Category: blog

Video: California’s economic development director on fiscal cliff

This is it. The clock is ticking for a deal on the so-called fiscal cliff, with its bitter combination of automatic tax hikes and budget cuts that seemingly no one wants. There's no doubt the California economy will be affected and already has been affected by the unpredictability of the situation, something business doesn't exactly…

California economy unwraps gifts of good & bad job news

Consumer spending of some goods was up only 0.7 Oct-Dec this year. (Photo Credit: Clotee Pridgen Allochuku/Flickr) The end of the year is approaching and the economic stories over the past few days have been like those gifts you unwrapped recently--some you love and some you wish you could give back. Let's give the rundown on what the California economy received: The Furby (or Whatever the Popular Toy of the Year Is): California marked a big milestone when its unemployment rate dropped below 10 percent, hitting 9.8, with retail and self-employment jobs making big gains. Lump of Coal: That was followed by news Chevron would move 800 jobs from their San Ramon HQ to Texas, mostly information and energy tech positions.

From Twinkies to Cuties: California economy increasingly divided

The biggest post-election news story is turning out to be the Hostess bankruptcy drama. Before an agreement on mediation Monday prevented the shutdown of operations, most news stories lead with the death of the Twinkies, or the "Twinkie Apocalypse," even though the brand will most likely survive. The real story is, of course, jobs and manufacturing. While pundits…

Looking at California’s jobs numbers from a step back

Unemployed vs. MTV's "Underemployed." California's September jobs report and MTV's new comedy made their debut last week. (Photo credits: Creative Commons and MTV). Last week, an important event involving people trying to land jobs found its way into the news cycle, earning mixed reviews. I'm not talking about the debut of MTV's "Underemployed", a comedy about…

Beer Pressure: How alcohol influences politics

A project of the Carnegie-Knight News21 Fellowship USC's "Under the Influence: Money and Power in Politics" by John Guenther Republicans and Democrats disagree on many things but not on alcohol. The industry lobby fuels policy, political campaigns and government coffers. The big players in the industry fight to protect their share of the market through…

There will be blood…to be cleaned up

Death rides a pale horse and these guys ride in a pale van, cleaning up after him By John Guenther It's getting late on Michael Nicholson's driveway, when Nicholson's friend and employee Johnny Grant asks if he'd seen the show "1,000 Ways To Die." Nicholson responds that he doesn't watch TV. They're standing next to the Clean…

Smart cities, you’d better shop around for solutions

If someone needs to fix a computer or find the best deal on a plane ticket, it only takes a quick Google search. But where can cities go to find the best deal on fixing their traffic problems? An international organization called Living Labs Global created CityMart, an online showcase where cities from around the world spotlight a…

Creepy infographics using open data

I was poking around an open dataset site for my latest blog post for California Forward. Of course, when I saw this set, I had to click on it: "Foreign objects left in the body." It's practically a requirement. And, of course, what does a data person do but think to make an infographic out…