Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
Friday, December 3, 2010 – 10:30 a.m.
This mornings grim news on the economy was no surprise here.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor the national unemployment rate climbed to 9.8% in November. Up from 9.6% in October.
The net number of jobs added? A paltry 39,000, of which, most were temporary positions likely to leave the workforce after the holiday season ends.
Jobless rate rises to 9.8 pct in Nov., highest since April; economy adds only 39,000 jobs
Jeannine Aversa, AP Economics Writer, On Friday December 3, 2010, 11:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a surprising setback, the nation’s unemployment rate climbed to 9.8 percent in November, a seven-month high, as hiring slowed across the economy.
Employers added only 39,000 jobs last month, a sharp decline from the 172,000 created in October, the Labor Department reported Friday. The weakness was widespread. Retailers, factories, construction companies, financial firms and the government all cut jobs last month.
Wesley G. Hughes, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/02/2010 08:00:24 PM PST
Eight land deals worth about $40 million, most of which are concentrated in the Inland Empire, have been completed in the last two months – a sign that home investors and builders are on the prowl for property again after a three-year drought, industry experts say.
The transactions cover San Bernardino County land ready for housing from Rancho Cucamonga to Victorville, and land in Riverside County and San Diego County, according to Les Whittlesey of Irvine-based Whittlesey Doyle, which brokered the deals.
Jesse B. Gill, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/02/2010 09:12:06 PM PST
Rep. Jerry Lewis is making more moves to tighten government spending, but local experts say he’s putting on a show – trying to make himself into a fiscal conservative.
Lewis, R-Redlands, wrote a letter Monday to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson saying the incoming Republican-led House of Representatives plans to pull funding for the enforcement of the agency’s regulations.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/02/2010 06:26:05 PM PST
LOMA LINDA – For five years, drivers have cursed the cameras that fine them hundreds of dollars for running red lights by tenths of a second, and for most of that time city representatives have angrily joined in.
Once the cameras were deactivated at midnight Wednesday, they were singing a different tune.
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/02/2010 06:35:26 PM PST
LOMA LINDA – As economic woes threaten to cripple many companies and governments, Mayor Rhodes Rigsby announced Thursday that the city has maintained prosperous businesses and balanced budgets.
And City Hall isn’t about to interfere with that, he promised at the annual State of the Community Luncheon, hosted by the Chamber of Commerce.
Buquet
Wendy Leung, Staff Writer
Created: 12/02/2010 04:58:32 PM PST
RANCHO CUCAMONGA – A councilman who served 12 years in the 1980s and 1990s was appointed Wednesday to fill the remaining two years of Dennis Michael’s term.
The City Council, on a 3-1 vote, named Chuck Buquet, 59, the third highest vote getter in the November municipal election, to the five-member board. Buquet will be sworn in on Dec. 15.
By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Dec. 3, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Gov.-elect Jerry Brown, largely absent from public view since Election Day, next week will launch an unusual, highly public campaign to tell Californians how dire the state budget crisis really is.
The event – a forum to which Brown is inviting the state’s lawmakers – is at least in part a political measure by Brown to remind voters that the budget crisis is inherited. It also is to prepare the Legislature and the public for a January budget proposal in which Brown, facing an estimated $25.4 billion deficit, is almost certain to make highly unpopular recommendations.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Dec. 3, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
CalPERS was among the big winners in an obscure Federal Reserve loan program aimed at rescuing the nation’s troubled credit markets last year.
The state’s other big pension fund, CalSTRS, also participated in the program, but to a much smaller degree, according to records released this week by the Federal Reserve.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Dec. 3, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 7B
After agonizing for months, CalSTRS made a decision Thursday that seems subtle but has enormous financial implications.
The teachers’ pension fund agreed to lower its long-term forecast of future annual investment returns by a quarter of a percentage point.
Money & Company
Tracking the market and economic trends that shape your finances.
December 2, 2010 | 4:12 pm
We’re No. 8!
Eighth-largest economy in the world, that is.
Despite the worst recession in 60 years and one out of eight workers out of a job, California, if it were its own country, would still be in eighth place with a gross domestic product of $1.9 trillion, according to World Bank figures for 2009.