Monterey County Business, Economy & Jobs Digest

Corporate reports would reveal top polluters and climate-related financial risks. But companies warn about faulty data and a “gold-plated exercise” if the two bills become law.

Most of what Californians experience with homelessness occurs along public spaces and city streets. But what happens when a city council member loses her home? Ojai’s Suza Francina is finding out.

When winemaker Bobby Graviano left Bargetto, he had signed on as winemaker with Nicholson Vineyards in Corralitos. However, his subsequent involvement in a new project made that impossible, so he tapped his winemaking colleague Ellie Loustalot to take the reins at Nicholson.

The spending change would prioritize housing for homeless people, which children's mental health advocates fear will cut their funding.

“Valleys of Anza” could provide regional economic development by leveraging historic sites to attract tourists to the inland valleys of Monterey and San Benito counties, while also helping to relieve tourism pressures on the Monterey Peninsula and Big Sur coast.

After California’s largest home insurance provider said it wouldn’t issue new policies, consumer and insurance industry groups have ideas for what they’d like to see California do. Here’s how the debate over four of those ideas shakes out.

California’s state budget is the product of a multi-month, multi-step process that involves the governor, the Legislature, lobbyists, interest groups and the public. Here are the key dates along the way.

Democratic leaders in the Legislature unveiled their California budget agreement, but Gov. Newsom must sign off for a final deal. There are some significant differences with what Newsom proposed in May.

The state’s 2023-24 budget has been subject to a lot of political wrangling this year as California faces a $31.5 billion spending gap. The constant push and pull of balancing the budget means that if one program, agency or proposal receives funding, something else could lose out. The Legislature is expected to pass its budget [...]

Last year, California created a $500 million program to help prepare students for careers. With the state facing a $31.5 billion budget deficit, lawmakers want to claw back $400 million of the program.

Californians accused of crimes spend an average of five days waiting to see a lawyer. Shortening that time can help them keep their jobs, and spend less time in jail.

It’s rare to find a new technology that feels groundbreaking. But sitting on a couch in a private demo room at Apple’s campus wearing its newly announced Vision Pro mixed reality headset, it felt like I’d seen the future—or at least an early and very pricey prototype of it.

In his May budget revise, Gov. Gavin Newsom pitched spending $250 million on infrastructure and transportation improvements in downtown Fresno. The money will fund much of the city’s decade-long revitalization plans to ultimately attract residential development.

Thousands of Californians who lost work during the pandemic are struggling with debt. A new settlement makes COVID rent relief available to tens of thousands of tenants.

In May, a video featured a young woman named Brooklyn imploring viewers to tell the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation about the importance of EarnIn, part of a relatively new app-based industry that provides cash advances to people based on their wages.

The union-supported bill, introduced by Los Angeles Democratic Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, would require any “covered health care facility” to pay the new minimum wage to all workers on their premises, regardless of employer.

The deadline for bills to pass their first house in the California Legislature has come and gone. Most made it. A few failed. And a handful of intriguing bills that didn’t pass may resurface because their authors aren’t giving up.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed Assembly Bill 341 into law, reinstating a moratorium on the expansion of cardrooms in the state.

Workers who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic and are enrolling in a college program have until June 15 to apply for a California relief grant to receive up to $2,500 as state lawmakers seek to cut programs to plug a budget hole.

Gov. Gavin Newsom in March said state relief would soon help flood victims who don’t qualify for federal emergency relief. The state has yet to name nonprofits that will dole out the aid.

Wildfires and expensive rebuilding wiped out their profits, California home insurers say. State Farm isn’t the first insurer to retreat from the state, and may not be the last.

Proposed cuts stemming from California’s budget deficit mean community colleges may be unable to improve AC and heating, make safety upgrades or follow through on major programs and infrastructure projects.

As hospitals squeeze Sacramento for more money, experts and former officials warn against falling for fear tactics. They point to healthy profits and a recession-era financing scheme that allows rich hospitals to take tax money from poorer ones.

A rally in front of the Salinas courthouse defended a voter-approved ban on fracking and a type of oil and gas recovery, just minutes before the California Supreme Court began oral arguments in a lawsuit brought by oil interests.

The state Air Resources Board voted today to ban the substance known as chromium 6, giving platers several years to switch to an alternative the platers say won’t produce the same chrome shine.

Gov. Gavin Newsom rolled out a plan to speed construction of major public infrastructure and demanded quick votes from lawmakers. His Democratic allies put the proposals on ice.

“We want to make sure that we look at every aspect of the ways this proposed project might impact the environment and our community, because we live here, too,” said John Hoellwarth, public affairs officer for Naval Support Activity Monterey.

With budget hearings for the county beginning in a week, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors signaled that they will support a 30% cut in the county’s Cannabis Program.

Even some of the hottest urban markets have experienced a net drain in migration.

Officials are proposing to increase reimbursement rates for some Medi-Cal providers, who say low pay rates prevent them from taking more patients.

You might be surprised at how long it’s been since Levi’s were made in America.

California legislative committees in the Assembly and Senate blocked two big climate bills. One would have made the state’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets more ambitious. Another would have allowed people to sue oil companies over health problems if they meet certain criteria.