Category: Clips
Getting creative to pay for transportation as funding dries up
Rendering of the proposed California high-speed rail project in Bakersfield. (Photo Credit: California High Speed Rail Authority) Originally published on CAeconomy A small study from Minnesota showed people living near quality public transit can make them happier. Whether it's because the respondents have easy access to cool destinations via light rail or they don't get…
Doh! California jobs numbers show middle-income doughnut forming
While everyone is up on the news Dunkin' Donuts is coming back to California in a big way and that the cronut is a trend, it also seems there's an unfortunate doughnut appearing in the state's job market and middle-income Californians are in the hole. Read more...
I shot this! (and edited it): “Bankrolling BBQ”
Video story we did with restaurant owners talking about experience cooking up a new business, a barbecue joint in downtown L.A. Read more...
Patent Pending: Silicon Valley’s patent office could be snatched from jaws of sequester
If you're still wondering how the sequester might be putting some drag on the California economy, you could look in the Silicon Valley. Mandatory budget cuts are slowing the roll of a patent office which was scheduled to open in the state's innovation capital this year. But luckily there's legislation out there to stop the…
California reacts to Texas governor’s radio attack on business climate
Governors Rick Perry and Jerry Brown traded their takes on California's business climate. (Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore & Freedom to Marry / Flickr) California officials went on the offensive after Texas fired another salvo at California's business climate with Gov. Rick Perry launching a new radio ad campaignyesterday. The ads target California businesses and start running this week in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Inland Empire and San Diego. Perry says in the ad copy that he's heard building a business in California "is next to impossible." The ad invites companies to visit a business relocation website run by the state's economic development corporation. "I can understand why Rick Perry is interested in California," said Kish Rajan, Director of Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development here in California. "We were the national jobs leader for most of the last year with 257,000 new private sector jobs." Gov. Perry's ad continues with: "There are plenty of reasons Texas has been named the best state for doing business for eight years running." The governor sums up those reasons, saying Texas' "low taxes, sensible regulations and fair legal system are just the thing to get your business moving to Texas." Well, technically those are three things. But who's counting things in threes?
Crowdfunding reaches into local community & economy with solar projects
Crowdfunding to pay for the Next Big Thing is a hot topic in small business. Just look at Kickstarter. But, instead of helping to get off the ground someone's idea for a "top secret burger sauce" or an online TV series about "Awesome Asian Bad Guys"--both noble causes--more and more opportunities are popping up to fund…
Man posed as CHP officer’s relative at memorial ceremony
Man posed as CHP officer's relative at memorial MEMORIAL: Slain highway patrolman's 'nephew' says he's sorry. Family is angry. John Guenther Staff Writer Daily Breeze Originally published in Daily Breeze. Date: November 3, 2010 A man who claimed to be the nephew of a fallen California Highway Patrol officer at a ceremony dedicating a new freeway sign in his honor last week said Tuesday that he meant no harm. The false assertion by Peter Beaver angered the family of Officer Merle L. Andrews, who died during a shootout in Palos Verdes Estates in 1967. But Beaver said he looked up to Andrews as an uncle figure. "I had nothing to gain," said Beaver, a Long Beach resident. "It was not about me. It was about Merle. I look at him as my uncle. To me, he was my uncle. He called me his nephew. Even though, if you want to say by blood, OK, I wasn't. To me, he was." Read more...
Do Good Bus drives passengers toward altruistic adventurism
Saturday afternoon, thirty-five people looking to volunteer their time will climb on board a bus and take their seats. They don’t know where the bus is going or what they’ll be doing when they get there, but they know it will be good. And co-founder of the Do Good Bus, Rebecca Pontius, is not giving…
Beer Pressure: How alcohol influences politics
A project of the Carnegie-Knight News21 Fellowship USC's "Under the Influence: Money and Power in Politics" by John Guenther Republicans and Democrats disagree on many things but not on alcohol. The industry lobby fuels policy, political campaigns and government coffers. The big players in the industry fight to protect their share of the market through…
There will be blood…to be cleaned up
Death rides a pale horse and these guys ride in a pale van, cleaning up after him By John Guenther It's getting late on Michael Nicholson's driveway, when Nicholson's friend and employee Johnny Grant asks if he'd seen the show "1,000 Ways To Die." Nicholson responds that he doesn't watch TV. They're standing next to the Clean…