Monterey County Business, Economy & Jobs Articles

A 2020 California law expanded the number of mental health conditions that insurers must cover. Now, lawmakers are reviewing whether the law is working as intended.

Ocean wind farms are essential to electrify California’s grid with 100% clean energy. But they’re a giant, costly experiment—no one knows how hundreds of towering turbines will transform the remote North Coast.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has made lowering the cost of prescription drugs a signature health care issue, but he rejected a bill to cap what diabetics pay for insulin. His reasoning: California is working on a different solution.

Gov. Newsom vetoes what would have been a first-in-the-nation law banning caste discrimination in education, housing and the workplace. The bill divided South Asian communities in California.

California Local enters the world of book publishing with its upcoming book, ‘How California Works,’ explaining the inner workings of this ‘most American state.’

A new luxury boutique hotel in downtown Pacific Grove—over a decade in the making—finally broke ground on Sept. 29, the start of an approximately two-year construction process. The Kimpton Pacific Grove Hotel project is located behind the Holman Building and…

Kaiser Permanente provides health care to more than 9 million Californians. A strike this week could affect patients at dozens of hospitals.

The county’s oldest locally owned bank will soon be under non-local management after Monterey County Bank announced that it will merge with PCB Financial, an Orange County-based investment firm.

SALINAS VALLEY — California State University Monterey Bay’s Institute for Innovation and Economic Development (iiED) has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco 2023 AHEAD program. The iiED’s proposal, which specifically targeted potential …

More than half a million fast food workers, mostly minorities and women, will earn higher minimum wage because Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a fast food bill Thursday. But some say that’s not a living wage.

A union-backed bill that would make strikers eligible for California’s unemployment benefits awaits the governor’s signature. Businesses say it’ll cost too much.

Meet tiny newsroom co-founder Kara Meyberg Guzman, who has been honored by the Local Independent Online News Publishers Association.

Planned Parenthood clinics in Southern California saw a sharp increase in abortions after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. Now, workers at the clinics are creating a union.

Cannabis retailer Urbn Leaf’s Seaside dispensary is the latest to fall victim to the challenging business conditions facing the industry after shutting down late last month.

Now that electric cars are mainstream, higher-income Californians will no longer qualify for state subsidies. Lower-income buyers could get up to $12,000.

Silicon Valley billionaires want to create a new city in Solano County. How have planned cities fared in California? From Lakewood to Irvine to Disney’s new Cotino, there have been many.

As four aging hydroelectric dams are demolished, tribes and communities along the Klamath River wait anxiously to see what the future holds. “Once a river is dammed, is it damned forever?” experts ask.

The mysterious buyers of $1 billion worth of Solano County land have been revealed as a consortium of Silicon Valley billionaires who want to build a new city from scratch.

Some independent California community hospitals have struggled with rising costs since the COVID-19 pandemic. Three declared bankruptcy this year, prompting the state to distribute interest-free loans.

American Medical Response has poured more than $3 million into a November 2024 initiative to raise requirements for levying taxes and fees. The company says it’s looking out for patients, but local officials say it’s about the money.