Belmont Beacon
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2014 - NOVEMBER 9, 2014
belmontbeacon.com
Election: Democrats lead; voters support Proposition 47 by jennifer schlueter
VOLUME 1, NO. 27
California economy expected to grow strong in next 5 years By SHEL SEGAL
benefit of mankind. There are a million stories out there and we want to have your nominations so we may
The Great Recession is long over with the California economy doing much better than the national economy, local economists said at a conference on Oct. 23. In addition, economists are predicting stronger job growth and a continued housing recovery. Kimberly Ritter-Martinez, an economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corps said at the Pasadena Economic and Business Summit at Brookside Golf Club that strong growth will be a mainstay of the next five years. Ritter-Martinez added the county’s GPD will outpace the national average through 2019, with job growth in the county through 2015 recovering all the jobs it lost during the recession. But she did say that many recently hired workers are parttime as many employees are still nervous about California’s economy, meaning they don’t want to take a chance with fulltime hires. She also said she believes the Fed won’t raise short-term interest rates until next summer because of three reasons, one of which is a declining labor force participation rate “That refers to the percentage of people who are either working or actively seeking work. In September the national labor force participation
Please see page 2
Please see page 2
Governor Brown is running for a record fourth term- Photo by Terry Miller
Neel Kashkari, 41, is a first time candidate challenging current Governor Jerry Brown, 76, who would enter a record fourth term if elected, which – according to polls released last week – is likely to happen.
Democrat Brown leads with 21 percentage points, 54 percent to 33 percent, “among every age group, every ethnic group and among both men and women, “ as the San Francisco Gate reports. “That’s a very impressive
lead,” the poll’s director Mark DiCamillo told the paper. “He’s way out ahead, and none of the other Democrats have a lead like his.” According to Breitbart, Please see page 4
Do you know someone who truly makes a difference? Someone who is truly exceptional? An Unsung Hero, if you will? by Terry miller Do you know of someone in your community, town or city who has a remarkable story? If so, we want to hear about them. Someone who has made a significant difference in your life
or the lives of others in the community? We’re looking for stories about everyday people doing wonderful things in this world, not for themselves but for the
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Schroeder Hall to house Police East Division Substation The City of Long Beach today celebrated accepting the deed for Schroeder Hall from the U.S. Army Reserve. The 4.7 acre facility will be renovated to house the Police Department’s East Division Substation. “Schroeder Hall served Long Beach and the region since 1960, and the U.S. Army Reserve’s action to hand over this facility to the City of Long Beach will ensure that this site will continue to serve the community well into the future,” Mayor Robert Garcia said. “This is an exciting day. I’m looking forward to providing the Long Beach Police Officers with a first class facility,” Councilwoman Stacy Mungo said. The current East Division Substation on Los Coyotes Boulevard near the Traffic Circle is undersized and outdated. The new Substation will include office space, renovated locker areas, showers, restrooms, and gym facilities, an elevator to provide ADA accessibility, public waiting and reception areas, and a multipurpose community room. “As members of the Army Reserve, we take pride in knowing that the Reserve center named in honor of Major Henry F. Schroeder will be utilized by the Police Department East Division Substation and will continue to support the citizens of Long Beach,” said Col. Peggy Stradford, Chief of Staff, 79th Sustainment Support
Command, U.S. Army Reserve. “We’re pleased to be moving forward,” Police Chief Jim McDonnell said. “This new workplace will afford us the ability to access technology, utilize space to handle complex investigations, and enhance our community partnerships in the East Division.” Renovation work is expected to start in early 2015, and finish in time for the Substation to open by the end of the year. Schroeder Hall U.S. Army Reserve Center was declared surplus under the 2005 round of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, which was designed to increase U.S. military efficiency by reorganizing its bases. The Long Beach City Council and a citizen advisory committee recommended that the site be used for the Long Beach Police Department’s East Division Substation. The U.S. Departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development approved a no-cost public benefit conveyance of the facility in 2010, a savings to the City of Long Beach of more than $3.5 million. As part of the BRAC process, the City helped Mental Health America acquire a site on Long Beach Boulevard, where they will provide a Healthcare Access program to help homeless people get services they need. The site is located adjacent to a Los Angeles County Mental Health facility.
Do you know someone who truly makes a difference? Continued from page 1
shine a Beacon on that individual with a feature story in our family of newspapers and companion websites. A couple of years ago we focused on a teenager who started a business collecting fruit from peoples’ trees and donated to fresh food banks. He did it not for cash but because he cared enough to want to ensure that people were eating fresh fruit every day and didn’t want any food wasted . It is truly inspiring to see a high school student devote his weekends to such a project. In the coming months and years we’ll be featuring people in your city but first we need to know a little about them. In your suggestions, please include the name of the person, age (approx.) and city in which they live and of course a phone number. Tell us why you feel they deserve a special spotlight
shined on their life? How long have you known this individual? Any special circumstances we should know about? Suggestions might include: someone who cares for injured/ feral animals; a family who fosters children; a doctor who still makes house calls….we’re open to your suggestions. Nominations will be reviewed monthly by our Editorial Board. Please no phone calls, all submissions MUST be in sent via email . Decisions on whom we’ll profile remain entirely at the discretion of the Editorial Board. We appreciate any and all nominations. As the old adage goes” There are a million stories in the Naked City. This is one of them…” Please submit your suggestions to: jschlueter@hlrmedia.com
Economy growth for California Continued from page 1
rate was 62.7 percent, down from 62.9 percent the previous month and 63.2 percent a year earlier,” according to a published report. Also speaking at the conference was Selma Hepp, a senior economist with the California Association of Realtors. Hepp said while the market is strong, there are some areas for concern, mainly affordability among 18- to 34-year-olds. Hepp added that while housing inventory is up, it is still situated well below the demand, adding young and first-time buyers face a lack of information when trying to purchase a home with many thinking a bank will not give them a loan. Mike Ross, CEO of Pasadena Center Operating Co., the nonprofit corporation that
manages Pasadena Convention Center, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, the Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Pasadena Ice Skating Center, also spoke at this business summit. He said the city has seen a steady increase in hotel occupancy rates. Ross said the occupancy rate has jumped to 85 percent from 68 percent in 2010, adding there are plans to build several new hotels in the city and that is expected to help boost business to the convention center. This economic and business summit was a collaborative presentation by the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and the city of Pasadena. (Shel Segal can be reached at ssegal@beaconmedianews. com. He can be followed via Twitter @segallanded.)
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hlr media EDITORIAL editor@belmontbeacon.com Editor Jennifer Schlueter Publisher HLR Media Advertising advertising@hlrmedia.com Submissions:
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California ranks 48th best on business taxes Annual release of the State Business Tax Climate Index California has the 48th best tax climate in the U.S. according to the latest edition of the State Business Tax Climate Index, released last Tuesday by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. The Golden State’s rank remains unchanged from its 48th place ranking last October. The Index, now in its 11th edition, measures how well structured each state’s code is by analyzing over 100 tax variables in five different categories: corporate, individual income, sales, property, and unemployment insurance taxes. States are punished for overly complex, burdensome, and economically harmful tax codes but are rewarded for transparent and neutral tax codes that do not distort business decisions. A state’s ranking can rise or fall significantly not only because of its own actions, but also because of changes or reforms made in other states. The breakdown of California’s ranking this year is as follows (1st is best, 50th is worst): •California’s overall State Business Tax Climate ranking: 48th •Corporate tax structure: 34th •Individual income tax structure: 50th •Sales tax structure: 42nd •Property tax structure: 14th •Unemployment insurance tax structure: 14th “The federal government is gridlocked, but state policymakers on both sides of the aisle are enacting truly fundamental reforms,” said Tax Foundation Economist and Manager of State Projects Scott Drenkard. “States are doing their part and it’s time that Washington steps up.” The report’s key findings include: •The 10 most competi-
tive states are: Wyoming (#1), South Dakota (#2), Nevada (#3), Alaska (#4), Florida (#5), Montana (#6), New Hampshire (#7), Indiana (#8), Utah (#9) and Texas (#10). •The 10 least competitive states are: New Jersey (#50), New York (#49), California (#48), Minnesota (#47), Vermont (#46), Rhode Island (#45), Ohio (#44), Wisconsin (#43), Connecticut (#42), and Iowa (#41). •The most notable ranking changes occurred in North Carolina, Nebraska, North Dakota, New York, Wisconsin, Maine,
and Kansas (see state specific press releases for more details). The goal of the State Business Tax Climate Index is to start a conversation between taxpayers and policymakers about how their states fare against the rest of the country. This report helps answer the questions: How well is your tax code structured? How competitive is your state compared to the rest of the county? Are businesses in your state spending too much time complying with onerous tax provisions? Are you double taxing things you shouldn’t?
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New technique uses bacteria’s own CRISPR-Cas system to turn off genes Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a technique that coopts an immune system already present in bacteria and archaea to turn off specific genes or sets of genes – creating a powerful tool for future research on genetics and related fields. “This should not only expedite scientific discovery, but help us better engineer microbial organisms to further biotechnology and medicine,” says Dr. Chase Beisel, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and senior author of a paper on the work. “For example, this could help us develop bacterial strains that are more efficient at converting plant biomass into liquid fuels.” The technique works by hijacking a microbe’s own CRISPR-Cas system. The system normally protects bacteria from invaders such as viruses by creating small strands of RNA called
CRISPR RNAs, which match DNA sequences specific to a given invader. In the most common type of CRISPR-Cas system, called a Type I system, a CRISPR RNA and a set of proteins tightly latch onto a matching sequence of DNA. Once bound, the proteins signal for another protein called Cas3 that cuts up the DNA. “Our approach was to modify the Type I system in two ways,” Beisel says. “First we edit the microbe’s genome to prevent it from producing Cas3, and then we introduce synthetic DNA that produces our customized CRISPR RNAs.” These customized RNAs include complementary sequences that are tailored to match up with specific DNA sequences in the microbe’s genome. When a gene is turned on, it transcribes specific RNAs that a cell uses to make proteins. This process is the basis of all biological functions.
But when the customized CRISPR RNAs latch onto a specific gene, those genes are turned off, or blocked from transcribing RNAs. Beisel’s team was able to introduce both individual CRISPR RNAs, and groups of CRISPR RNAs that were chained together, allowing them to target multiple genes at the same time. Some of these genes enable the microbes to consume different sugars. By controlling which genes were turned off, the team could dictate which sugars the microbes could consume. “This technique will allow researchers to better understand the role of individual genes, or sets of genes, by simply turning those genes off,” Beisel says. “And this approach could be used in conjunction with highthroughput screening techniques to identify gene sets associated with problems such as multidrug resistance or benefits, like those related to probiotics.”
In addition, because the affected genes aren’t destroyed – there are no Cas3 proteins to chop them up – the technique can allow the genes to turn back on. This is done by halting the production of the CRISPR RNAs, which allows affected genes to begin transcribing again as the microbes reproduce and the remaining CRISPR RNA degrades. The paper, “Repurposing endogenous type I CRISPR-Cas systems for programmable gene repression,” is open access and is published online in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. Lead author of the paper is Michelle Luo, a Ph.D. student at NC State. Co-authors are Adam Mullis, who did the work while an undergraduate at NC State, and Ryan Leenay, a Ph.D. student at NC State. The work was supported the National Science Foundation under grant CBET-1403135 and the National Institutes of Health under grant 5T32GM008776-15.
Election: Democrats lead; voters support Proposition 47 Continued from page 1
the “Field Poll was completed October 15-28 among 1,536 registered voters via live telephonic interviews.” In July, multimillionaire Kashkari, a Laguna Beach resident, experimented with living as a homeless man for 7 days
in order to attract attention to California’s alarming poverty rate of 24%, as he told the Los Angeles Times. He published a video and was quoted saying: “This has been one of the hardest weeks of my life.” For the superintendent of
public instruction, California will decide between two Democrats: incumbent Tom Torlakson, elected in 2010 with funding help from the California Teachers Association, and Marshall Tuck, who both tied at 28 percent, as the most recent polls have shown. “This is the only race on the ballot where the candidates don’t have a letter after their names,” DiCamillo said in the San Francisco Gate. “That forces voters to find out what their differences are without the benefit of party labels.” According to the Washington Post, 51 percent of California voters support Proposition 47, which would no longer allow felony sentencing for six minor crimes and move “the state further away from the controversial ‘Three Strikes and You’re Out’ law passed two decades ago.” Thad Kousser, a professor of
political science at the University of California at San Diego, told the Post that this “would officially end California’s tough-on-crime era.” Furthermore, the Post’s graphic shows that Californians are likely to vote Yes on Prop 1 (water bonds), and No on both Proposition 45 (Health insurance rate changes) and Proposition 46 (Doctor drug testing and raising the malpractice cap). Brown is optimistic and told reporters last Thursday: “I don’t want to presume, but this has been a well-run campaign. The reason is California was in a disaster state and it’s come back. It’s not come back to perfection or to utopia, but it’s on some very solid footing compared to what it’s been for many, many years. So that is a strong runway to enter a campaign, and that’s why I think things look pretty good.”