Despite Southern California catching its first good rainstorm since last winter this week, the odds of this year being a torrential El Niño weather event have fallen to 58% from 80% early this spring, according to the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction
Amazon.com is following a military model to conquer cyber-space this holiday shopping season. The company has hired 80,000 seasonal workers and deployed 1,500 Kiva logistic robots for each of its 10 warehouses across the United States. The military math per
The Uber ride-sharing app suffered its first U.S. state-wide ban last week when a Washoe County, Nevada court made a preliminary ruling that the company operates “in all ways” like a taxi business. Uber suspended all operations in Nevada and
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates–the only OPEC members financially solvent enough to afford temporarily reducing crude oil production–are believed to have refused to cut output on November 27, 2014 to push oil prices down to$68 a barrel in hopes
Given that Edward Snowden‘s concerns that UK authorities operate a surveillance system where “anything goes”, it is not surprising that Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament this week that Internet firms are “being used to plot murder and mayhem.” Cameron’s
U.S. shopping is expected to be up big during the Black Friday weekend, since the deflated cost of gasoline–under $3 a gallon–is saving consumers $250 million per day. But falling prices that are good for American consumers is seen as downright
In just five years, the Uber ridesharing service has managed to become a dominant international brand with operations in 45 countries. Part of the company’s disruptive worldwide strategy has been to spend its venture capital on giving away free service. But after
San Francisco’s “Twitter Town” is a four-block stretch along Market Street from Seventh to 11th streets that is now considered ground zero for the “digerati” venture capital crowd. Trendy restaurants, murals on the walls and lots of coffee shops power
The 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show that opened on Friday and runs through November 30 is pushing the concept that self-driving cars are inevitable. Over the next fifteen years Detroit intends to make obsolete all 264 million vehicles in America.
TechCrunch is the leading website to follow technology start-up fundings. As a tool to identify funding trends, Todd Schneider updates a weekly chart called the “TechCrunch Bubble Index” (TCBI) to track the trend in new fundings. High-tech companies have been
Breitbart California’s article last month titled “Covered California Admits to ‘Narrow Networks’ of Doctors and Hospitals” revealed officials knew insurers listed on the state’s healthcare exchange were dumping providers to keep renewal rates down. In response, a state investigation just
The theme of China’s first World Internet Conference held just out of Shanghai this week was an “interconnected world, shared and governed by all”. But the communist authorities tried to get conference attendees to approve a highly repressive 9 point manifesto called the
Iterations of Google Glass have been around the military for decades in helmet head-up displays. But even ultra-geeky Scientific American eighteen months ago said that the device “is creepy.” With Google co-founder Sergey Brin recently arriving sans his normal Google
The Keystone XL pipeline bill failed on a vote count of 59-41 and failed to achieve a filibuster-proof U.S. Senate passage. With 40% of the pipeline already built and North American energy costs some of the lowest in the world, President Obama
Many investors are perplexed that Twitter could have a successful analyst meeting that sent the social networking stock up 7.5% on Wednesday, after announcing a slew of enhancements to its core services–then lose most of the gain the next day.
With oil prices crashing, discount airline Virgin Atlantic’s IPO on Friday was a barn burner. Trading under the symbol “VA,” the stock opened about 25% higher than its estimated offering price at $27, then moved up to end the day
Big bucks Wall Street traders were flabbergasted that, after a year of lousy performance, huge internal battles at Pacific Investment Management (PIMCO) that led to demands to fire Bill Gross, Barry Ritholtz of the View reported Gross had pocketed an
President Obama’s promise to China that the United States will cut CO2 emissions by at least 26% over the next decade is consistent with a legal strategy to use repetitive promises as the “politically binding” basis to force the U.S.
With a new Cold War is ramping up, and as Americans gathered across the country to honor our veterans, the U.S. government’s NASA Ames Research Center announced that is is leasing the 1,000 acre Moffett Airfield in Silicon Valley to
Editorial writer Steve Greenhut at the San Diego Union referred to the structure of the taxi industry, in which cab drivers rent cabs from a company that has acquired a limited issue permit with a city, as something akin to
President Obama’s idea of “Net Neutrality” to ensure unfettered access to the Internet for all Americans is great in theory, but could be very problematic in practice. Proponents say that greedy telecoms and cable companies have monopoly power. Opponents complain
With producer prices in China declining for nearly three years, the European Union as China’s biggest trading partner has been importing deflation. But with Chinese deflation accelerating, Europe seems doomed to suffer a deflationary crash as consumers delay purchases, companies
Six years after the controversial California High-Speed Rail Authority was approved by the California Legislature, just 7% of the estimated 1,100 pieces needed for the first leg to travel 130 miles across sparsely populated Central California farm country has been
The accelerating United States energy boom allowed America to record its highest level of oil exports in 57 years and its second highest level since 1920 in the month of July. After becoming the world’s largest producer of natural gas
Away from all the national bleeding and great gnashing of teeth in the Democratic Party, the sun is shining bright for newly reelected Governor Jerry Brown as he picked up his second solvency award with a state credit upgrade from
With a hot stock market driving commercial demand for engineers, and Edward Snowden’s Citizen Four running in theaters, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers spoke at Silicon Valley’s Stanford University on Monday in an effort to recruit America’s best and
Groucho Marx famously said: “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” The quote sums up the depressing realization for Tinseltown’s progressives this morning that a conservative Republican wave
Facebook has been on a roll this year, with its stock up stock up 54%. With the company delivering third quarter revenues increase of 59.0%, the Morgan Stanley brokerage issued a buy recommendation on FB stock at $75 a share
In what appears to be a coordinated strategy to inflict a humiliating blow against President Obama on election day, 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (known as ISIS or ISIL) and their Al Qaeda allies (Jabhat al-Nusra) launched
Attorney General Kamala Harris released her second annual California Data Breach Report on October 28, which revealed hacking penetration is up 600% since 2012. This year, the Attorney General issued 12 recommendations to companies in various industries, and to the legislature
As someone who was forced into Covered California (CC) last year when Aetna, my long-time and excellent healthcare insurer, exited California’s individual market, I am painfully aware of the technical incompetence of the CC website. This year, the CC website
A Dutch start-up called Blendle is taking global the equivalent of “a penny for your thoughts” by pioneering a Spotify-style market for copyright journalism. To begin to touch a world of seven billion people, Blendle just raised $3.8 million in a first
After a two-year suspension in issuing nuclear power plant licenses, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has quietly granted long-term licensing renewals for two Limerick Generating Station Units near Philadelphia. Unit 1 is renewed until 2044 and Unit 2 until 2049. The
California public employees now enjoy the highest benefits of any state in the nation. To pretend to fund this largess, California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) is an “outlier” among public pension plans in using creative accounting to blur its grossly underfunded
Although lousy quarterly earnings would result in lower stock prices for most companies, shareholders gave Amazon a pass for over a decade as the high-tech company rapidly grew top-line sales to become America’s Everything Store. But in a year when
TechCrunch reports that the Amazon Rewards Visa Card has joined Visa, MasterCard and American Express in accepting Apple Pay for credit card transactions. Although some were surprised that Amazon would do business with Apple’s “closed garden,” Chase Bank is already working with
In a decision that is sure to inflame San Francisco politics, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District Charles Breyer ruled Tuesday a San Francisco law requiring landlords to pay displaced tenants the difference between current rent and the amount needed to
WhatsApp Chief Executive Officer Jan Koum, whose mobile-messaging company was acquired by Facebook for $22 billion this year, confronted a dicey past as he joined the Facebook board as the third-largest shareholder. Koum apologized for actions that resulted in a
Arthur Laffer made his name as the USC professor who helped give credibility to the Reagan Administration’s supply-side economics, based on the idea that higher tax rates inadvertently result in lower taxes collected. But California Governor Jerry Brown’s recent State of
