Santa Cruz County Business, Economy & Jobs Digest

A first-in-the-nation council will set work rules in the state’s fast food industry, but can labor and business agree?

Disneyland’s plan to reimagine the theme park into a more “immersive” experience may require up to $2.5 billion and a plan to privatize some Anaheim streets.

A combination of tax credits, revenue sharing and coupons could bring stability, writes Steven Waldman, president of Rebuild Local News.

Families have a lot of questions right now about how much help they’ll get paying for college—questions that financial aid offices can’t yet answer.

For months, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has been waging war on the oriental fruit fly, a voracious pest that can attack hundreds of types of fruits and vegetables.

On Jan. 31, dozens of cities and counties are expected to convert thousands of suburban-style tracts into apartment-ready parcels. Will the state hold them to it?

This year’s eight finalists, all in their 20s, emerged from a pool of nearly 100 California-based applicants.

Fast food lives in a consumer sweet spot: demand, convenience and relative affordability. And this pay hike—equal to minimum wage increases during the past five years—will create grand economic unknowns.

A Cal State systemwide strike secured what more than half a year of negotiations and partial strikes couldn’t: a deal.

As the FAIR Plan writes more fire-insurance policies, homeowners complain about poor service, rising costs and threats of getting kicked off.

Locking up a California state prisoner for one year costs nearly twice as much as tuition at the state’s top private universities—due to inmate medical costs and pay boosts for prison guards and other workers.

The swing from a $100 billion surplus to a deficit somewhere between $38 and $68 billion in just two years illustrates the volatility of California’s tax system.

Ian Brand, who owns the I. Brand custom crush facility in Salinas, was looking for room to grow. So he has leased the Dorcich winery in a major expansion.

State officials hope a lottery and an emphasis on first-generation homebuyers will make California’s most generous down payment assistance program more equitable.

At its meeting Jan. 11, which also happened to be the 75th anniversary of the city’s incorporation, the Capitola City Council received a comprehensive review of the Dec. 28 winter storm event damage.

We need to have a serious discussion about supporting our education investments with stable revenue.

Bucking the “doom loop” narrative, many tech entrepreneurs say San Francisco is still the “it city” for innovation—especially with the rise of AI.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recipe for digging the state out of a multibillion-dollar budget hole has “strengths and weaknesses” while his revenue projections are “plausible, but optimistic,” the nonpartisan analyst’s office said.

A sports bar along the Capitola Esplanade will be closing amid a years-long feud between the business owners, the landlord and his son.

California’s projected budget deficit of close to $38 billion likely means some cuts are coming. Among them, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed ending the California State Park Adventure Pass, which offers free access to some state parks for fourth graders.

After the commercial Dungeness crab season was delayed due to the presence of humpback whales, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it will reopen next week with some restrictions.

The Watsonville Planning Commission unanimously approved a change in the ownership structure of Creme De Canna on West Beach Street and a complete shift in ownership for the Cultivate Watsonville dispensary on Kearney Street.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed that lawmakers tap a rainy day reserve and that a minimum wage increase for health care workers be delayed to help the state fight a $37.9 billion deficit. This projection is more than double what Newsom and other officials had anticipated last year.

Pea Soup Andersen’s, a Buellton, Calif., restaurant just shy of its 100th birthday, closed suddenly. The restaurant's other location, near Interstate 5 in Santa Nella, remains open.

PG&E’s request for a spring increase in rates partly due to wildfire prevention work are poised to propel utility bills past a grim milestone.

Bay Area rooftop-solar businesses are reeling from a statewide change that gutted compensation for homeowners returning surplus power to the electrical grid, causing applications for new solar to plunge to a 10-year low.

Caltrans has set a Jan. 25 deadline for tech companies to show how generative artificial intelligence might reduce traffic congestion in the state. This follows an executive order that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in September related to this type of AI.

Philadelphia-based Audacy, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with $1.9 billion in debts, owns six radio stations in the Bay Area. These include 95.7 The Game, KCBS and 102.1 Jams.

San Diego Unified School District has received more than $700 million in federal and state relief funds since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with these funds ending, some schools could be facing serious deficits.

Sean Loloee, a first-term Sacramento councilmember, has resigned from office—a move that came weeks after he was federally indicted on charges related to his business Viva Supermarkets.

High prices at hospitals in Monterey County are “an anomaly even among the most expensive” communities in California. One insurance plan there saves money by paying for members’ travel to other counties for procedures.

Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing has been acquired by Adair Paterno of Sante Adairius Rustic Ales and Brad Clark of Private Press Brewing, which focuses on malt-forward and barrel-aged craft beer.