Why America’s Tallest Dam is Suddenly in Danger
Engineers are racing to lower water levels at Lake Oroville in Northern California before storm clouds open up again, adding new strain to the nation’s tallest dam.
Tricky Moves
Changing regulations and confusing compliance metrics have HR managers tied up in knots
AB 908 increases the amount of paid family leave (PFL) benefits an employee can receive from 55 percent of earnings to either 60 percent or 70 percent of earnings, depending on the employee’s income,” effective Jan. 1, 2018? (Mark your calendars.)
The Heat is On
Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, on engaging the business community to go greener
As head of the California Air Resources Board for the last decade, Mary Nichols is considered the second most powerful person — after Gov. Jerry Brown — in the state’s wide-reaching efforts to combat climate change. It is an effort state officials have vowed to continue despite the election of President Donald Trump, a climate change denier.
Infographic: California Tackles Greenhouse Gases
As greenhouse gas emissions decline in California due to AB 32, a recent report shows the state’s tough approach to tacking climate change has been embraced by most Californians.
California’s Payments Into Teachers’ Pensions to Triple
California’s contributions to the California State Teachers’ Retirement System are projected to almost triple in less than a decade and may increase even more due to low investment returns and the cost of benefits enhanced in boom times.
Leader of the Flock
For years, California has led the way in energy policy — what happens when the federal government shifts course?
It wasn’t taken as a joke or a typo or an anonymous quote from some trolling conspiracy theorist. It was a real-live tweet from a billionaire with mystery hair: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
Dilemma of the Month: Holding Exempt Employee Accountable
Last year, we hired someone to run our small business, and we paid him very well. However, he was always coming in late, taking Fridays off, calling in sick, having car trouble and dentist appointments, etc. He was an exempt employee, so we kept paying him as if he was there all the time. He quit and we don’t want to have the same problems with the new hire.
A Port in the Storm
Value-based health insurance may offer stability for employers in a marketplace about to be upended by more new federal policies
Seven years after passage of the Affordable Care Act created a new world order in health insurance, it all may be upended. With a new administration in Washington, all or parts of Obamacare could be repealed and replaced. All the while, premium increases have continued apace:
As Trump Vows to Kill Climate Plan, California Pushes Back
California plans to reduce oil-refinery emissions 20 percent by 2030, providing more details about its effort to impose the nation’s strictest air-quality rules just as President Donald Trump takes office vowing to roll back federal climate policies.
California Considers Guaranteeing Carbon Prices in Trump Era
California is considering a system to protect projects that cut global-warming emissions from a market downturn that may worsen under a Trump administration.