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Hemp pilot bill passes Senate

Ali Meyer: On June 29, the Senate passed Sen. Mark Leno’s bill SB 676, which authorizes a pilot project for growing industrial hemp, a marjuana-related plant that provides useful products without the psychoactive properties of marijuana.  The bill defines “industrial

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Rex Hime paves way for split rolls

Steven Greenhut: Rex Hime is president of the California Business Properties Association, a trade group representing commercial property owners, and someone who is adamantly opposed to the split-rolls tax, which would remove Prop. 13 protections from commercial property owners. Yet

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Brown Signs Punitive Amazon Tax

(This is an updated Washington Examiner story from June 29.) JUNE 30, 2011 By KATY GRIMES With the California legislature having just passed a flawed budget full of accounting tricks, budget gimmicks and money grabs, one area of small business

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Pension Iceberg Will Sink State Budget

JUNE 30, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Imagine you’re a passenger on the ill-fated RMS Titanic luxury liner on its 1912 maiden voyage. But the Titanic had no warning of an iceberg lurking below the ocean surface — unlike the Pirate

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Brown Upholds Farm Worker Secret Ballot

JUNE 30, 2011 By KATY GRIMES After months of protests, lobbying and speeches, on March 31, César Chávez Day, the California Senate passed SB 104 to eliminate secret ballot elections for farm workers voting on unionization. And Tuesday night, in a

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Budget Ignores Public Employee Reform

JUNE 29, 2010 Commentary By LANNY EBENSTEIN The state budget approved on Tuesday is the wrong way forward for the state of California. Though this budget does not rely upon new or extended general taxes, it would cut many vital

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Democrats Pass Hinky Budget

JUNE 29, 2011 By KATY GRIMES With a surprising lack of debate between parties, the California Legislature passed the budget late last evening, and only with a majority vote, attempting to close what began the year as a $26.6 billion

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Brown, Leg Conjure Up Phantom Budget

JUNE 28, 2011 By KATY GRIMES In the shadow of the 2009 tax increases set to expire this Friday July 1, Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrat party leadership announced Monday that a majority-vote budget deal had been reached. There

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July 1 Tax Cut Will Boost CA Economy

NOTE: This article first appeared yesterday in Flashreport.org. JUNE 28, 2011 By JOHN SEILER Assuming Republicans in the Legislature stand solid, Californians could get an early Independence Day gift this year: tax cuts. And that gift will provide a needed

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Redevelopment is Prop. 13 in Reverse

JUNE 28, 2011 by WAYNE LUSVARDI To California redevelopment advocates, the policy brings the Midas touch to cities, turning everything into gold for the Golden State. Redevelopment fans point to all the beautiful new malls, restored Old Town business districts, industrial

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