Bill Would Push Unionizing Franchise Workers

The franchise market in California, a keystone of small business in the state, soon could change radically. The California Legislature last Thursday sent a bill to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk that would effectively supersede the contractual agreements between California-based franchises and such national franchisors as Subway, Supercuts, 7-Eleven, Jiffy Lube, RE/MAX, H&R Block, Holiday Inn […]

Rick Perry Returns to Woo CA Business

Texas Gov. Rick Perry returns to the Golden State. Maybe this time, California Gov. Jerry Brown will take him seriously. Perry made a four-day recruiting trip to California in February of last year, visiting San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles. He met up with CEOs and other high-ranking corporate honchos. In advance of his […]

Desalination Can Mitigate California’s Water Woes

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy dedicated the nation’s first saline water conversion plant. A public-private partnership between U.S. Department of Interior and Dow Chemical, the Freeport, Texas plant converted seawater from the Gulf of Mexico into 1 million gallons a day of fresh water. “No water resources program,” said Kennedy, “is of greater long-range […]

Lawyers Would Benefit from Proposed Initiative

It’s been 11 years since Bob Pack lost his children, Troy, 10, and Alana, 7, to a hit-and-run driver under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs. This week, the Danville dad filed a proposed ballot measure in their memory: The Troy and Alana Pack Patient Safety Act of 2014. Among other provisions, the Pack […]