San Joaquin County Local News: Business, Economy & Jobs

11/27/2023
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.

11/24/2023
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.

11/21/2023
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.

11/20/2023
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.

11/20/2023
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.

11/20/2023
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.

11/19/2023
A ballot measure being pushed by business groups could place strict new limits on the ability of state and local governments to raise taxes.

11/16/2023
The utility giant got the okay from the California Public Utilities Commission to hike rates next year. Average increases will range between about $10 and $33, depending on whether customers receive gas, electricity or both from PG&E.

11/16/2023
A Sacramento lawmaker has placed a hold on $2 million in state funds that were intended to help pay for CapRadio’s new downtown headquarters, citing concerns over the station’s financial mismanagement.

11/15/2023
California has some of the highest gas prices in the United States. These prices might ease mildly in the months ahead.

11/15/2023
From the outside, it’s unremarkable: A metallic building alongside a quiet road on the outskirts of Tracy. But on its opening day, people from all over the country traveled to see it.

11/15/2023
A stream of scientists wearing neon green shirts flowed down the H Street sidewalk in downtown Sacramento, circling the block and shouting chants like “No contract! No work!”

11/13/2023
The California Public Utilities Commission will vote on Nov. 16 about raising PG&E bills. The utility giant is lobbying the state about one of the proposals that’s been put forward.

11/12/2023
The U.S. Secretary of Energy, California’s lieutenant governor and other elected officials visited Tracy to open the nation’s first-ever commercial direct capture facility to sequester carbon dioxide emissions.

11/10/2023
A Southern California business that has become the leading provider of generator sales, parts and rentals will be taking up shop in Galt.

11/09/2023
NextDoor is among the latest California tech companies to lay off staff. As many as 200 company workers could be affected.

11/09/2023
The Elmore Desert Ranch gets 22.5 billion gallons of water from the Colorado River, almost as much as is cleared for Scottsdale, Ariz. And that’s just a fraction of the 386.5 billion gallons from the river going to 19 other families in Imperial Valley.

11/08/2023
A new report by the UCLA Labor Center finds that young workers in California face a variety of challenges. These include pay barely above minimum wage, discrimination, and high rents.

11/08/2023
This quaint tasting room and bottle shop located on the grounds of the Wine & Roses Resort at 2545 W. Turner Road is the place to get maps and information, and relax while tasting wines that showcase the Lodi American Viticultural Area.

11/08/2023
Young people are stuck earning low wages, working long hours—often while going to school—and often without benefits or work protections. Their hardships may hamper the state’s economy for years to come, researchers say.