Free Republic

A report indicating that 9,000 businesses have relocated headquarters and other operating units outside of California in the last seven years was hailed by Governor Jerry Brown (D) as "encouraging news." According to the report prepared by Joseph Vranich, a site selection consultant and president of Irvine, California-based Spectrum Location Solutions, the exiting companies experienced cost-savings of 20-35%. "Some will try to characterize this as a loss for the state, but I don't see it that way," Brown said. "Wage-slavery is one the greatest infringements on personal freedom in our time. By inducing 9,000 exploiters to leave we are reducing...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California trial judge ruled Saturday that a woman suing a Silicon Valley venture capital firm in a high-profile gender bias case may seek punitive damages that could add tens of millions of dollars to the $16 million in lost wages and bonuses she is pursuing. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn denied a request by lawyers for Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to have Ellen Pao's demand for unspecified punitive damages thrown out. Pao, the interim CEO of the news and social networking site Reddit, claims she was passed over for a promotion at...

KING, Wis. — At the old union hall here on a recent afternoon, Terry Magnant sat at the head of a table surrounded by 18 empty chairs. A members meeting had been scheduled to start a half-hour earlier, but the small house, with its cracked walls and loose roof shingles, was lonely and desolate. “There used to be a lot more people coming,” said Magnant, a 51-year-old nursing assistant, sighing. The anti-union law passed here four years ago, which made Gov. Scott Walker a national Republican star and a possible presidential candidate, has turned out to be even more transformative...

Obama Administration has decided to wage war on business inversions, by declaring companies who wish to move their headquarters abroad to be "unpatriotic", and "tax dodgers" Ben Casselman penned a piece a year agoin the Wall Street Journal, which documented the decline of risk-taking in business ventures. Hard data showed that both the number of new companies and the use of venture capital is waning. He rightfully suggested that this downward trend is a major contributor to the fact that the recovery from the recent recession is so painfully slow and anemic. Casselman went on to explain that economists aren’t...

Full Title: Treasury: Employers must “self-attest” that ObamaCare not behind staffing decisions – under penalty of perjury Old and busted: Businesses will love ObamaCare for its cost savings in health care! New hotness: Businesses had better not make staffing decisions based on cost savings from ObamaCare-fueled price spikes! After its latest delay in implementing the employer mandate, the Obama administration rebuffed criticisms that the law incentivizes employers to shift to part-time work by announcing the Treasury Inquisition — ahem, excuse me, the Treasury Attestation Department: The latest announcement comes after the administration heard from businesses about their concerns with the...

President Barack Obama wants an increase in the minimum hourly wage from the current $7.25 to $9 by the end of 2015. Obama also proposes the minimum wage be required to keep pace with inflation. … The proposal, which Obama made during his State of the Union address Tuesday, is sure to draw opposition from business groups and congressional Republicans who say higher rates increase costs and reduce employment. …

GLENDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- Proposition 37 is a measure to require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food. There are two sides to this contentious issue.

BENICIA -- Rumors are swirling that Valero is putting its two California oil refineries on the market, including one in Benicia that is the city's largest employer. The speculation follows a Wall Street Journal report last week that said the San Antonio-based company has enlisted Citigroup Inc. to help find a buyer for the facilities. The article cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Valero operates a 78,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Wilmington outside Los Angeles and a 132,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Benicia. Together, the plants represent about 10 percent of the company's U.S. refining capacity. Valero, which has been critical of California's...

The Los Angeles Times published an article last week about Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad's efforts to recruit California businesses to his state, citing complaints about California's business climate.Gov. Jerry Brown's spokesman, Gil Duran, told the Times in response, "This is a Republican myth that is often repeated yet simply not true. Reputable studies have shown that businesses are not fleeing the state for the cold, empty and desolate hinterlands."The response typified the Capitol's dismissive attitude toward any suggestion that we have become economically uncompetitive. . . . Making California hospitable to that job-creating investment should be Job No. 1 in...

Owners of small service businesses give California an F grade for business friendliness, according to an online survey by Thumbtack.com, a website for service companies. It is the second survey in a week that gives the Golden State black marks by business owners. Chief Executive magazine recently released its annual survey of Best and Worst States for business, which ranked California 50th for the eighth straight year.

I saw Lorax yesterday with five of my grankids, ages 10 down to 5. It was a fun kids movie, but clearly slanted towards environmentalism and particularly with an anti-business and anti-lumber company...really, and anti-capitalism bias. On the way home it provided teaching moments. I asked the kids how many of them did not like lumber companies that cut down and harvest trees and why. All of them said they did not like them because they are "stealing our air," hurting animals, and destroying their places to live. I pointed to the Boise Mountains which we could see from the...

General Electric Antares Group living BIG at Beaver Creek Resort with private ski instructors at $745 USD a day for EACH PRIVATE INSTRUCTOR! (Not what the teachers make, that's what the ski school gets to rent a private instructor for ONE DAY.) They are getting private race coaching and rented the NASTAR Race Course for most of today. Private racing for GE HONCHOS! After he passed on this information I went to NASTAR.com and found the race, complete with names. I wasn't sure everyone on the list was connected with GE Antares because there are a bunch of Colorado addresses....

In a move that could reshape the American automobile industry, California regulators Thursday are expected to approve sweeping new rules requiring that 15 percent of new cars sold in California by 2025 run on electricity, hydrogen or other systems producing little or no smog. The regulations by the California Air Resources Board, dubbed the "advanced clean car rules," would start in 2018, ramping up each year and ultimately resulting in 1.4 million "zero emission" vehicles on California roads by 2025. Today there are only about 10,000 such vehicles in the state. "This is a really large step. It's transformational," said...

An ugly scene in the California economy played out in our own backyard this week, as Waste Connections, Sacramento's most valuable company, announced that it is moving its corporate headquarters – and the 100 jobs that go with it – to a Houston suburb. Waste Connections was a shining star in local business, starting here 15 years ago as a one-man shop and growing into a 6,500-employee behemoth operating in 30 states. But CEO and founder Ron Mittelstaedt has finally had enough of California's hostile, complex, expensive business environment and decided to pull up his stakes and head to greener...

Airlines with a big presence in Chicago say proposed new federal taxes aimed at reducing the federal budget deficit could cost jobs and limit flights to and from smaller markets in Illinois... Airline taxes proposed by the White House and being considered by a Congressional committee include a tax of $100 per take-off for both passenger and cargo flights. A second tax would be on airfares, doubling the current $2.50 passenger security tax to $5 and eventually – by 2017 – to $7.50.

An oldie but goody. Barack Obama is the most antibusiness president in a generation, perhaps in American history. Thanks to him the era of big government is back. Obama runs up taxpayer debt not in the billions but in the trillions. He has expanded the federal government's control over home mortgages, investment banking, health care, autos and energy. The Weekly Standard summarizes Obama's approach as omnipotence at home, impotence abroad. The President's actions are so bizarre that they mystify his critics and supporters alike. Consider this headline from the Aug. 18, 2009 issue of the Wall Street Journal: "Obama Underwrites...

Is the Obama Administration the most anti-business administration in our lifetime? Recently, I was invited to CNBC's Kudlow Report where I had the joy of debating former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean and BET founder Robert Johnson on that very question. During the course of that interview, Dean -- naturally -- argued that in fact Americans' animosity was directed primarily at business these days, which is about as absurd and counter-factual a position as one can take. However, I was pleasantly surprised when Johnson, an Obama supporter and also a business owner, generally agreed with my views on the...

California cities can protect workers from being fired immediately when their company changes owners, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday.The 6-1 decision reinstated a Los Angeles ordinance, struck down by lower courts, that required supermarkets to keep their workforce for 90 days after a new owner takes over. Similar laws covering different industries are in effect in other cities - including Oakland, San Jose, Berkeley and Emeryville - and the state also has a law protecting janitors who work for building contractors. "When you're keeping a business open and all you're doing is changing the name

Mayor Ed Lee quietly signed into law a ban on the unsolicited distribution of Yellow Pages in San Francisco - a regulation that already has drawn a threat of a lawsuit from the trade group that represents the commercial phone book industry. "While we regret having to take this action and sincerely hope that litigation can still be avoided, we cannot stand idly by as our members' constitutional rights are trampled by a city once known for its tolerance and protection of civil rights," William Champion III, an attorney for the Local Search Association (until recently the Yellow Pages Association),...

A part-time hair braider sued Utah on Tuesday, claiming the state's requirements to obtain a cosmetology license are irrelevant to her job and an unconstitutional infringement on her right to earn a living. Jestina Clayton learned how to braid hair as a 5-year-old in her West African home country of Sierra Leone. Now living outside Salt Lake City, the 28-year-old said she braids hair as a side business to support her two children while her husband finishes school. Last year, Clayton discovered her business was illegal without a license. Utah law requires anyone working with hair, including hair braiders, to...