Bill Restricting State Regulation of Internet Phone Service Advances

Silicon Valley companies, cable providers and phone companies won a victory over  consumer groups and labor unions August 8 when the Assembly Appropriations Committee sent a bill to the floor that would restrict the ability of the California Public Utilities Commission to regulate Internet phone service.

Supporters of the heavily lobbied bill say state regulation of Internet phone service, which is increasingly supplanting traditional landline, would thwart innovation of technologies like Skype and create a hodge-podge of state regulation.    Read more »

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Bill Restricting State Regulation of Internet Phone Service

 Silicon Valley companies, cable providers and phone companies are squaring off with consumer groups and labor unions over a bill that would restrict the ability of the California Public Utilities Commission to regulate Internet phone service – although the commission has not moved to do so and the federal government says they can’t even if they want to.    Read more »

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Welcome to the Final Weeks of the Legislative Session: Please Send Money

Lawmakers return to Sacramento August 6 for a final 20 days to weigh the fate of hundreds of bills.

That’s the policy part. There’s also the politics.

On August 6, four legislative fundraisers are scheduled with a total tab of $4,300. On August 7, there are nine fundraisers scheduled in downtown at a cost of $10,800.    Read more »

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Facebook Floundering

On August 3, Facebook shares closed at $21.09.

Depending who you listen to, the projections anchoring the current state budget say in November Facebook stock will trade at $35 – Gov. Jerry Brown’s Department of Finance’s view — or $45, the Legislative Analyst says.

If those estimates are true then the state will pocket $1.2 billion according to the Department of Finance and $2.1 billion the way the Legislative Analyst sees it.    Read more »

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Happy Birthday Governor Johnson!

Although at times it can seem a more common occurrence, the “Know-Nothings” only held California’s statehouse form 1856 to 1858.

The Know-Nothings – officially the American Party — rose from the ashes of the Whigs and the growing division in the Democratic Party between what were known as the Lecomptons and Anti-Lecomptons after a proposed constitution for the new state of Kansas drafted in that city to allow slavery.    Read more »

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Culver City

This west Los Angeles city boasting the ‘smallest Main Street in the world” is named for its creator, Harry H. Culver, a Nebraska native who moved to California in 1910 after stints as a customs agent and reporter in the Philippines following enlisting in the Spanish-American War.

Culver took a job in real estate with developer Isaac Newton Van Nuys — yes, that Van Nuys —  then went out on his own.    Read more »

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Downward Trend of Facebook Is a Downer for the State

Facebook shares hit a new low July 31 — $21.71, 43 percent below its initial public offering.

This isn’t good new for the state, which hopes to bank a healthy chunk of tax receipts from stock sales the distribution of 240 million Restricted Stock Units to Facebook’s 3,000 employees as early as November.    Read more »

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Who Uses Social Media?

Who doesn’t is increasingly the better question.

In one infographic created by Go-Gulf.com, a Dubai website design team, it’s estimated there are more than 2 billion persons online – some 30 percent of the world’s population.

The highest concentrations of users are in North America, Europe and Oceania.

A US Internet user averages 32 hours online.    Read more »

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Undercover Window Tinting

Even though illegal for anyone else to do so, law enforcement agencies can tint or glaze a vehicle’s front side or rear windows under a new law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. 

The measure, sponsored by the Peace Officers Research Association of California, is supposedly aimed at ending the embarrassing situation of a peace officer puling over someone for illegal window tinting and discovering that person is an undercover officer.    Read more »

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State Tax Dollars at Work

California no longer has a Commission on Industrial Innovation.

This thanks to AB 1460 signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown who, coincidentally, wrote the 1981 Executive Order creating the commission during his second term as governor and signed the 1982 legislation placing the commission in statute..

Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, an El Dorado Hills Democrat, says the commission no longer exists and its “activities are supported by other divisions of government, including the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.”    Read more »

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