Global warming is on the tip of our tongues – when stoked by spices and seasonings. They add zesty tastes and healthful ingredients to meals at home in a few quick shakes – no scratch-cooking necessary. People are curious about what their neighbors eat, especially their multicultural neighbors. Also, the lofty pace of general market
During the last major drought in the early 1990s, Irvine pioneered a different approach for calculating water bills for customers. The city's water agency allocated each customer a certain amount of water and then charged higher rates to those who exceeded it. The structure has been a wild success: Outdoor water use has dropped almost
FRESNO — When residents of this parched California city opened their water bills for April, they got what Mayor Ashley Swearengin called “a shock to the system.” The city had imposed a long-delayed, modest rate increase — less than the cost of one medium latte from Starbucks for the typical household, and still leaving the
A coalition of public employee unions and other liberal groups, including many churches, launched a campaign Thursday to alter Proposition 13, California’s iconic property tax limit, and raise billions of dollars by hiking taxes on commercial property. The organization, Make It Fair, is headed by unions, including the California Teachers Association and the Service Employees
Every state budget cycle has its own narrative, but this year’s version is in a class by itself – approaching the traditional May 15 release date of the governor’s final estimates. An expanding state economy and a temporary sales and income tax increase are flooding the state treasury with money, at least $4-plus billion more
For Dems, Tom Steyer San Francisco activist Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate Super PAC said Monday that the billionaire Democrat will wage a campaign to put Republicans on the “hot seat” about climate change and spend “what it takes” for an aggressive new high-tech war room to track — and attack — GOP candidates in 2016.
November’s election is in the rearview mirror, but many California lawmakers and unsuccessful candidates continue to live with reminders of costly campaigns. Lawmakers reported about $3.7 million in unpaid bills and personal loans, according to state filings reviewed by The Bee. Debt retirement fundraisers around the Capitol have been common in recent weeks. Yet such
April is the most important month for the state budget, due to its over-reliance on personal income taxes, and every indication points to a strong flow of revenues. But it creates a political problem for Gov. Jerry Brown. Scarcely a day passes without the Legislature’s budget subcommittees hearing emotional pleas for more aid from advocates
For more than a century, California has been the state where people flocked for a better life — 164,000 square miles of mountains, farmland and coastline, shimmering with ambition and dreams, money and beauty. It was the cutting-edge symbol of possibility: Hollywood, Silicon Valley, aerospace, agriculture and vineyards. But now a punishing drought — and
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, having decided not to run for the U.S. Senate next year, quickly made it clear that he wanted the governorship, and is already raising money for what could be a very expensive campaign. Antonio Villaraigosa, another prominent politician who also eschewed a run for the Senate, showed up in Fresno last