Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/22/2012 04:00:23 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – High unemployment and a staggering number of people underwater on their mortgages continues to vex San Bernardino County, with no relief expected until late 2015, according to a budget report approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

The county added 15,600 jobs in the first three months of 2012, but its unemployment rate, as of March, was still hovering at 12.7 percent, higher than the national unemployment rate of 8.4 percent and California’s unemployment rate of 11.5 percent.

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BY ALICIA ROBINSON
STAFF WRITER
arobinson@pe.com

Published: 22 May 2012 05:09 PM

Riverside officials say they expect to recover only a portion of the $49.44 million that the former redevelopment agency spent to buy 80 pieces of land that are now up for sale.

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Neil Derry

Point of View

Supervisor Neil Derry
Posted: 05/22/2012 02:44:33 PM PDT

The people of San Bernardino County are tired of being unemployed or underemployed. They are tired of feeling like they just can’t get ahead. And they are tired of feeling like nothing is ever going to change.

There is a limit to what a county government can do to improve an economy that is subject to state, national and global pressures. But that doesn’t absolve us from working hard to make a positive impact in areas where we can make a difference.

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Nestande

By PE Politics
May 22, 2012 12:15 PM

Calling for an “honest conversation” about spending cuts, Assemblyman Brian Nestande and others Tuesday proposed a constitutional amendment to prohibit lawmakers from deferring scheduled payments to schools from one fiscal year to another.

The state has built up more than $10 billion in school-funding deferrals as lawmakers try to avoid permanent general-fund cuts.

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Wyatt Buchanan
Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Sacramento — California’s public schools could see as much as a month of classroom time slashed from the calendar if voters reject a plan to raise taxes in November.

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed giving school districts the option of cutting up to 15 days from the school year if voters reject his proposed income and sales tax initiative. The significantly shortened year would help offset a multibillion-dollar automatic midyear cut that would be implemented upon rejection of the taxes.

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Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 23, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

As the state budget’s deficit widens, Gov. Jerry Brown is being thrust into a three-front political battle.

He must not only persuade voters to pass his sales and income tax package, but, implicitly, persuade them to reject a rival tax measure just for schools.

Read the rest of this entry »

BY MICHELLE L. KLAMPE
STAFF WRITER
mklampe@pe.com

Published: 21 May 2012 10:14 PM

A record number of California schools, including 31 in the Inland Empire, may not be able to pay their bills in the next couple of years, the California Department of Education announced Monday, May 20.

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By Jim Sanders
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, May. 22, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A

One week after Gov. Jerry Brown proposed slicing state workers’ pay by 5 percent, the Democratic governor and legislators find themselves targeted for a “share the pain” salary cut.

Members of California’s Citizens Compensation Commission said Monday that a pay-cut proposal for statewide officeholders will be on the table when the panel meets May 31.

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Wyatt Buchanan
Monday, May 21, 2012

Sacramento– Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget proposal attempts to close a formidable $15.7 billion deficit, but the real debate at the Capitol in the next few weeks probably will be over how to cut just a fraction of the big amount.

That’s because about $2 billion in the governor’s budget represents permanent reductions in spending on state welfare, child care and other programs that Democratic leaders in the Senate and Assembly have pledged to protect.

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By Kevin Yamamura
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, May. 20, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Sunday, May. 20, 2012 – 8:30 am

Legislative Democrats aren’t organizing a bake sale just yet, but they say they will desperately search for cash in the coming weeks to avoid the most severe cuts proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Saying the state’s budget deficit has risen from $9.2 billion to $15.7 billion, the Democratic governor has proposed more cuts to programs that serve the state’s poorest residents.

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Saturday, May 19, 2012 – 11:00 a.m.

USPS delivery of campaign mail improves

Something must have happened at the USPS earlier this week.

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Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Created: 05/18/2012 10:23:47 AM PDT

A reported drop in the Inland Empire’s unemployment rate to 11.7 percent would seem to signal an improving job market, but a closer look at the numbers shows the jobless rate dropped not because of a surge in hiring, but because the region’s work force shrunk.

San Bernardino and Riverside counties somehow lost some 24,000 people from their combined work force from March to April, according to government numbers released Friday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Congressman Joe Baca

Liset Marquez, Staff Writer
Created: 05/18/2012 12:01:03 PM PDT

Rep. Joe Baca has introduced a bill to expedite the transfer of L.A./Ontario International Airport to local control.

The Transfer Control of Ontario Airport Now Act gives Los Angeles World Airports, which manages ONT, 60 days to turn over operations and ownership.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times
May 19, 2012

SACRAMENTO — California’s budget deficit may be more than $1 billion larger than even Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest estimate, the Legislature’s financial advisor said Friday.

Brown announced last weekend that the deficit had swelled from $9.2 billion to almost $16 billion. But the nonpartisan legislative analyst’s office said there may be less money available than the governor assumed, possibly increasing the budget gap to at least $17 billion.

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By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Saturday, May. 19, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A

The pile-on was in full effect within hours of Gov. Jerry Brown’s announcement this week that California’s budget deficit had grown to $15.7 billion, with The Week giving its national audience a summary of the Golden State’s financial affairs.

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Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer
Created: 05/17/2012 07:23:12 PM PDT

UPLAND – The City Council has been updated on the condition of the city’s budget and will meet next week to decide where to make cuts.

City Manager Stephen Dunn presented the council with an update on the city’s fiscal condition during a special meeting on Wednesday, asking it to set its priorities so staff could find a way to absorb $3.4 million in obligated expenses.

Read the rest of this entry »

San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt

Supervisor: Attracting out-of-state business vital to the county’s growth
May 17, 2012 9:37 AM
RENE DE LA CRUZ, Special to the Daily Press

While it was billed as a State of County presentation, San Bernardino County 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt said his address Wednesday should have been titled “county of the state” because of Sacramento’s insistence on passing its responsibilities down to the county level.

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By Alejandro Lazo
May 17, 2012, 2:22 p.m.

From the Southland to the Bay Area, California’s housing market showed strength last month as median prices rose and sales outperformed the same month last year.

The Golden State’s median home price popped 6% in April to $264,000, according to real estate information firm DataQuick of San Diego. The median is the point at which half the homes in the state sold for more and half for less.

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Friday, May 18, 2012 – 07:30 a.m.

Shares for the long awaited initial public offering of the social networking site Facebook were priced at $38 per share to investors able to subscribe to the intial shares.

The shares have yet to trade on the Nasdaq market this morning.

LAX/Ontario International Airport Terminal (Courtesy: The P-E)

By Liset Marquez
Created: 05/16/2012 03:23:20 PM PDT

DIAMOND BAR – A lively discussion about LA/Ontario International Airport, which was supposed to focus on the medium-hub facility’s importance to the region’s economy, quickly turned into a debate on the merits of local control.

For more than an hour Wednesday, a five-member panel discussed a bevy of issues and circumstances facing ONT at the Four Corners Coalition 2012 Economic Summit at the Diamond Bar Center.

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By Ed Mendel
Thursday, May 17, 2012

The CalPERS board yesterday raised the annual state payment for state worker pensions $213 million to a total of $3.7 billion, rejecting Gov. Brown’s request for a bigger increase to avoid a “loan” costing “$145.9 million over the next 20 years.”

Unions asked the board to spread out higher pension costs mainly caused by a lower investment earnings forecast. Paying part of the new rate over two decades, instead of the full amount now, makes an extra $149 million available for worker pay and other programs next fiscal year.

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Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
May 15, 2012

As Standard & Poors urged lawmakers Tuesday to pursue “credible” budget solutions to bridge the state’s $16 billion deficit, the ratings agency did not approve of Senate leader Darrell Steinberg’s idea to forego a reserve this year.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 16, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Wednesday, May. 16, 2012 – 6:26 am

One day after Gov. Jerry Brown proposed sweeping changes to state government work schedules, many employees were still deciphering what it means for them.

Brown wants to move most of California’s 214,000 workers to four-day workweeks and 9.5-hour shifts starting July 1. The change would reduce state workers’ hours and pay by 5 percent each month and cut state payroll by about $839 million, $401 million of it from the deficit-ridden general fund. Many departments would be closed on Fridays, some on Mondays.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Wednesday, May. 16, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Poker players often use the phrase “betting on the come” to describe a willingness, if instincts and odds indicate, to wager big on the hope that they will draw winning cards.

That’s a perfectly valid tactic when one is playing with one’s own money and therefore bearing the risk.

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By Judy Lin, Associated Press Writer
Posted: 05/15/2012 09:21:09 PM PDT
Updated: 05/15/2012 09:22:38 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown is pleading with Californians to raise their taxes as part of his solution for solving the state’s budget deficit, but it’s uncertain whether voters will be in an accepting mood come November.

Polls show voters want more money for schools but don’t want to tax themselves to pay for it. They continue to be pessimistic about the economy in a state with one of the highest jobless rates in the nation. And they distrust the Legislature, which oversees the budget.

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Molly Munger talks about her tax proposal earlier this year. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

By Steve Lopez
May 16, 2012

In March, when I wrote that the tax increase proposals by Gov. Jerry Brown and civil rights attorney Molly Munger were unimaginative if not doomed, I got an email from Munger.

She did not agree, at least with regard to her initiative.

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By Marc Lifsher
May 15, 2012, 9:05 p.m.

SACRAMENTO — The state government’s contribution to employee pensions is expected to jump to $3.7 billion from $3.5 billion in the fiscal year that starts July 1.

On Tuesday, a committee of the board of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System recommended the increase as well as a $29-million drop to $1.2 billion for non-teaching school and community college district workers.

Even with the increase, the state’s contribution is lower than the $3.9 billion paid in fiscal 2010-2011, CalPERS said.

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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Watching the sad spectacle of Governor Gandalf yet again expounding on California’s budget horrors Monday was like going to see one of those dreadful, anemic sequels to a long-ago tapped-out blockbuster franchise.

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Tuesday, May 15, 2012 – 04:50 p.m.

Here is some news reverberating across the transom this week.

Brown wants portion of Harris foreclosure settlement

You gotta love it.

California Governor Jerry Brown, in an effort to cobble together more money to blow, wants to steal hundreds of millions of dollars meant to help distressed homeowners. The dough, a part of a national foreclosure settlement obtained by Attorney General Kamala Harris, is meant for distressed homeowners.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 – 08:30 a.m.

Was it the plan all along or just plain incompetence?

Governor Jerry Brown’s screwing over of the California budget that is.

Read the rest of this entry »

California Governor Jerry Brown

By Kevin Yamamura
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, May. 15, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Tuesday, May. 15, 2012 – 6:17 am

Gov. Jerry Brown announced Monday that the state budget deficit had grown by a remarkable 70 percent since January, but fiscal experts said the economy had little to do with it.

They instead blamed a bad marriage of volatile capital gains and political intransigence that led state leaders last year to count on a huge upswing in revenues that never materialized. At the same time, corporate tax changes from 2009 appear to have cost California more than state officials ever realized.

Read the rest of this entry »

May 14th, 2012, 8:18 am
Posted by BRIAN JOSEPH, Sacramento Correspondent

UPDATED: 2:45 p.m.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday implored voters to approve his tax proposal as he presented a revised budget plan to address a deficit that has ballooned to $16 billion.

Read the rest of this entry »

L.A. NOW
Southern California — this just in
May 14, 2012 | 1:29 pm

State judicial leaders warned Monday that the proposed cuts for the California courts may jeopardize public access to the justice system.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Tuesday, May. 15, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Just a few months ago, Gov. Jerry Brown chastised “declinists” and “dystopian journalists” for their pessimism about California, particularly about emerging from a deep recession.

Read the rest of this entry »

L.A. NOW
Southern California — this just in
May 13, 2012 | 2:01 pm

Gov. Jerry Brown’s announcement that the state’s deficit has swelled to $16 billion (from a $9.2-billion estimate in January) means that a new array of budget cuts are likely.

But where to cut?

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By Ed Mendel
Monday, May 14, 2012

A superior court judge this month upheld a voter-approved initiative giving lower pensions to all city of Menlo Park new hires except police, the first court ruling as unions challenge similar measures in Pacific Grove and Bakersfield.

Voters in the three cities approved cost-cutting pension reforms in November 2010 that bypassed bargaining with unions. California is one of only several states where public employee retirement benefits are set by labor negotiations.

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Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, May. 14, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

When Vallejo declared bankruptcy in 2008, one collateral consequence was a years-long political duel in the Capitol between lobbyists for local governments and those for unions representing their workers.

Unions pushed legislation that would have required local governments to get permission from an obscure state agency before filing for bankruptcy – an agency that is and probably always will be dominated by union-friendly Democratic politicians.

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California Governor Jerry Brown (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

By Kevin Yamamura
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, May. 13, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Sunday, May. 13, 2012 – 10:48 am

In a gloomy preview of his May budget release, Gov. Jerry Brown said Saturday that California’s deficit has mushroomed to $16 billion, nearly $7 billion higher than he last estimated.

The Democratic governor blamed a slow economic recovery, as well as federal judges and administrators who blocked cuts to health care for the poor. Brown had previously pegged the deficit at $9.2 billion.

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BY JIM MILLER
SACRAMENTO BUREAU
jmiller@pe.com

Published: 11 May 2012 10:04 PM

Michael Fine, Riverside Unified School District’s deputy superintendent for business services, can tick off the hard numbers of what four years of recession-era state budgets have meant for his 42,000-student district.

The district has lost $110 million and confronts an annual $20 million gap between revenue and spending. The school year, which spanned 180 instructional days before the recession, is now 176 days.

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BY JEFF HORSEMAN
STAFF WRITER
jhorseman@pe.com

Published: 11 May 2012 12:18 PM

Riverside County and the sheriff’s deputies’ union tentatively agreed Friday on a four-year contract, nearly a year after county supervisors angered the union by imposing pay cuts and pension changes on deputies.

Agreed to early Friday morning, the proposed pact with the Riverside Sheriff’s Association would also scuttle litigation the association filed against the county over alleged unfair labor practices and a pension-related ballot measure, a county news release read.

Read the rest of this entry »

Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/11/2012 05:23:52 PM PDT

An estimated 93,000 Californians lost unemployment benefits as of today when the federal government cut off funding that allowed the state to provide extended aid to the jobless since 2009.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer
Created: 05/11/2012 02:53:23 PM PDT

UPLAND – As the city pieces together its 2012-13 fiscal year budget, it is faced with negotiations with employee groups and ever-increasing pension costs.

In 2011, numerous city employees earned more than $100,000 in compensation, including 26 out of 205 non-safety employees, 36 out of 42 fire personnel and 51 out of 85 police employees.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/10/2012 09:02:22 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – Final layoff notices for 224 teachers were approved at an emergency school board meeting Thursday so the notices could be sent before a state-mandated deadline.

The decision, made by the board of the San Bernardino City Unified School District at a sparsely attended meeting, was an expected consequence of earlier budget decisions.

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By David Siders and Torey Van Oot
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, May. 11, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

In one choreographed appearance at the office of the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters, Gov. Jerry Brown’s campaign to raise taxes appeared on Friday to take shape.

A week after announcing he had collected enough signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot, Brown – accompanied by a new political consultant, the first lady and his dog – turned several boxes of them in.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Chris Megerian and Anthony York, Los Angeles Times
May 11, 2012

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown warned Californians on Thursday to brace for another round of difficult budget cuts as he hand-delivered boxes of petitions to election officials requesting that his proposed tax hike be placed on the November ballot.

Brown, who is expected to unveil his revised budget proposal Monday, said he needed far more than the $4.2 billion in spending reductions he asked for in January. And he continued to raise the specter of even deeper wounds to public schools, colleges and other state services if his bid for tax hikes fails.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wes Woods II, Staff Writer
Created: 05/09/2012 06:31:07 PM PDT

CLAREMONT – A three-year salary and benefits agreement has been approved between the city and the Claremont Police Officers Association.

The new contract ends months of contentiousness. The city declared negotiations to be at an impasse in late August, and union members on April 11 turned down by a single vote an earlier agreement, forcing additional negotiations.

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By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, May. 10, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Thursday, May. 10, 2012 – 7:29 am

State workers’ pay is back on the budget chopping block.

Officials representing Gov. Jerry Brown met with state employee union leaders last week and delivered the news: A budget revision he’ll release Monday includes a new proposal to cut payroll costs in the upcoming fiscal year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Andrew Edwards
Posted: 05/08/2012 04:10:11 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – Stater Bros. Markets reported a $16.4 million profit for its more recent quarter, an amount nearly double what the grocery company reported for the comparable period one year prior.

Read the rest of this entry »

Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Created: 05/08/2012 02:23:12 PM PDT

Recent signs suggest the Inland Empire’s office market may be returning to health, but the market may be at least three years from a full recovery.

That’s the word from Lee Spence, a principle at DAUM Commercial Services branch in Ontario, who based his prediction on his firm’s analysis of companies gradually moving in to the many vacant offices of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Ed Mendel
Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Actuaries recommend a $213 million increase in annual state pension payments to CalPERS in July, bringing the total to $3.7 billion.

But $149 million would be added to the increase if the impact of a lower earnings forecast, dropped by the board in March from 7.75 percent to 7.5 percent a year, is not phased in over 20 years.

Read the rest of this entry »

May 8th, 2012, 8:22 pm
Posted by Pat Brennan, science, environment editor

The San Onofre nuclear plant. Register photo by Ana Venegas.

Operators of the troubled San Onofre nuclear plant now say more than 1,300 steam generator tubes have been plugged in the plant’s two idled reactor units.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 – 08:00 a.m.

San Bernardino County, Calif. – San Bernardino County’s budget woes are likely to worsen in the coming fiscal year as employee pension fund returns fail to not only deliver relief, but instead bring more pain.

The San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association (SBCERA) has, to date, only generated a 0.6% return for its 2011-2012 fiscal year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Former Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda

Administrator’s Note: This front-page article was published in last week’s Wall Street Journal.

THE A-HED
Updated May 2, 2012, 12:44 p.m. ET

Locals Call In Baseball’s Tommy Lasorda to Rally for Ontario; Hearing Birds Chirp

By TAMARA AUDI

ONTARIO, Calif.—The Ontario International Airport, 35 miles east of Los Angeles, offers nonstop flights to just 15 cities. Daily departures have plummeted to 62, less than half the number five years ago.

Baseball legend Tommy Lasorda has pitched for the Dodgers and for Rolaids and Slim Fast. Now he’s doing commercials for a struggling regional airport trying to win independence from Los Angeles.

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BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com

Published: 07 May 2012 10:03 PM

The San Bernardino City Council is looking at leasing more city property for cellphone towers to help solve its budget troubles, but has tabled for now a proposal to bring parking meters downtown.

The proposals were brought to the council Monday night, May 7, after it rejected a plan last month that would have relied on across-the-board cuts and holding some positions vacant.

Read the rest of this entry »

BY DAYNA STRAEHLEY
STAFF WRITER
dstraehley@pe.com

Published: 07 May 2012 10:39 PM

The Riverside Unified School District Board of Education voted 3-2 late Monday to send final layoff notices to 84 teachers for the 2012-13 school year, said Tim Martin, president of the Riverside City Teachers Association.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kelly Puente, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/07/2012 03:07:22 PM PDT

LONG BEACH – The California State University Board of Trustees today will again consider freezing CSU presidents’ salaries in an attempt to curb public outcry over recent pay hikes.

But critics aren’t satisfied.

Read the rest of this entry »

Liset Marquez, Staff Writer
Created: 05/07/2012 05:31:41 PM PDT

A marketing plan that was supposed to address the steep decline in passenger traffic at LA/Ontario International Airport was criticized by Los Angeles World Airports’ governing body Monday.

Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners, a seven-member civilian board that governs LAWA airports – such as ONT – and staff, including a longtime airline industry expert, discussed marketing strategies that could turn things around at the struggling airport.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Tuesday, May. 8, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

California is struggling to emerge from the worst recession since the Great Depression and has more than 2 million unemployed workers, plus countless others who have given up seeking work out of frustration and/or have fled to other states.

Clearly the state needs many billions of dollars in job-creating investment. But its attractiveness to that investment is, to say the least, problematic, given its relatively high tax burden, its dense regulatory structure, its deficiencies in education, transportation and water supply, and its tangled government finances.

Read the rest of this entry »

Liset Marquez, Staff Writer
Created: 05/06/2012 03:27:45 PM PDT

ONTARIO – It’s no secret that finding daily flights in and out of LA/Ontario International Airport can be a bit of an issue.

For the past five years, since the peak of travel at ONT, the facility has lost more than 40 percent of its seat capacity.

The cause for the decline in air service?

Read the rest of this entry »

Liset Marquez, Staff Writer
Created: 05/06/2012 03:28:49 PM PDT

ONTARIO – More than 80 cities, organizations and elected officials have passed resolutions backing Ontario’s efforts to wrest control of LA/Ontario International Airport from Los Angeles.

The Inland Empire initiative, Set ONTario Free, was launched by Ontario at the start of the year. It quickly gained traction with a wave of cities throughout Southern California, including 17 from Los Angeles County, joining a growing number of agencies calling for local control.

Read the rest of this entry »

May 06, 2012 6:54 PM
From Staff Reports

As the June 5 primary approaches, the Daily Press asked the 13 candidates running for the newly drawn 8th Congressional District representing the High Desert to weigh in on this question, in 50 words or less: What are your ideas for reducing the federal debt? Where specifically would you cut?

Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Monday, May. 7, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Let’s get ready to rumble.

In this corner is California Gov. Jerry Brown.

In that corner is Molly Munger, a very wealthy civil rights attorney.

Brown and his union allies want voters to raise their own sales taxes, plus income taxes on the most affluent, to narrow a chronic budget gap.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Ed Mendel
Monday, May 7, 2012

The mayors of San Jose and San Diego are backing local measures on the June ballot that aim to make the change critics of costly public pensions say is the key to major reform — cutting the cost of pensions earned by current workers in the future.

Using different methods, Measure B in San Jose and Proposition B in San Diego would allow current workers to keep pension amounts already earned, but pensions earned in the future could be cut or cost workers more.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sunday, May 6, 2012 – 10:30 a.m

Ramos struggles through final candidate forum.

Former San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Chairman and San Bernardino County Board of Supe’s candidate James Ramos showed up for the final candidate forum held at Copper Mountain College on Friday night.

Nothing changed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Will Evans, California Watch
Sunday, May 6, 2012

Leading financial firms donated $1.8 million to successful school bond measures in California over the past five years, and in almost every instance, school district officials hired those same underwriters to sell the bonds for a profit, a California Watch review has found.

The practice is especially pronounced in California, where underwriters gave 155 political contributions since 2007 to successful bond campaigns for school construction and repairs. One major underwriter, Piper Jaffray, has said it gets more requests for campaign contributions in California than in any other state where it does business.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, May. 6, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

When Jerry Brown occupied the governor’s Capitol suite nearly four decades ago, he frequently talked about an “era of limits.”

Whatever Brown meant – he often spoke cryptically – the phrase was widely interpreted as meaning California’s powerful, post-World War II spurt of population and economic growth was over and public policies should adjust accordingly.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Robin Harding in Washington and Michael Mackenzie in New York
Last updated: May 4, 2012 8:32 pm

Weaker-than-expected US jobs growth hit financial markets and cast a shadow over President Barack Obama’s plans for a formal launch of his re-election campaign this weekend.

US crude oil prices fell more than $4 a barrel and were trading below $100 for the first time since early February after data showed the economy added only 115,000 jobs in April compared with expectations of 162,000. The S&P 500 dropped as much as 1.5 per cent while yields on US and German 10-year government bonds fell.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/04/2012 06:52:55 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – The area’s economy got a significant boost with Amazon’s decision to open a 950,000-square-foot shipping center at the site of the former Norton Air Force Base, officials said Friday.

The facility will provide full-time jobs for more than 1,000 people as early as fall, said Amazon spokesman Ty Rogers.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sanders
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published: Saturday, May. 5, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

The stage was set Friday for three revenue-raising measures to qualify for the November ballot after a group led by hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer submitted more than 900,000 signatures for a tax increase on out-of-state businesses.

Proponents of two other tax initiatives, driven separately by Gov. Jerry Brown and civil rights attorney Molly Munger, said they have collected more than enough signatures to place their proposals before voters.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Jessica Guynn
May 3, 2012, 6:07 p.m.

California has a friend about to write a hefty personal check that could help ease the state budget crunch.

Mark Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old founder and chief executive of Facebook whose initial public stock offering in two weeks could value the company at $96 billion, will cut in the state for an estimated $189 million in cash, according to calculations from PrivCo, which researches private companies.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday, May 4, 2012 – 08:15 a.m.

The U.S. economy continued to decelerate in April, with just 115,000 jobs created.

The average estimate by economists was for April job creation of 160,000.

The March number was 154,000.

Read the rest of this entry »

California Governor Jerry Brown says”Suck it in.” (Photo: AP)

By Kevin Yamamura and David Siders
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, May. 4, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

After years of being labeled the “Party of No” by majority Democrats, California Republican leaders stood under rainy skies Thursday outside the Capitol to dub themselves the “Party of Yes.”

The newly christened party kicked off its campaign by asking for a “no” vote on Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax hike.

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Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Friday, May. 4, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Darrell Steinberg is a baseball fanatic, but when he said this week that “the season is beginning,” he wasn’t talking about sports, or at least not games played on grass.

Steinberg, the state Senate’s leader, was talking about the state budget game, which will be particularly difficult this year.

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Kelly Puente and Ryan Hagen, Staff Writers
Posted: 05/02/2012 12:28:26 PM PDT

California State University faculty have voted to authorize a series of two-day strikes at each of the 23 campuses, if contract talks fail.

The California Faculty Association, which represents professors, librarians, counselors and other staff, announced the strike vote Wednesday at a noon news conference at Cal State Long Beach. The authorization was overwhelmingly approved by 95 percent of those who participated in a two-week voting process that ended on Friday.

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By Sandra Emerson, Staff Writer
Created: 05/02/2012 04:00:20 PM PDT

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – The city has been forced to let go nearly 20 employees due to the elimination of millions of dollars in redevelopment funding.

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