Author: admin

Offered with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore.‘Twas the night before Christmas, and throughout the communityNot a complaint was heard – there existed pure unity;The thank-you notes were placed on the bulletin board with care,In hopes that the board and manager would soon see them there.The homeowners were nestled all snug in their beds,No worries of paint, roofs, or plumbing disturbing their heads,And the Vice President in her condo, and I in mine too,Had just settled down for a break from reviewing the dues.When out in the courtyard there arose such a clatter,I sprang to my balcony to see just what…

California’s population grew this year by nearly a quarter of a million residents, bouncing back close to the record-high population levels the Golden State had reached before the pandemic, but growing more slowly than the country as a whole and other large states in the South, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.“As the nation’s population surpasses 340 million, this is the fastest annual population growth the nation has seen since 2001,” the U.S. Census Bureau wrote in a statement Thursday. “The growth was primarily driven by rising net international migration.”After consistent population growth through the 2010’s, California’s population peaked at 39,556,000,…

President Joe Biden is garnering an interesting combination of righteous indignation and weird sympathy from the American people in his waning days in office for his biggest presidential pardon — that of his son, Hunter, completely exonerating him for his many legal problems.Presidential pardons, it must be said, can be viewed as an odd vestige of ancient royal prerogative when it comes to wiping clean the slates of people who have been convicted by our legal system and suddenly find themselves exonerated with the stroke of a pen by a chief executive who may or may not know all of…

California’s seemingly lofty paychecks look relatively run-of-the-mill when considering the state’s costly lifestyle and tax burdens. The annual “price parity” report from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis gives us a snapshot of relative differences among the 50 states in costs and incomes. My trusty spreadsheet reviewed the latest stats for 2023, which detail how expenses squeeze California’s incomes. Look, it comes as zero surprise that California is the priciest place to live. The state’s cost of living is 11.2% higher than the national norm, according to BEA math. After California came New Jersey at 8.2% above average, followed by…

Leslee Riddell’s cabin in Orange County’s Holy Jim Canyon was one of just seven to survive the Airport fire in September. Now, she’s doing everything she can to prepare the historic structure from the threats that winter storms and newly burned hills can bring: Floods, debris flows and mudslides.Thirty-four cabins were destroyed in the wildfire. Riddell’s cabin is nestled in the Cleveland National Forest only a few miles from where the blaze began, and sits at the bottom of a potentially slippery, 1,000-foot canyon wall, making it particularly vulnerable.“Everyone seems to think that our backyard is probably the worst of…

As recently as the early to mid-20th century, workers at ports were unloading cargo by hand. The introduction of heavy machinery like forklifts and container cranes drastically reduced the number of dockworkers that would otherwise be required. In the mid to late-20th century, when the shipping industry was revolutionized by the introduction of standardized containers, unions resisted the reduction in the required labor force by going on the longest strike in US shipping history, lasting 130 days and shutting down 56 ports on the West Coast. Dockworkers have a long history of resisting technology and innovation. A few years ago, I was…

By Manfred W. Keil and Ivan Kolesnikov | Inland Empire Economic PartnershipOne of the most highly regarded measures of an economy’s health is real Gross Domestic Product growth. We want to compare how the Inland Empire fared relative to other regions within the Southern California Association of Government area — Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and Imperial counties. Which region grew the fastest recently?While we assume most readers have some interest in the economic well-being of our region and indeed, are in jobs related to the economy, many of you primarily look at headline-generating unemployment rates or employment growth rates when…

Q: Hello Honk: I’m getting conflicting results searching for legalities of flashing brake lights. I find them super annoying and distracting especially in traffic. Are they legal? – Natalie Merrow, Costa Mesa A: Maybe. Honk has seen them on the roads once or twice, and he found them a bit distracting, too. Others likely see them as a safety measure, telling those behind, “Dudes, I am slowing down!” Brian Kinsey, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol out of the San Juan Capistrano outpost, doesn’t recall seeing them out in the asphalt jungle. But he was kind enough to look…

SACRAMENTO — The Lakers, who have statistically had the league’s third-best best defense over the last 1½ weeks entering Thursday, knew they would be tested in their consecutive matchups against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center.They passed the first leg of the exam, beating the Kings, 113-100, on Thursday night in the first of two matchups over three days in Sacramento.They’ll square off again on Saturday afternoon.“This might be my favorite win we’ve had all season,” first-year Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “Just because we weren’t efficient offensively, but because of our crashing, because we limited them in transition,…

INGLEWOOD — What a response the Chargers mounted with their 34-27 victory over the Denver Broncos on Thursday night at SoFi Stadium.What a recovery. A wholesale turnaround from the Brandon Staley era, including that embarrassing 63-21 loss in last season’s Thursday night game against the Las Vegas Raiders, a defeat that dropped the Chargers to 5-9 and cost Staley (and General Manager Tom Telesco) his job, clearing the way for Jim Harbaugh to come aboard and infuse the organization with enthusiasm unknown to man.What a rebound. After two consecutive losses coming into this Thursday’s game, the Chargers muscled out a…