On the eve of the Independence Day, farm workers at Gerawan Farms received notice that their employer is proposing a wage increase to $11.00 per hour.

The minimum wage just went up to $9, July 1. In 2016, the wage will go up to $10 an hour.

While peach and table grape grower Gerawan Farming demonstrates its workers have the freedom to earn the highest industry wages, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board and United Farm Workers labor union continue to deprive the workers of the right to choose.

The ALRB is steadfast in its effort to force a contract on the workers they obviously do not want. The workers knew the contents of that so-called contract when they voted on November 5 to decertify the UFW labor union. In the spirit of Independence Day, the ALRB should finally count the ballots and let freedom ring for the workers.

“Mr. Gerawan has always helped us,” said Silvia Lopez,… Read More

Immediately following the U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold religious rights inBurwell v.Hobby Lobby the left and Democrats predictably responded that the 5-4 decision means a ban on contraception for women.

“Reproductive rights” activist, and California State Senate… Read More

The troubling trend towards mono-political news viewpoints is a well funded project. Activist groups masquerading as news outlets have very clear agendas, and big budgets. Any actual journalism happening along the way appears to be more of a byproduct by well-meaning employees.

Many of these groups focus on environmental, economic, and “social justice” issues, and receive commensurate, sizable grants.

Former McClatchy journalist David Westphal posed the question of who will pay for the news with so many newspapers shrinking, in a 2009 story. Westphal suggested “non-news organizations”, trade associations, businesses, governments and labor unions, should step up with funding. “At the recentHarvard session on new business models for news,I offered an off-the-beaten-path idea to the question of who will pay for the news,”Westphal said. “One… Read More

Nearly every news outlet in California has been gleefully reporting that the state economy is bouncing back. While recent newsreports show unemployment has slightly dropped, the facts show otherwise — particularly telling is how the Legislature is so focused on increasing the minimum wage, rather than improving the business climate.

Unemployment in the state, and across the country, is worse than is being reported. And, it is far more complicated than a slight economic uptick, or slight “drop” in unemployment.

We’re creating jobs at a slower pace now than at the same time last year. And with the supposed drop in unemployment, the underemployed and those “no longer in the labor force” are issues rarely reported. There is no coincidence between… Read More

The Sacramento arena deal has prompted questions over the lack of public debate about key details, dubious financial numbers from the city and the public subsidy the project requires. And, last-minute legislation last year by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, is allowing the arena’s construction proceed without a credible environmental impact review.

Last week, the city of Sacramento announced it expects to spend up to $750,000 to defend a lawsuit related to the planned downtown arena. The lawsuit accuses city officials of making a secret deal to provide an extra $80 million of public money to help the investors’ group beef up its offer against a well-funded Seattle group that wanted to buy the Kings and move them to Seattle.

I have… Read More

By Tom Tanton and Katy Grimes

Many in America have grown convinced the world would become Utopia if it wasn’t for evil, dirty oil.Ironically, these oil critics are alwayssuccessful beneficiaries of the U.S. free enterprise system. When theydemonize oil profits,they show just how misinformed they are.

The relationship between oil and gas, and humans, is inextricably linked. As a nation’s economy grows, its oil consumption naturally follows suit.

Would America be a better place without the “Big Oil” and gas industry? Or is the vehemence behind demonizing oil and gas just a ploy for extracting exorbitant and punitive taxes? The… Read More

Part ll in a two part series. Part l can be found here.

Last week I wrote about a recent Senate Budget Committee cap and trade hearing and the billions of dollars expected to be generated by the Air Resource Board’s cap and trade auctions.

One of the issued I posed was the original purpose of passage of AB 32, the legislation under which the cap and trade hearings are conducted.AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, established the goal of reducing… Read More

With billions of dollars expected to be generated by the California Air Resource Board’s cap and trade auctions, many in the Legislature are excited with ideas of how to spend the money.

But rather than scheming on foolhardy, unsustainable spending plans, if the real goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, experts involved in the process say the Legislature should give the money back to the businesses it taxed, with the proviso the money is spent helping the companies lower their emissions.

What is AB 32 and Cap and Trade?

Last week, the Senate held a very… Read More