San Joaquin County Business, Economy & Jobs Articles

The California legislature is readying a $15.5 billion bond issue to address climate resiliency for voters to approve on the 2024 state ballot, after the budget shortfall forced billions in cuts to climate spending.

After weeks of negotiations, the governor and top Democrats in the Legislature say they have a budget deal. Legislators will start voting today on bills related to the agreement, which sets spending and policy across a wide range of issues …

As climate change continues to drive temperatures to new extremes, employees in many jobs face increasing risk of injury and death. Here’s what California is doing to take the heat off workers.

A California child care crisis could be coming if subsidies remain at current low levels in the state budget. Providers say home daycare businesses may need to close if increased help is not on the way.

Zoning laws that restrict new housing development cause environmental damage, racial and class segregation, and force people into cars creating traffic. Now, a new movement wants to abolish zoning in the United States.

A popular program doubles CalFresh benefits to buy fruits and vegetables at farmers’ markets. It is among the California food benefit programs on the table in the budget negotiations between legislative leaders and Gov. Newsom.

Zoning laws determine what can be built and where. These laws have shaped California, but are they really just tools for social engineering? The history of zoning is closely tied to racial segregation, as well as the state's shortage of …

As groups representing landlords and real estate pour millions of dollars into political coffers to influence housing policy, tenant groups are celebrating recent victories.

State workers' say their lower salaries than the private sector were offset by pensions, better benefits, job security. Is the tradeoff still worth it?

More than 170,000 people are homeless in California. Some Democrats want to make the state the nation’s first to declare housing a human right with a state constitutional amendment, but opponents worry it would be costly.

As congressional factions volley responsibility for pandemic breakdowns, Silicon Valley’s home state leads off a new book about “why government is failing in the digital age.”

As extra pandemic benefits end, food banks say that they're becoming long-term supermarkets for Californians facing food insecurity. Several bills to boost CalFresh are before the Legislature, but the state budget deficit may get in the way.

A bill to ban caste discrimination in California brings a global conflict to the Legislature. While many South Asian groups support the measure, some say it could backfire.

California bans affirmative action in college admissions, but two pending Supreme Court decisions may go further than the current state law, which was passed as Prop 209 in 1996. Here’s what that could mean for the state.

‘You small, pathetic man,’ Gavin Newsom wrote in a Twitter post suggesting he’d pursue criminal charges against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over recent migrant flights to Sacramento.

A new interpretation of an old law gives homebuilders leverage over California cities and their zoning codes. They’re using it to push through thousands of new apartments around the state.

State lawmakers want to loosen CalWORKs job requirements so people keep cash benefits. Congress’ debt limit deal could curb that.

Renewable energy sources provided 37 percent of California electricity in 2021, a new record for the state as it moves toward its 2045 goal of 100 percent clean energy. Battery storage will play a huge role in reaching that goal.

A bill to tax Airbnb and other short-term rentals to fund affordable housing projects could be voted on by the Senate as soon as today. The proposal has revived the debate over Airbnb and its role in the housing crisis.

California is unwinding the prison-building boom of the 1980s and 1990s. The cuts are falling on small towns that banked on government jobs to anchor their communities.