’s fleets by 1.5 percent per year between model years 2021 and 2026. Rules put in place by the Obama administration, by comparison, require a nearly 5 percent annual increase.

If finalized, the proposal would mandate more progress on fuel efficiency than the Trump administration’s initial effort to freeze fuel standards in the years ahead. But the new analysis, outlined in a letter Wednesday by Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), projects that the benefits of Trump’s proposed rollback would not significantly outweigh the costs. Trump’s approach would lower the sticker price of new cars, according to the documents, but drivers would spend more at the gas pump over time by driving less efficient vehicles.

Read More [[link removed]] California's Cap-And-Trade Program Is Paying For Improvements In Disadvantaged Communities

Grecia Elenes grew up in Fresno, California. She says some parts of the city have been neglected for decades. When she moved back after college she realized nothing has changed.

“You see the same vacant lots. You see the same liquor stores,” she says. “There’s still no parks. You have the same missing sidewalks.”

Now, she has hope that change is coming.

Elenes works as a policy advocate with the nonprofit Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.

She says that as part of California’s cap-and-trade program, major polluters in the state are charged for the carbon emissions they generate.

Some of that money is set aside for programs that both promote economic development and cut carbon pollution in disadvantaged communities. The state awarded Fresno more than $66 million for improvements in a five square mile area.

Read More [[link removed]] Workforce Development University Of California Regents Divided Over Tuition Hikes; Vote Delayed

Even though they did not vote on dueling proposals to increase tuition, the University of California’s Board of Regents on Wednesday showed deep divisions on the matter and whether tuition should be hiked at all.

Some said they oppose both proposals, under which undergraduates who are California residents could see increases ranging from $348 to $606 next fall with additional hikes over each of the next four years. That would come on top of the current $12,570 for mandatory tuition and university-wide fees, not including housing and other costs.

Other regents expressed preferences for one plan or the other, but a majority opinion was not apparent.

Read More [[link removed]] Gov. Newsom, Legislative Analyst Disagree On Priority For K-12 Spending Next Year

A historically low proportion of school districts in California currently are in fiscal distress. But with most districts facing declining enrollments and escalating costs, the Legislative Analyst’s Office is suggesting that the Legislature give districts more financial relief in next year’s state budget.

The recommendation for using one-time funding to help districts pay down their pension and retiree health liabilities is in a report issued Tuesday. It is at odds with the spending priorities that Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed earlier this month in his 2020-21 budget for K-12 schools. Newsom is proposing to target about half of the expected increase in school funding for teacher workforce initiatives, for assistance to low-performing schools and districts and for expanding community schools, which provide comprehensive health and academic services, primarily for low-income children.

The LAO didn’t criticize Newsom’s choices; instead it said relief from cost pressures deserves top priority. “Of all the Legislature’s options for one‑time initiatives, we believe making supplemental pension payments would provide the greatest sustained fiscal benefit for districts,” the report said.

Read More [[link removed]] California Governor Joins Those Wanting To Hold School Districts More Accountable For Spending

In an audit last fall of three districts’ spending, State Auditor Elaine Howle called on the State Board of Education and the Legislature to hold districts more accountable for how they spend money they receive from the Local Control Funding Formula.

In the state budget that he presented this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom included two proposals that respond to the audit, setting the stage for negotiations with legislators who have introduced bills that mirror two of Howle’s key recommendations.

The audit of San Diego Unified, Clovis Unified and Oakland Unified found that it was often impossible to track the spending for English learners, foster and homeless youth and low-income children. Districts receive extra money under the funding formula for these children, based on their proportions of enrollment, and in return are required to provide them with improved and increased services and programs. Along with a lack of transparency, the audit said that some expenditures appeared to be misspent on all students without clearly benefiting the targeted student groups.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing Newsom Dives Into Decades-Long California Water Fight

It didn’t take long for Gavin Newsom to dive head-first into a political water fight that has bedeviled a long list of capable and successful California governors.

Hours after being elected in 2018, Newsom and his predecessor Jerry Brown intervened in a decade-long fight by convincing regulators to stall a plan requiring farmers and cities to leave more water in Central Valley rivers for salmon. Months later, Gov. Newsom announced during his first major speech that he supported downsizing a prickly $17 billion plan to tunnel underneath the state’s main estuary to deliver more water to the thirsty south state.

The moves signaled to the myriad actors in California’s water drama that Newsom wouldn’t shy from the state’s notoriously complex and ceaseless water wars as governor.

With a year’s experience under his belt, Newsom is making his next move with a recently released game plan his administration claims will protect the state’s most precious commodity from climate change. The water portfolio lists over 100 actions and while many are forward-thinking and do things like improve drinking water quality, boost efficiency in urban and agricultural water use and favor voluntary water agreements instead of state mandates, it also endorses billion-dollar projects that flopped under past governors.

Read More [[link removed]] You've Just Been Named California's Homelessness Czar--What's Your First Move?

Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken grief for failing to fulfill what seems like a pretty achievable campaign promise: appointing a homelessness “czar” to help the 150,000 Californians living in shelters and on the streets. Newsom’s quest, which at various points had the mayor of Sacramento, the state secretary of health and human services and a Washington DC-based consultant co-wearing the “czar” crown, culminated earlier this month in a Truman-esque “buck stops here” declaration.

“You want to know who’s the homeless czar?” Newsom said, index finger pounding the podium. “I’m the homeless czar in the state of California.”

Well, good czars are hard to find. But that’s partly because homelessness is a complex and difficult problem, with options that range, at best, from imperfect to limited. Some choices might bring people in from the streets over the long term, but are expensive and time-consuming. Others might prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place, but are difficult to efficiently target.

Read More [[link removed]] Some Landlords Say Goodbye To California

Multiple new laws went into effect in the past month in California that are meant to protect tenants. But some landlords say the state has become too restrictive for them, and they’re taking their business elsewhere.

“The rules are getting harder and harder here to comply with, and our long-term prospects are looking worse and worse,” said Michael D. Pierce, president and co-founder of Prodesse Property Group, which manages residential properties throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. “It makes it harder for us to manage our assets and do it in an intelligent way.”

Pierce is investing in Colorado and Florida instead. “We’re looking in other states, like many people,” he said.

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion California's Crusade Against CEOs

As the Second Amendment protests loomed in Virginia, one Democrat in the state senate scoffed that right-wing groups were getting their members — and their donors — riled up over silly legislative proposals that were unlikely ever to become law. There is some question-begging in that: What happens at the margins of the political debate matters, and sometimes matters a great deal, because it helps to define the universe of policy possibilities.

An additional consideration is that there exists a place called “California,” which under single-party Democratic rule today functions as the nation’s great loopy clearinghouse for dotty left-wing ideas — and, in today’s California, these stand a reasonably good chance of eventually becoming law. That fact should be of some concern to gentlemen such as Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg and other executives of California-based companies that are being targeted for a new regime of punitive taxation as part of the progressive crusade against “income inequality,” the pejorative term for the reality, uncontroversial outside doctrinaire Marxist circles, that some jobs pay more than others.

Read More [[link removed]] Cali-Globalization

On Jan. 1, the new California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect, with consequences felt far beyond the state’s borders. Unlike in neighboring Las Vegas, what happens in California rarely stays in California, especially when it comes to business regulations.

The CCPA is no exception. It is the U.S. beachhead of the 2018 European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the previous effort by the EU to regulate aspects of how corporations handle personal data. By dint of California’s size—it is the largest internal market in the United States and the fifth-largest economy in the world—and influence in the tech sector—the state is home to Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Cisco, and many others—the impact of the CCPA on the rest of the world could be far larger than its European cousin.

Indeed, the CCPA has already lit a fire under the U.S. Congress, where a rare bipartisan push toward federal data protection legislation is underway. The effort is aimed at forestalling a state-by-state patchwork of law and, for the Republican Party at least, denying a victory to the reviled activist legislators of California.

Read More [[link removed]] Ignore The Fake Climate Debate

Beyond the headlines and social media, where Greta Thunberg, Donald Trump and the online armies of climate “alarmists” and “deniers” do battle, there is a real climate debate bubbling along in scientific journals, conferences and, occasionally, even in the halls of Congress. It gets a lot less attention than the boisterous and fake debate that dominates our public discourse, but it is much more relevant to how the world might actually address the problem.

In the real climate debate, no one denies the relationship between human emissions of greenhouse gases and a warming climate. Instead, the disagreement comes down to different views of climate risk in the face of multiple, cascading uncertainties.

On one side of the debate are optimists, who believe that, with improving technology and greater affluence, our societies will prove quite adaptable to a changing climate. On the other side are pessimists, who are more concerned about the risks associated with rapid, large-scale and poorly understood transformations of the climate system.

Read More [[link removed]] How AB 5 Threatens The Job Security Of California Workers

Should the government decide how many stories a freelance journalist can write?

Of course not. But a California law known as Assembly Bill 5 that went into effect earlier this month does exactly that – and more. It is a sweeping effort by the government to control the future of work by denying freelancers and gig economy workers the flexibility that allows them to earn a living in the modern economy.

While union leaders cheered the legislation, working Californians are paying the price. Hundreds have already lost their jobs and thousands more are now at risk. So job one for California’s legislature as it convenes this month should be to repeal AB 5 and restore the freedom to work.

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