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Employers who pay their workers cash under the table to avoid payroll taxes, workers' compensation insurance and other government mandates are costing California about $7 billion annually in lost tax revenue and undercutting companies that play by the rules, state officials say.

Like many laws passed by the legislature in Sacramento, California's ban on texting while driving has been ... not so effective. The Automobile Club of Southern California on Wednesday announced that texting by Golden State drivers has nearly doubled since the rule went into effect 19 months ago. Young women (4.3 percent of them text while behind the wheel) were the worst offenders, according to the AAA.

SACRAMENTO — The days of most tax-free Internet shopping in California are over.

After years of controversy, the world's largest online retailer, Amazon.com Inc., was set to begin collecting state and local sales taxes on California purchases at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Depending on where you live, sales taxes in the state range from 7.25% to 9.75%.

FIFTEEN years ago it seemed that the great debate about the proper size and role of the state had been resolved. In Britain and America alike, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton pronounced the last rites of “the era of big government”. Privatising state-run companies was all the rage. The Washington consensus reigned supreme: persuade governments to put on “the golden straitjacket”, in Tom Friedman’s phrase, and prosperity would follow.

Today big government is back with a vengeance: not just as a brute fact, but as a vigorous ideology.

Beginning Friday, Amazon.com and other large out-of-state retailers will be required to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make online.

Blue Dog Democrats and Decline to State voters are swaying California toward Ron Paul

There is a new revolution happening in California, and this time it is not coming from the Left or the Right, but from the Center. The people are adopting new identities: the “Decline to State” and “Blue Republicans”.

These two groups, both inclined toward the Center or toward candidates outside of the mainstream, are poised to have a big impact upon California’s upcoming primary.

http://youtu.be/WSTN4CPIXvA

Daily News @ http://RevolutionNews.US ~ California may back new state debt with marijuana taxes if proposition 19 legalizing the drug passes, according Amy Resnick of Bond Buyer.

Resnick cites attendees at California Public Finances Conference who are suggesting the market would accept the plan, if it is legalized.

California lawmakers have approved billions of dollars in construction financing for the first segment of what would be the nation's first dedicated high-speed rail line, eventually connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. The state Senate voted 21-16 on a party-line vote Friday after intense lobbying by Gov. Jerry Brown, Democratic leaders and labor groups. The bill authorizes the state to begin selling $2.6 billion in voter-approved bonds to build an initial 130-miles stretch in the Central Valley.

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone apparently thinks so, after proposing that the county lead a campaign for as many as 13 Southern California counties to secede from the state.Stone said in a statement late Thursday that Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Kings, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono counties should form the new state of South California.