After spending more than half a billion dollars developing a computerized system that would link every courthouse in the state, the Judicial Council, which sets policies for California's courts, voted Tuesday not to deploy that system. The system was scheduled to be deployed "soon" in 11 counties, according to The Sacramento Bee, but only if the council agreed to spend an additional $120 million. Some judges, lawmakers, and the state auditor ......
The housing crisis that began in 2008 could have a crippling effect on California's ability to provide government services for a generation, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Silicon Valley Communtiy Foundation and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. The problem: Proposition 13, passed by voters in 1978, essentially freezes property taxes on homes or businesses unless they change hands — meaning that today's low property values could mean ......
A proposed $25 billion settlement with America's five largest mortgage servicers over the banks' fradulent foreclosure practices is still not good enough, a spokesman for California Attorney General Kamala Harris said Wednesday. Shum Preston, a spokesman for Harris, said the latest version of the settlement, which was distributed to state attorneys general at a meeting with Obama administration officials Monday, "is inadequate for California." "Our state has been clear about what ......
Former employees of the bankrupt Fremont-based solar panel maker Solyndra on Monday asked a federal bankruptcy judge to block $500,000 in bonuses to the company's remaining executives. Solyndra, which abruptly ceased operations Aug. 31 despite having received $528 million in federal loans, had asked the bankruptcy court to allow it to provide 21 senior managers with bonuses averaging $23,000. But the former employees, who have filed a class-action lawsuit against ......
The New York Times announced Tuesday that it is selling its entire Regional Media Group, a network of 16 newspapers — including the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the Petaluma Argus-Courrier, and the North Bay Business Journal — to Halifax Media Holdings LLC for $143 million. Halifax Media, founded in 2010, owns the Daytona Beach (Florida) News-Journal. The sale could mean big, immediate changes at the North Bay papers, according to media blogger Jim ......
