Power-One shows California lacks spark
It’s hard to find a better turnaround story than Power-One. The Camarillo-based company took a secondary product line from an Italian company it had purchased and bet the farm on a new line of business — producing devices called inverters that are crucial to regulating the power output of wind turbines and solar panel arrays. Read More →
Solar firms go panel-to-panel in Oxnard
A school district in West Ventura County is the last place on Earth where you’d expect to find ground zero in the battle for global supremacy in the solar energy business. But that’s precisely the scenario that’s unfolding in the wake of an Oxnard Union School District board vote earlier this month that gave Read More →
Two more developers in SLO file for bankruptcy protection
It’s not just prominent hotelier John King who’s struggling in San Luis Obispo County. Smaller developers and real estate investors are having a hard time, too. San Luis Obispo-based Barkwood Development filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late July, listing $2.4 million in liabilities and $7.5 million in assets. In an unrelated case filed Read More →
Bill Thomas
When I saw that former U.S. Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, had been named vice chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, I started paying attention. Thomas is a fiscal policy expert who knows tax law as well as anyone. He is a Republican with the sort of common-sense approach that represents the GOP at its Read More →
Dirt is flying again as building picks up in the Tri-Counties
After a year or more of struggling to find work, contractors are ready to dig in their shovels and let the dirt fly as construction projects large and small break ground throughout the Tri-Counties. Several notable projects are in the construction pipeline, and builders I spoke with said they’re finally starting to see new business Read More →
Taking stock of PCBC, one share at a time
Generally speaking, it’s not a great idea for a journalist to own stock in a company he or she covers. In fact, it’s entirely unethical. But there is one exception. Back before the SEC’s Regulation FD, Yahoo Finance, the Internet and instantaneous disclosure of everything to everybody, it was an established practice for a Read More →
SLO divided over which road to take on Broad Street project
Some members of the San Luis Obispo business community are hoping to drive Measure H — a ballot proposal to stop the planned extension of Prado Road to Broad Street — right into a dead-end. The City Council approved the road extension in a 3-2 vote, but Measure H now puts the decision in voters’ Read More →
