Industry Wins City of the Year

Full Tribune story

Most Unsurprising Business News Trend of the Day

The LA Times details how retiree healthcare benefits are being cut back, and premiums raised, as prices high (according to a Kaiser Foundation, study, the increase was as much as 10.4% from 04 to 05). Full story

"Doesn't seem clean or fair"

The Tribune takes aim at Proposition 89

Additionally, the LA Times has a lengthy article detailing some of the specific impacts of the measure and the politics behind it.

Lawsuit Ruling Clears Way For City of Industry

The City of Industry prevailed in state appellate court, demonstrating that it did not intend to build a dam or bypass road on a parcel of several thousand acres in Orange County. Brea had sued Industry in order to block a dam or bypass road. Industry is now decided what to do with the land, which it purchased in the 1970s. Industry owns thousands of acres in three different counties.

Full Trib article

Wine Notes #4: Double the Fun!

So, two wines to cover today.

Tonight's wine: Joseph Drouhin Laforet Pinot Noir '05

No doubt still young to be drinking this, but eh, that's what everyday wines are for (this wine is currently going for $13 @ BevMo). Nicely complex, and expresses the region well. Huzzah for Burgundy! Makes for a nice Pinot Noir. Sorry, no image currently available.




Yesterday's wine: Louis Jadot Pommard AOC 2001

Strong minerality and earthiness, but quite pleasing overall. Makes for a most delicious drink. This wine drinks very well for its relatively young age.

New Biggest Waste of Hard Cash

Movie producer and real estate heir Stephan Bing donated $40 million to Prop 87. Why is this a waste you ask? 87's opponents have been on the air for weeks now and struck some hard blows against the measure. Even if gas prices have receded a bit by November, the high cost compared to historic prices will surely make voters hestitant about pulling the lever for 87. And, of course, one would be remiss to ignore the fact that with $40 million in the bank, one could finance some of the technological innovation sought by 87.

SacBee coverage

NIMBY Bites Gun Club

A classic story highlighted in the Tribune today. Some folks decided to build homes next to the San Gabriel Valley Gun Club in Azusa. Some other folks decided to buy these homes. These folks decided that the city had "outgrown" the gun club and that it was now an untenable nuisance to the community. Shocking really.

Full story

Wine Notes #3

J Vineyards 2004 Russian River Pinot Noir
jwine.com

Definetely purchase this one in the store--the list online is about over $30, but the going retail seems to be $20.

Picture will be uploaded when Blogger decides to work properly.

Pulled this out of the cellar on a whim. This Pinot is a classic expression of Sonoma--more powerful and somewhat less complex than Burgundy, but not taking these to Napa levels. Excellent fruit flavors, accompanied by excellent texture.

Wine Notes #2

Here are some notes on a wine we served tonight, the Clos Pegase 2002 Mitsuko's Vineyard Merlot. Not usually a big fan of California Merlot, but the BevMo clearance price of $16 made it quite an attractive buy.

Although not a terribly complex wine, this Merlot is a tasty and delicious quaff that goes down nicely. As to be expected, big, rich fruit flavors dominate. Again, even sitting in the bottle uncorked for a while, and then sitting in the glass, added a great deal. Highly recommended, particularly if you can get it at a reasonable price.

Unions Throw $25 Million Down Drain

Trying to create their special election glory, many of California's unions are teaming up once again to create a unified campaign against the Governor's re-election. Given how the Angelides campaign is floundering, its difficult to see how this could be anything more than burning $25 million in the public square. The special election campaign was better funded, had great press visibility, and had some potent issues. That won't be the case this time around. Full story

Happy News

The lack of new industrial space has been, and will continue to be a significant problem, for the San Gabriel Valley. One city doing something about this phenomenon is the City of Irwindale, which today opened a new 85,000 sq. ft. business park. My thanks to the Tribune and Rodney Tanaka for taking the time to write about critically important developments like this, even if they lack some of the flash of other stories.

Irwindale Economic Development manager Elaine Cullen on the project:

"Any new space that can come on the market in Irwindale for industrial uses is positive no matter what size it is," she said. "We have such a shortage. Our vacancy rate is less than 1 percent, which doesn't leave a lot of space to bring in new companies or for existing companies to expand."

Full story

Today's Big Headline . . . Rosemead Recall Fails

Councilmembers Taylor and Imperial held off challengers by a 59-41 margin to retain their seats on the city council.

Most memorable quotation from this mess:

"Public service is like a bikini: it's not a right, it's a privilege," said recall proponent Caroline Kunikoa. "And no one should be wearing one for 32 years."

Full story

Random Interesting News

I guess some people are a bit too concerned about their self-image . . . turns out Caltrans searches Blogger.com for mentions of Caltrans. The IP they used is out in San Bernardino.

Sales Decline

SoCal homes sales are down 25% vs. figures from a year ago, while prices rise less than 3%. Full story

Red Line advances

Rep. Waxman is successfully pushing his Red Line legislation through the House and Senate, allowing for the tunneling to eventually take place, according to the LA Times. House approval is expected tomorrow. As noted by the article, financing is still spotty, but this step still needs to be taken before anything can happen. Full story

The Wal-Mart draw never fails

The LA Times weighs in with its over coverage of the Rosemead special election. Full story

Homeless Accord

Not really SGV news, but of significant regional interest. According to the LA Times, the LAPD and ACLU have reached an agreement limiting the times and locations for homeless tent encampments downtown. Full story

If you wondered why traffic was bad yesterday . . .

Gas main break shuts down 57 South

Was in a meeting including Caltrans staff when they get this call. I imagine this is about the least favorite part of their job.

SB 927 and Container Fees

Interestingly enough, yesterday's link to the Trib SB 927 editorial on container fees seems to have prompted a rush of traffic redirected from Google and Blogger searches for the topic (thank you SiteMeter!). In the spirit of this public interest, I thought I would throw in a few thoughts on why our good Governor should sign this landmark legislation:

1) Creating a dedicated trade infrastructure (goods movement) funding stream is imperative. Out of the $30/TEU fee (that's $60 for the box on most trucks you see), $20 will go to support trade infrastructure projects. This is a huge policy landmark, and puts California way out in front of the feds on a key issue. Hopefully this will spur action in DC, or at least help California compete for category funds by demonstrating that the impacts are bad enough to require localized fees.
2) This should be seen as part of a broader investment package including Props. 1A and 1B. Although this legislation would be terribly unfair if it occured by itself and placed all fiscal responsibility on the beneficial owner of cargo (ie: retailers), the public is also making a costly investment in similar project categories using income and sales tax revenue. In this light, this seems like a fair distribution of financial responsibility.
3) As shown by SCAG's Port and Modal Elasticity study by Rob Leachman, if investment is done right, the returns will be extremely cost efficient. Even if no improvements are made, volumes will decline slightly while trans-loading will increase a bit (trans-loading generates far more economic benefits for our region than cargo simply passing through on the freeways). Also, given capacity restraints at other ports, diversion doesn't seem to be a significant future problem. Do you think the port of Seattle will tolerate 5 million TEUs in volume say five years from now?
4) The $500 million or so in fees SB 927 represents seems to be a relatively low cost given the total value of imports. According to the USDOT, the West Coast imported about $226 billion in goods in 2003, or which nearly 70% came in through San Pedro Bay, totalling as much as $186 billion in goods. In that light, $500 million is about a quarter of a percent increase in cost.
5) This proposal has been around at least 18 months by my reckoning, during which different shippers and importers have talked about putting together a voluntary MOU. While this would be vastly preferable and would probably have eliminated the siphoning off of dollars to pay for port security and air quality mitigation, it hasn't happened. Given the length of time involved, something would need to have at least started coming together for this to be a plausible alternative.
6) About 2/3rds of the goods coming in through the goes to consumers spread across the nation who are not contributing to impact mitigation at our ports. Since retailers will pass this cost increase along, it represents a way of getting around that problem.

OK, well that's all for now.

Trib rounds up supervisorial spending

For those who like to read about how an office budget gets spent . . . Full story

Romero Bill Before the Gov

The Times writes up Senator Romero's SB 1513 today, which has passed the Legislature and is pending at the Governor's desk. SB 1513 would instruct the BT&H to develop an international trade policy for California, and could lead to the reopening of foreign trade offices under certain conditions. Full story

$4B works to keep environmentalists onboard for the bond

According to Capitol Weekly, the $4B transit component in Prop 1B is keeping environmentalists on the sidelines. Also noteworthy . . . much of their attention is also being grabbed by Prop 90.

Rosemead Contest to be settled soon

As a reminder, the Rosemead recall election will be taking place on Tuesday.

A New Study, A New Feature

The Trib's excellent Kevin Smith reports on a study in the Journal of Labor Research which finds that social drinking can improve one's earnings. Specifically, male drinkers earn 10% more than non-drinkers, while female drinkers boost their earnings by 14%. (Full article)

In honor of this development, we'll be adding short notes on different wines from time to time. Today's feature is:

Smoking Loon 2005 California Chardonnay

Strong reminder to a recently tasted 2005 Yellow Tail. However, the oaking was significantly reduced, allowing for a much better rounded quaff. The wine was decanted and consumed over a long enough period of time that there was a noticable strengthening and maturity after an hour or so. If you're going to drink wine like this, the $20 Riedel Vivant decanter at Target is a necessary investment, helping the wine quite a bit. Very light feel on the palate. 13.8% ABV. Von's carries Smoking Loon's lineup for under $10/btl.

Press Conference Coverage

The SGVEP worked with the Coalition for Clear Roads and Clean Air to organize a press conference in support of Propositions 1A and 1B. Read the Tribune's coverage here.

Tribune Supports SB 927

The Tribune urged Governor Schwarzenegger to support SB 927, which is the gut-and-amend version of Senator Lowenthal's SB 760 container fee bill. Full editorial

Glendora Land Swap Fight Heats Up

The campaign to defeat Measure A on the Glendora ballot gained intensity, as it hosted a 400-person rally. Trib article