The California Cancer Research Act (CCRA), a statewide June 5 ballot initiative, aims to increase the tax on cigarettes, and a recent University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) study says the initiative would create thousands of jobs and significantly boost the state's overall economy. more ›

A behind-the-scenes look at Twitter's new recruiting video reveals that the viral cheesefest cost the San Francisco-based company zero monies. The number is hardly shocking, but it's quite ironic that the social media giant chose such a low-budget method to lure in applicants. more ›

Twitter is apparently hiring, and one peek at their high budget recruiting video will surely have you crafting a cover letter and tweaking your resume in hopes of landing a job at a dynamic workplace where "the future is you!" more ›

Congratulations, California. Although you've been dubbed The Golden State, seven of your cities made the top ten list for the worst cities to seek employment. After clicking through the jobless "winners," one thing is certain: Do not move to California's Central Valley. more ›

An eco-awesome state, California just climbed a few notches on the green scale with the release of The Solar Foundation's National Solar Jobs Census 2011: A Review of the U.S. Solar Workforce. The report, released by Environment California, shows that CA boasts the most solar-related jobs in the U.S. more ›

Celebrating the progress in L.A.'s struggle to transform poverty-level jobs into good jobs, 500 service workers will descend upon LAX today at noon. Their message? "Don't reverse our progress." The march and rally event also supports East Coast janitors whose contracts are expiring soon and is part of a national day of actions. more ›

President Obama will reveal his major jobs initiative during a televised speech on Thursday, September 8. And Angelenos are ready. Good Jobs LA - a grassroots organization with the mission to reclaim the American Dream - has rallied unemployed workers and residents from struggling local communities to gather at 200 Obama Jobs Speech Watch Parties. more ›

Metro says they have cleared another hurdle in their current endeavor to (finally) put in place an efficient transit link to serve Los Angeles International Airport. Wednesday, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) gave approval to release the Final Environmental Impact Statement/Report (FEIS/R) for the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor, says the transit agency, and local politicians are already cheering the train's arrival. more ›

Hundreds of angry, frustrated Angelenos showed up to a "Kitchen Table Summit" in Inglewood yesterday to tell their congressional representatives about their struggles with unemployment and underemployment. Congresswoman Maxine Waters got the most enthusiastic response from the crowd. "As far as I'm concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell," she said. "And I'm gonna tell them how to get there." more ›

In response to Mitt Romney's North Hollywood visit today, Councilmember Paul Krekorian, who represents NoHo, and L.A. County Democratic Party Chair and California Democratic Party Vice Chair Eric C. Bauman, both issued statements reproving the Republican candidate's political agenda and economic policies. more ›

Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney will be making a stop in Los Angeles today at a vacant storefront in North Hollywood's Valley Plaza shopping center. Romney is focusing his efforts, at least today, on pointing out how President Barack Obama has failed Californians by not getting enough of us back to work. more ›

Is this "the scariest unemployment chart ever?" the OC Register asks of Business Insider's claim. With Friday's sobering U.S. unemployment report painting an un-pretty picture, did anyone really think an actual picture would make them feel better? Cue the economists at Calculated Risk who, while looking for evidence an economic recovery, instead found all these terrible little lines. Especially the red one. more ›

The Westside subway extension, which would bring Metro's Purple Line from its current Wilshire/Western terminus to Westwood, got what some are hailing as a "major step" closer to some big federal funding. California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer made a joint announcement today, urging the U.S. Department of Transportation to okay a $641 million federal loan for the project. more ›

After months in search of a buyer, Beverly Hills-based Myspace has finally been acquired. In an email to employees late Wednesday morning, CEO Mike Jones broke the news to employees in an email late Wednesday morning. more ›

As promised in August, State Controller John Chiang has launched a website detailing the salaries and other compensation of city and county governments throughout California. The move followed the city of Bell scandal, in which employees and part-time city councilmembers of the Southeastern L.A. County municipality were found to be earning sky high salaries and now face charges. more ›

A union stagehand working the USC rally for President Barack Obama this morning was reportedly fired for wearing a sweatshirt that said "George H. W. Bush" on it, according to Eric Spillman at KTLA. But get this, it was a shirt that pictured the U.S.S. George H. W. Bush aircraft, where his son is currently serving, the worker said. Duane Hammond said he wasn't making a political statement, just supporting his son. A union supervisor gave him a choice: wear something else or go home. Hammond refused and said he was fired. more ›

It's the final stretch before the November 2nd election and Republican candidate and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has begun her "Take Back Sac Express" bus tour to rally for votes. On Wednesday, one day after that fiery gubernatorial debate, Whitman made her first stop, stepping off her bus, which carries the message "Jobs are on the way," at one of downtown's classic eateries, Philippe's. more ›

With only 64,000 new private sector jobs last month, combined with 159,000 jobs cut in the government sector (about half of that is thanks to the U.S. Census Bureau letting go of 77,000 temporary employees), the national unemployment rate went... more ›

Just a day after last night's gubernatorial debate between Attorney General Jerry Brown and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has real drama begun. This morning high-profile attorney Gloria Allred held a press conference where Whitman's former housekeeper Nicky Diaz alleged mistreatment from the candidate, who knew said Whitman also knew that she was undocumented. more ›

If you've been paying attention to campaign commercials for the U.S. Senate and California's governor, the theme is jobs, jobs, jobs, thanks to high unemployment. Today, the L.A. City Council will consider a motion to give employers citywide a tax credit when they hire new employees who are Los Angeles residents. more ›

You can predict the cheers from residents on this one. Citing an anonymous source, the LA Times says at least eight city of Bell officials and employees have been arrested. Who and what charges will be brought against them will be announced later today at a press conference, but it's likely that among the arrested include City Manager Robert Rizzo and at least four of the five city councilmembers. more ›

The jobless rate in California increased by a tenth of a point from 12.3% in August, according to information released by the state today. A year ago, the rate was 12%. more ›

In wake of the city of Bell sky high salary scandal, everyone wants more transparency. State controller John Chiang will post all city and county salaries from around the state online in November, but to get elected state officials to post their own salaries, as well as their staffs', that's a harder proposition. Here's what happening, per the LA Times: more ›

Target is not just taking heat for its large political donation to an anti-gay candidate, its plan to bring a store to Hollywood and Western has drawn enough fire that it's going back to the drawing board, despite approval by the L.A. City Council in June. Facing lawsuits, the company will develop en environmental impact report (EIR), which was never done for the 74-foot store at Hollywood and Western, according to Curbed LA, which digs deep into the issue. more ›

The group Janitors for Justice are planning a large protest for this afternoon in the middle of Century City. Avenue of the Stars, and likely other surrounding streets, is expected to be shut down around 1 p.m., lasting through around 3 p.m. (However, the LAPD is prepared for a noon to 6 p.m. shut down if needed). more ›

What's up southeastern L.A. County? First there was Bell, which was paying its part time city council about $100,000 a year and it's city manager nearly $800,000, which added to his total compensation of $1.5 million a year. The L.A. Times broke that story and now they've found sketchy salaries in neighboring Vernon. more ›

There were basically no changes in California's unemployment rate from June to July, which is holding steady at 12.3%, California's Employment Development Department announced today. But in Los Angeles County, the rate increased from 12.3% to 13.4%. more ›

Talking about pensions isn't exactly sexy, but when you get angry about potholes not getting fixed, lack of public transit and other downsized city services, many would point to the unattractive word is one big part of the problem. more ›

About 2,000 people are expected to attend a noon jobs rally in downtown this afternoon. Some 50 buses will head to City Hall and drop off attendees who will be calling for decisive action by the federal government to create good jobs that will move the country forward, not backward. One key example that will be used is the 30/10 plan, which would give money upfront to be paid back in full later to build 12 transit lines throughout L.A. County. Mayor Villaraigosa and others will speak. more ›

As promised, L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel has posted the salaries of all city employees to her website in wake of the city of Bell scandal where its city manager, for example, was being paid nearly $800,000. The 547-page document (.pdf) only shows approved annual salaries and not actual compensation, which may be affected by voluntary salary cuts, furloughs, overtime, etc. Greuel says the list will soon be updated to reflect those changes. But the list also hides what each City Councilmember pays their staffs. Instead of listing salaries by Council District, all city council staff is listed together as one unit. more ›