It’s not clear if Governor Jerry Brown and his challenger Neel Kashkari will debate each other this fall. But if they do, there should be no doubt about the proper location for any and all debates: the San Joaquin Valley. In this very quiet California election year, it’s fitting that our state’s most overlooked region […]

wavering housing recovery found firmer footing last month. Sales of previously owned homes jumped 4.9% from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million in May, the National Assn. of Realtors said Monday. It was the largest increase since August 2011 and beat expectations. Analysts had forecast sales to reach about 4.75 million […]

California drivers are going to see a bump at the pump starting Jan. 1 – with a good chunk of the money going to kick-start Gov. Jerry Brown‘s struggling high-speed rail project. Reason: Starting next year, tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks will come under California’s cap-and-trade program, which is designed to reduce greenhouse gases. The result will […]

Calling last year’s minimum wage hike a good first step, the California Senate approved a measure Thursday that would further lift the pay floor to $13 an hour by 2017. The bill by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, comes about a month before the state’s minimum wage is set to increase from $8 an hour to $9 in July […]

The economy performed worse than initially estimated amid severe winter weather in the first quarter, contracting for the first time in three years, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Wall Street shrugged off the news in early trading. The Commerce Department reported that the nation’s total economic output decreased at a 1% annual rate from January […]