California

Tom Steyer: The jolly green banker

Banker and philanthropist Tom Steyer says the idea of business doing everything perfectly without government involvement is "ridiculous." That's why he's fighting to convince politicians and CEOs that going green isn't a sacrifice, it's an opportunity.

Tom Steyer founded Farallon Capital Management and OneCalifornia Bank. He's also an environmentalist and philanthropist. He and his wife funded the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy at Stanford University, devoted to researching sustainable energy, and the Steyer-Taylor Center for MORE

Creating jobs "for the people" through Open Government

Apps for Californians was a contest to build the best tools to leverage government data for the public good. Besides creating new ways for citizens to understand their world, it also created new job opportunities and blueprint for the nation.

By John F. Moore, contributor

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was not talking about Open Government data or job creation when he spoke of, "government of the people, by MORE

When can consumers buy a Google driverless car? And why would they?

Big carmakers say they're developing driverless cars, but only the search engine company has taken to California's highways with one. If driverless cars can pick up people at their home or office, the need to buy one at all may soon be gone.

By Doron Levin, contributor

Google's (GOOG) dramatic experiments on California roads with driverless-vehicle technology, publicized with mild fanfare within the past week, could legitimize a once far-fetched concept for MORE

California: Too Big Not to Fail?

The state of the state? "A train wreck," says one official.

If the world's eighth-largest economy were a member of the proper religious order, it'd be time to call in a priest to administer last rites.

Name almost any serious malady and the state of California has it: the nation's highest marginal tax rate coupled with an abysmal public education system; the most home foreclosures; a free-falling commercial real estate sector; lame-duck MORE

San Francisco gets smart with green technology

San Francisco is using advanced technology - and the strong arm of government - to turn the city into one of America's greenest.

By David Ewing Duncan

On Pier 96 on San Francisco Bay, a dirty, smelly leviathan of a machine roars and vibrates as it organizes 750 tons of refuse each day into neat cubes of plastic, paper, and metal.

It may look crude, but this three-story-high knot of conveyors, MORE

Tricked-out jet combats Calif. blaze

"Tanker 979" pressed into service by deadly fires in Southern California

The biggest fire-fighting jet on the planet started duty Monday combating the deadly fires around Los Angeles. It is a converted Boeing 747, dubbed Tanker 979.

If it performs as well as expected over the next few days, it could not only mean less destruction of buildings and lives, but big business for the plane's owner, McMinnville, Oregon-based Evergreen International MORE