California

California's (olive) oil boom

TRACIE CONE, Associated Press — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:01:00 PST

An oil boom is under way in California's agricultural heartland, as evolving tastes and a trend toward healthy fare have transformed a profession as old as civilization: olive production for the extra virgin market.

California's jihad against flat-screen TVs

Andrew Leonard — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:45:00 PST

An eye-opening statistic in Todd Woody's Green Inc. report on California's brand spanking new energy efficiency rules for televisions.

A Birther senator in California?

Alex Koppelman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:35:00 PST

This is probably not the smartest thing for someone who works for a company that's headquartered in the state to say, but let's face it: Californians don't have the greatest record on Election Day. They elected (and then un-elected) Gray Davis, set up a system of referendums that has essentially crippled their state government. Also, don't forget, they chose one governor who co-starred with a chimp -- and another who co-starred with Jamie Lee Curtis.

"A crisis of unprecedented proportions is approaching"

Andrew Leonard — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:28:00 PST

California Controller John Chiang's monthly summary of the state's cash situation starts on a happy note. (Found via Calculated Risk.) Unexpectedly, General Fund revenues for October beat budget estimates, mainly because of a boost from corporate taxes.

What Maine means for gay marriage in California

Sandip Roy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:05:00 PST

Paul Hogarth remembers how angry he was when Proposition 8 passed in California. “I witnessed the train wreck,” he says. “I was angry with how we blew it.” When same sex marriage came under attack in Maine, Hogarth, a blogger for the Web site Beyond Chron, decided he had to do something to help.

Democrat Garamendi wins in Calif. congressional race

Alex Koppelman — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:30:00 PST

There weren't a whole lot of happy moments for Democrats on Tuesday night, but there was one in a little-noticed special election out in California. There, in the state's 10th Congressional District, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi easily defeated Republican David Harmer.

Newsom drops out of California governor's race

Alex Koppelman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:41:00 PDT

If everything continues to go well for Jerry Brown, California could have a very familiar face as its next governor.

Did governator send coded message to legislator?

Alex Koppelman — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:40:00 PDT

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a pretty creative guy, so it wouldn't be too surprising for him to have found a creative way of getting back at a fellow politician who'd ticked him off. That seems to be what he did in a letter explaining his decision to veto a bill that the state legislature passed unanimously.

A California public relations disaster

Andrew Leonard — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:50:00 PDT

As California meltdown stories go, Paul Harris' lengthy piece in the UK Guardian this weekend, "Will California Become America's First Failed State?" is a doozy. The excellent Richard's Real Estate and Urban Economics Blog highlights perhaps the most grievous paragraph.

California's labor woes continue

Andrew Leonard — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:53:00 PDT

The opening line of the the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics release on state unemployment puts the best possible spin on the numbers.

Carl's Jr: When in trouble, blame socialism

Andrew Leonard — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:32:00 PDT

Looking for a recipe for embarrassment? How about being forced to sit through a Carl's Jr. or Hardee's commercial while watching television with your teenage daughter? Whether it is the most repulsive soft-core porn video of all time -- starring Paris Hilton -- or the "Flat Buns" ad that manages to rip off both Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" and Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back," or the girl on the mechanical bull, there's one common theme: Sexist exploitation of women that makes a father ashamed for his entire civilization.

Sleeping with the enemy, Californian GOP-style

Andrew Leonard — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:48:00 PDT

Mike Duvall, the California Republican Assemblyman who was caught on tape boasting about his sexcapades with two different women, has resigned.

Who do you blame when you lose $50 billion?

Andrew Leonard — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:47:00 PDT

No wonder the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) is suing the ratings agencies for making "negligent representations" about the credit-worthiness of the complex financial investment opportunities that were all the rage just the other side of the Great Recession. CalPERS, the largest public pension fund in the United States, announced on Tuesday that it had lost a staggering $57 billion on its investments in fiscal year 2009 -- representing 23 percent of its total portfolio. When you get burned that bad you start looking for someone to kick -- and the ratings agencies are an alluring target.

California GOP parties like it's 1999

Gabriel Winant — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:40:00 PDT

If you want to know where America will be in ten years, they say, look at California. But today it seems like the Golden State is showing us where we were ten years ago.

Wanted on Craigslist: California insolvency

Andrew Leonard — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:45:00 PDT

It sure makes for a compelling headline, "Wall Street Gears Up to Trade California IOUs: Payment Promise Offer Posted on Craigslist." How low can you go? The state of California can't pay its bills, is offering IOUs instead, and the pseudo-currency is getting traded on Craigslist, along with Death Ride tickets and futons.

Californians are sinking themselves

Gary Kamiya — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:27:00 PDT

The world's eighth-largest economy has just gone belly-up. When midnight tolled on Tuesday night with legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger still deadlocked over how to resolve the state's staggering $24 billion budget shortfall, California became unable to pay its bills. The state will have to begin issuing IOUs to its creditors as early as Thursday. It is the worst budget crisis in the state's modern history.

The California Depression

Andrew Leonard — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:35:00 PDT

California's unemployment rate hit 11.5 percent in May, the highest ever recorded since modern record-keeping began, reports the Sacramento Bee.

A bailout for California?

Andrew Leonard — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:30:00 PDT

As went Chrysler and will go General Motors, et tu, California?

California nightmare

Andrew Leonard — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:48:00 PDT

For a San Francisco Bay Area cyclist, the 10-mile swoop down from the summit of Mount Diablo is an invitation to laugh out loud with glee at being alive in the great state of California. Nearly 4,000 feet high, but oddly isolated in the middle of the East Bay's Contra Costa County, Mount Diablo offers sweeping panoramas in every direction and well-maintained roads that are a biker's delight. It is a popular destination all year long, but right now, as spring becomes summer, the mountain is positively infested every weekend with Lycra-clad cyclists who toil their way up the mountain for hours, exulting equally in the suffering and the amazing plummeting reward.

Don't take me out to the broad game

Caitlin Moscatello — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:20:00 PDT

It wasn’t long after the Los Angeles Dodgers announced their new radio broadcasts for women that the Internet erupted in jeers: "We're really glad the Dodgers understand that, as women, we feel uncomfortable learning anything that's not coming from a Mom's perspective," wrote Sadie Stein at Jezebel, while Deadspin positioned the broadcast as, “Some Chick To Teach Other Broads About Man Things.”