Joseph Perkins, Author at CalWatchdog.com

Posts From Joseph Perkins

Joseph Perkins

Joseph Perkins, now assistant editor of the Orange County Register Opinion Pages, started his career as an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal. After serving on the White House Staff of former Vice President Dan Quayle he wrote for the San Diego Union-Tribune where he authored a nationally-syndicated column. Before writing for CalWatchdog.com, Mr. Perkins was also Business Editor for San Diego Magazine.

Tesla latest CA company to diss Golden State

Tesla Motors, the Palo Alto maker of luxury electric cars, is holding its annual stockholder meeting next Tuesday. It will be interesting to see whether CEO Elon Musk announces the two states that will compete in a “bakeoff” to

Why CA has an affordable housing crisis

Joseph Perkins April 12, 2014

What a long strange trip it’s been for the Pebble Beach Company since it unveiled its Del Monte Forest development plan all the way back in 1987. In the ensuing 27 years, PBC has revised its plan innumerable times only

CA high-speed rail strikes out at hearing

Joseph Perkins March 28, 2014

The state Senate’s Transportation and Housing Committee held a hearing Thursday on California’s quixotic high-speed rail project. Even Gov. Jerry Brown, who still hopes the bullet train will be the enduring legacy of his third stint as governor, might

$Rick Perry returns to woo CA businesses$

Rick Perry returns to woo CA businesses

Joseph Perkins March 21, 2014

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is returning next week to the Golden State. Maybe this time, California Gov. Jerry Brown will take him seriously. Perry made a four-day recruiting trip to California in February of last year, visiting San Francisco,

$Schwab the latest CA company seeking greener pastures$

Schwab the latest CA company seeking greener pastures

Joseph Perkins February 21, 2014

Charles Schwab is shorting California. The online brokerage, a Fortune 500 corporation, announced recently it is relocating 1,000 jobs from its San Francisco headquarters to out-of-state locations. “The decision to reduce our concentration in San Francisco is based on

Ivanpah solar plant bets on wrong technology

Joseph Perkins February 16, 2014

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz was in the unincorporated San Bernardino County community of Nipton Thursday, where he dedicated the new $2.2 billion, 392-megawattt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (SEGS). “The Ivanpah project is a shining example of how America

Oregon has become the new California

Joseph Perkins February 7, 2014

Imagine if a grizzly bear and a beaver squared off in a cage match. It would be a decided mismatch in the bear’s favor. That’s how interstate competition used to be between California – which prominently features a bear on

Desal can mitigate California’s water woes

Joseph Perkins January 21, 2014

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy dedicated the nation’s first saline water conversion plant. A public-private partnership between U.S. Department of Interior and Dow Chemical, the Freeport, Texas plant converted seawater from the Gulf of Mexico into 1 million gallons

Covered California stumbles into new year

Joseph Perkins January 2, 2014

Manuel Arriola, co-owner of an Oxnard insurance broker, spent three hours and 15 minutes on the phone this past Monday with customer service representatives for Covered California. He needed to find out whether or not insurance applications he forwarded to

Now New York fires a shot across California’s bow

Joseph Perkins December 31, 2013

Gov. Jerry Brown was not amused this past February when Texas Gov. Rick Perry made a four-day recruiting trip to California, hosting meet and greets with CEOs and other business executives in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Los Angeles and