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Silicon Valley faces slowdown
Market watchers have keyed in to a series of statistics suggesting breakneck growth in Silicon Valley has begun to slow down. “Tech companies in San Francisco and San Mateo counties lost 700 jobs from January to February and tech employment
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Board of Equalization faces heavy criticism for mismanaged funds
Created to make California’s tax system work better, the Board of Equalization has found itself under a cloud of radical criticism, plunging it into a moment of extraordinary crisis. “At a chaotic budget hearing for an agency that collects a
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Brown gets new gas tax through
At the end of a tumultuous road, a wheeling and dealing Gov. Jerry Brown secured passage of a high-stakes new gas tax raising over $50 billion in ten years. “The California Legislature passed Senate Bill 1 on Thursday night, raising
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Trump’s sister anticipated immigration headache roiling California sheriffs
An immigration-enforcement headache anticipated by President Trump’s sister — federal appellate court Judge Maryanne Trump Barry — is roiling law enforcement authorities in California. They say federal court rulings impede their ability to cooperate with demands from Attorney General Jeff Sessions
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How to fund infrastructure fixes: Tax hikes or rearranging spending priorities?
Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislators are pitching a transportation-tax proposal they depict as the only means to fix California’s crumbling roads, freeways and bridges. One would be hard pressed to find any policy maker in California who doesn’t bemoan
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Thousands of California inmates could go free
Nearly 10,000 inmates could leave California prisons within four years, another consequence of the state’s long struggle with the judicial system over the way it incarcerates convicts. “As the state prison population comes close to exceeding a court-mandated limit, the
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Proposed gas tax hike includes protection against fund diversions
Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders continued their push Friday for quick approval of higher vehicle taxes and fees to pay for a 10-year, $52 billion plan to upgrade California’s roads and highways with the release of legislative language
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California Air Resources Board ratchets up emissions regulations
Continuing a years-long push, the California Air Resources Board cracked down further on emissions, sharpening the debate over the scope of its plans. “The new rules, green-lighted [March 23] … seek to curb methane emissions at oil and gas production
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Legislative Analyst: Trump help needed if L.A. gets 2024 Olympics
At a time of intense bad blood between the Trump administration and the state of California, a new Legislative Analyst’s Office report stressed the importance of years of local-state-federal cooperation in preparing for a possible 2024 Summer Olympics in Los
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California seeks fourth federal disaster declaration
Still reeling from a wild weather season, California chalked up a fourth request for federal disaster aid, as Gov. Jerry Brown lodged the request en route to Washington earlier this month. “Putting the price tag of California’s brutal winter storms at $569
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