I'm a new arrival in California, but I've already learned how a small minority in this state is stymieing economic growth and job creation for everyone else.

Tourism is a product of filming. When this temporary business impacts a community, visiting crews, talent and producers have to eat, sleep and relax somewhere -- and they do, when they finish filming every day. The Film Commission becomes the concierge to this business giving filmmakers brochures, lists of restaurants, hotels listed on our Web site and other information about entertainment.

Accompanying all of the elegant portable devices we use are inelegant ways of keeping them charged; ugly power adapters that seem like afterthoughts, tangled wires and never enough outlets. That has spawned all sorts of creations, from chargers with multiple tips to power strips with rotating sockets, to charging stands that accommodate multiple devices.

Recommendations are out from the Commission on the 21st Century Economy on how to fix California's broken system of revenue collection. Sadly, though not surprisingly, our elected leaders are lining up to declare the recommendations "dead on arrival."

Four miles from my neighborhood is one of the many "community serving" retail centers that dot San Diego's landscape. Built in 1993 and with more than 500,000 square feet of space, it prospered during the boom of the first half of the decade.

In the interest of the lives of our children it is now time to close the schools. We are seeing frightening stories of the infection and unfortunately we are also seeing stories that the immunizations are lagging behind. Far behind.

The San Diego life sciences community is closely watching the discussions in Washington, D.C., regarding health care and insurance. And, if recent stock market activity is any clue, there is reason for concern.

In my Aug. 27 column, "An environmental China in 2020?," I warned that China presents a real economic risk to one of America's best hopes for a financial and manufacturing renewal: wind power. That column ended: "or maybe we wait five years and buy it cheaper from the Chinese on the national credit card."

The most recent government numbers indicate that job losses in San Diego have reached historic proportions. This past January, our unemployment rate spiked to 8.6 percent, reaching the highest point in our last severe recession during the early 1990s. With more regional workers expected to receive pink slips and severance packages in the foreseeable future, the business community and government leaders should take a sober look at the challenges ahead on the road to economic recovery.

It is generally accepted that most family businesses on a worldwide basis have had a traditional male bias and that the rule of primogeniture is still practiced by the majority of multigenerational businesses.

Ever since the state issued a "Small Business Regulatory Study" this fall, advocates of decreased regulations on businesses of all kinds have used its big numbers as evidence of vast over-regulation.

California has always been synonymous with the American Dream. "Go west, young man, go west," they said, and people did. From the Gold Rush until today, California has been the place people aspired to achieve their dreams. We have been the global center of innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.

The media was full of doom and gloom for the crop of college graduates seeking jobs last summer. The recession that triggered the highest unemployment in decades is challenging to the entry level worker. It's just as tough for the high school drop out or illegal immigrant to get minimum wage or pick-up labor work.

Employees are working longer and harder to ensure that they keep the jobs they have. For employers, employees who work harder and longer can only be a good thing, right? State and federal wage hour requirements still apply, recession or no recession.

The traditional way in which people look at their role in the organization creates problems. The most serious of which is that labor and management won't face up to the reality that Corporate America is not about taking care of people -- it's about taking care of business.

San Diego's gift of perpetual sunshine is ideal for generating solar electricity. Three solar power systems recently completed in San Diego demonstrate the technical and financial viability of solar power as a source of clean energy. They also illustrate the use of power purchase agreements, or PPAs, to finance and develop solar power systems without upfront capital costs to the customer.

When I moved to California in 1978, I was stunned by the beauty and breadth of opportunity here, the same allure that has drawn millions of Americans and immigrants over the decades to start life anew in the Golden State.

A great trial lawyer I admire, Steve Swinton, told me about the "bartender test." The test measures the common sense of a lawyer's argument in a given case. The test requires you to explain your case to a disinterested bartender in five minutes or less. If the bartender understands and accepts it, your case has common sense and even justice. If the bartender says, "That's bullshit," then your argument lacks common sense and justice.

I do not think that even at this point, eight years later, many Americans fully realize what we are facing. Our initial national paroxysm of rage and call to action is now replaced with resignation and complacency. There is an elephant in our collective parlor which most now fail to acknowledge. An accurate picture of where we are is so distasteful that we would rather turn away -- pretending it is not there. But it is and left unattended disastrous damage is sure to follow.

Here is one of the loudest messages of the 2009 off-off-year elections: Conservatives in America will no longer let their opponents define them as outside of the mainstream. They will not submit to Democrats. Or to the media. Or to Beltway Republican capitulationists. They will not "rebrand." They will not sit down. They will not shut up.

One of California's most admired business leaders and citizens is Bob McNeely of Union Bank. We share a compact. Here it is:

Copenhagen is a bust.

Combine a slumping global economy, with a sprinkling of fewer exhibitors and an even smaller dash of video game titles on display, and you have the makings for a very underwhelming Tokyo Game Show (TGS).

Over the past few years, while conducting seminars, I have been to the beautiful wine country north of San Francisco numerous times.

On May 5, a clear message was sent that voters will no longer obediently approve the politicians' tax increases. And that's great news!

It has been very discouraging in recent days to see articles, an editorial and letters to the editor and Daily Transcript articles on the attacks against Poseidon's Carlsbad desalination plant. The terrible thing is that the opposition attorneys have just filed their fifth lawsuit against the Carlsbad Desalination Plant.

Michael Moore is a "shrewd capitalist," making millions by preaching socialism. Moore's latest movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story" was backed by some of the richest people in America.

Dear Stan,

It was September 1957, during which the Democrat, Jim-Crow South was still vehemently persecuting blacks, that Democrat Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus stood in the Little Rock's Central High School front door to stop nine black students from seeking better educations.

This week, the San Diego City Council derailed the advancement of a key voter-approved program that could provide significant cost savings and efficiency reforms in city government. With an unprecedented budget crisis now bringing City Hall to its knees, a new strategy may be required to honor the will of the voters.

If you are a regular reader of my column and or a listener of my radio show, you know that for the past year I've been optimistic on investing in equities -- and it has paid off well over the last 12 months.