By most recent count, the Great Recession has resulted in a loss of more than 1.4 million payroll jobs in California ($15.2 million payroll jobs in December 2006, and 13.8 million payroll jobs in September 2010). Beyond the job losses, though, the Great Recession also has brought changes in the structure of work in California. It will be some time before we recognize the full extent of these changes. But one is likely to be the continued weakening of the employer-employee structure that characterized work in California for more than four decades after World War II.

Yesterday in Washington, D.C., United States Chamber of Commerce president Thomas J. Donahue laid out a framework for the chamber to work with the administration and the new congress to improve the business environment. In reading the speech, one might think Donahue was speaking about the problems of California and offering solutions to our troubles here.

The key to improve California as well as the key for the American economy is to create jobs. Clearing the path to job creation takes changes in the regulation-at-all-costs mindset. Donahue called the onset of too many rules a “regulation tsunami.” That charge echoes for the business community in California.

Donahue also pointed to dealing with the debt (in California we need to tame the deficit), improve our infrastructure, and encourage small business. All issues for improving California’s economic future.

Donahue titled his speech, “ A Nation at Risk.” Few would argue California is a state at risk. Scholar and historian Kevin Starr suggested a year ago California could be the first “failed state.”

The port complex may be L.A.’s greatest economic asset. Not only do thousands of warehouses and trucking firms depend on it, but so do L.A.’s many apparel companies, toy wholesalers and furniture companies, to pick a few.

Unfortunately, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has chosen to politicize the Port of Los Angeles, weighing it down with his plan to promote union workers to such a degree that the port may have trouble keeping up with competition it will face in 2014. That’s when the widened Panama Canal will open and big container ships that are now forced to come here will be free to go to East Coast or Gulf Coast ports.

Oh, well, I thought, at least the Port of Long Beach next door is well managed, highly regarded by shippers and relatively free of political meddling.

Alas, no more.

Now that Los Angeles County has banned plastic grocery bags, I have a clear choice—pay ten-cents per paper bag for groceries purchased in the unincorporated areas of the county or risk the possibility of lead used in reusable bags contaminating my food.

No less a consumer advocate that New York Senator Charles Schumer is demanding an examination into reusable bags after a newspaper investigation found lead in many reusable bags sold by grocery stores.

I wonder what the voters think about this Morton’s Fork presented them by the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors?

Hawaii.  That is
what’s been on our minds the past
few weeks as we worked hard to finish out this election season.  Hawaii is one of the prizes at the end of the
election cycle that our team looks forward to, regardless of election outcomes.  But with a special election in California
next year an increasing likelihood, there won’t be much time before the next
cycle is upon us.

So, we are now setting our focus on increasing the overall
effectiveness of our clients’ campaigns, which includes building and mobilizing
advocacy through the use of digital grassroots techniques. Too often the time
required to develop digital grassroots advocacy is simply shortchanged by the
almost insanely time-compacted nature of traditional campaigning. 

Often, when it comes to digital grassroots advocacy, only a
few short months (or weeks even) are spent building a supporter base with even
less time available for mobilizing those advocates. What’s worse, without
additional funding left in most campaigns, advocates are often abandoned right
after election day.  This requires
building a supporter base from scratch again next year.  While we all know that each of these
advocates deserves a break from the communications and activities that comes
with the intensity of election season, it should not be a 6-18 month vacation.

Be it real or be it perception, the GOP’s perceived anti-immigrant (and especially anti-Hispanic) stance is losing (has lost) the minority vote in this state. The vociferous conservative element that puts essentially all blame for our problems on illegal immigrants projects itself as the GOP.

Some of the most popular right wing talk show hosts build their loyal (essentially all white) following with their Jihad against illegal Hispanics (mainly Mexicans).

Say what you will — this is PERCEIVED as anti-Hispanic. ALL Hispanics.

Here’s a test — if we decided to reduce our illegal immigrant problem by quadrupling the number of legal immigrants we allowed, would that placate the group that rails against the Hispanics currently breaking the law by illegally entering our country? After all, now they would be legal.

The San Francisco Business Times is currently conducting its “Business Pulse” Survey.

The question: “Should Nancy Pelosi step down as leader of the House Democrats?

Readers of the publication are largely business owners and entrepreneurs. The results as of 9:30 PM on Tuesday are posted below where an astonishing 65% of readers of the San Francisco publication believe Pelosi should step down. A mere 32% say she should stay. Keep in mind this is the San Francisco Business Times – not a national online poll.

Anyone who knows Washington, D.C. knows how popular North Carolina Congressman Heath Shuler is. After all, this man was the Quarterback of the Washington Redskins. It’s not a far stretch. Washington loves him.

Check Congressman Heath Shuler out here.

If Democrats don’t have the good sense to choose him as the “face” of the party against likely Speaker John Boehner, then God help them (they’ll need it) in 2012.

This site has highlighted Ben Austin’s and the Parent Revolution’s fight to install a “parent’s trigger” – the ability for the parents of California school children to demand improvement in their local schools. Now the movement, just taking root in Los Angeles and California, is about to go national.

Under the parent’s trigger law, if 51% of the parents of a failing school sign a petition they can redirect the operation of the school by turning to charter school operators or forcing administrative and staff changes at the school. As Austin wrote here last year, “The concept recognized a truth that school officials often discount: Parents are in the best position to make decisions about what’s right for their kids.”

With the parent trigger now California law, the Wall Street Journal’s David Feith reported recently that state legislatures in five states are considering following California’s example. In fact, Feith reported that, “incoming House Education Committee Chair John Kline (R., Minn.) says that he supports parent trigger, and that Congress "can make sure federal policy does not stand in their way."”

California is circling the drain and the news keeps getting worse.

With unemployment at 12.4 percent – 2,269,948 people without jobs – it should come as no surprise that the state is upside down in its unemployment insurance fund. The deficit is expected to reach $10.3 billion by the end of the year as the state borrows $40 million dollars a day from the federal government to provide assistance to jobless workers. California must make an interest payment $362 million to the federal government next September. It’s one more obligation that leaves less money for programs like education, laws enforcement and transportation.

Then there is the latest projection from the Legislative Analyst’s Office showing the state with a budget deficit of $25.4 billion.

Just last month, when, with self congratulatory rhetoric, lawmakers concluded the budget for this year, it was obvious to all that it was a sham. I wrote at the time that only those “who had just put their life savings into Florida swampland,” would believe the rosy projections on which the budget was balanced.