Nevada County Business, Economy & Jobs Digest

The neighborhood around Thoroughbred Loop in Grass Valley has been battling an application for a cannabis grow within the former 6B Ranch for more than three years.

A building that has held everything from a gas station to a kayak shop, is now the home of Brewbilt Brew Haus. Jef Lewis, Bennett Buchanan, and a team of others opened up the taproom on Dec. 10.

A tribe’s bid for federal recognition is getting a boost from a member of Congress who introduced legislation to extend acknowledgement status to the Gabrielino/Tongva Nation and create a reservation within Los Angeles County.

The California Faculty Association has announced it will strike in January at the state’s 23 CSU campuses. It’s part of an ongoing effort by the group to obtain a 12% raise for the 29,000 professors and lecturers it represents.

California fast-food workers will earn a $20 minimum wage in April. Other employers might have to raise their pay floor to recruit and retain staff.

Mani Niall, founder of Oakland-based Mani’s Test Kitchen, will share his knowledge during Sierra Commons’ five-week Food Entrepreneur Accelerator course.

The financial blow from California’s out-migration has been cushioned by the kinds of people moving into the state: The newcomers generally earned more money than those who left. Now that long-standing trend has reversed.

Farmland is being rezoned for industrial use, and massive warehouses are being built on spec near communities like Buttonwillow and Shafter, so goods coming through the Southern California ports can be shipped quickly throughout the western United States.

Google has agreed to pay $700 million and will make changes to its app store it has resisted for years in order to resolve a lawsuit over whether its app store is an illegal monopoly.

Salmon populations in the Scott and Shasta rivers have crashed, so state officials are about to restrict irrigation again. And the controversial rules may even become permanent.

The number of nursing students enrolling in high-priced private programs has nearly doubled over the past 10 years as the state’s public universities have stagnated in growth. Private universities charge up to seven times the tuition of public schools for a bachelor’s degree, but nurses say their starting salaries are worth the cost.

The California Occupational Safety & Health Standards Board is strengthening protections for stone cutters who have been breathing dangerous silica dust. At least 10 stone cutters have died in the past five years from silicosis.

California’s projected $68 billion deficit has led to a number of cost-saving measures. Among them, a popular program for state workers to cash in unused vacation time has been paused.

The Exclusive Poultry Inc. agreed to pay $3.8 million in wages, damages and penalties in part for hiring children for dangerous work. The case is one of hundreds federal labor officials investigated last year.

Higher-income workers are more likely to work from home, analysis of recent census data shows. Lower-income workers can face long and solitary commutes to get to work.

Harjinder Shergill-Chima has been appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom as the new director of the California State Lottery. Shergill-Chima, the first Indian American to serve in the role, takes over for Alva Johnson.

As of Dec. 8, Grass Valley’s Del Oro Theatre and Sutton Cinemas will be under new ownership. New owner Brian Young will take over operations immediately.

Californians have said they experienced added difficulty over the past year in getting car insurance. Insurer rates have gone up more than usual.

This January, Sierra Commons begins a five-week course to teach food entrepreneurs how to bring products to market.

Profits have been down for cannabis operators in California in recent years. While the industry is still big business in the state, it faces an uncertain future.

A recent investigation by Voice of San Diego revealed that nonprofits that provide staff at local stadiums could be raising money without doing charity work, while also paying labor below minimum wage and under the table. Now, multiple law enforcement agencies are investigating.

An Alameda County judge ruled on Nov. 22 that the city of Oakland thwarted a proposed coal export terminal. The judge will rule if the developer who sued is entitled to $159 million in damages or moving forward with the project.

The California Faculty Association is seeking a 12 percent pay increase, while university officials counter with 5 percent in each of the next three years.

With nine months’ experience in the Assembly, Liz Ortega will lead the Labor committee after a strike-filled summer and several wins for low-wage workers.

A new study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that approximately 3,400 kilotons of lithium are located below Imperial County in Southern California. This could produce more than $7 billion in lithium carbonate annually, helping power significant numbers of electric vehicles.

California’s minimum hourly wage will rise from $15.50 to $16 on Jan. 1. Ahead of this, retailers like Costco and Target have raised their minimum pay in recent years.

A graduate student workers union and the University of Southern California have agreed to a three-year labor contract that averts a looming strike. The deal calls for pay increases each of the three years.

About 475,000 people moved to the Golden State in 2022. That's the third-highest number of people moving to a state in the U.S., trailing only Texas and Florida.

A new study by Forbes shows that four cities in the Golden State—Los Angeles, Fresno, San Diego and Sacramento—are among the 21 worst cities in the United States for holiday travel. Forbes looked at a variety of factors including car accidents, hotel prices and air travel.

Fulcrum Bioenergy, a California-based firm that seeks to turn plastics into jet fuel, has defaulted on $289 million in bond funding and put a major project on hold. This comes as several U.S. Senators wrote to the IRS urging that similar companies not receive federal tax credits.

HERBL, one of California’s biggest cannabis companies, collapsed earlier this year. The company, which sold $700 million of cannabis last year, reportedly shorted the state $17 million in taxes.

Hundreds of OpenAI workers signed a letter threatening to quit if the company’s entire board didn’t resign and if two former executives weren’t brought back. This came after the board fired one of the execs, Sam Altman, who then joined the other exec, Greg Brockman, at Microsoft.