Major Silicon Valley employers have announced significant job reductions in recent months. Oracle this month cut more than 500 Bay Area positions as part of a much larger global reduction reportedly affecting about 30,000 workers. Meta is set to begin laying off 3,000 employees in July across Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, Burlingame, San Francisco and Fremont. LinkedIn also plans to eliminate more than 500 positions in Sunnyvale, San Francisco and Mountain View. Cisco, based in San Jose, cut more than 200 Bay Area jobs last October and announced in May that it would eliminate about 4,000 jobs worldwide, even as the company reported record earnings.

Despite those announcements, the Bay Area economy has not shown the kind of widespread distress normally associated with a recession. Housing remains difficult to afford in San Francisco and surrounding communities, and the region continues to be a major driver of California’s economy.

Sarah Bohn, vice president and director of the Public Policy Institute of California’s Economic Policy Center, said the current wave of layoffs is slower than the pace seen in 2022, when many technology companies moved aggressively to shrink payrolls after rapid pandemic-era hiring.

Employment and job growth in the Bay Area have been relatively flat over the past year, Bohn said. While that does not signal strong expansion, she said it does suggest the technology sector has moved past the sharpest phase of its post-pandemic correction.

Technology also continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the economy. Many workers who lose jobs in the sector are able to find new positions relatively quickly, Bohn said, particularly because of the size and depth of California’s technology labor market.

Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, said the impact of layoffs has also been softened by severance packages and the financial position of many technology workers. Strong stock market performance has helped some laid-off employees maintain spending power while searching for their next job.

Still, economists caution that the outlook could change if large-scale job cuts continue. A prolonged series of layoffs could eventually be reflected more clearly in regional employment numbers.

The labor market is also changing as technology companies invest in growth areas that do not always require the same level of staffing. Bellisario pointed to data centers and artificial intelligence as examples of areas where companies may expand without adding as many employees as they once did.

The result is a more competitive environment for some technology workers. Opportunities remain, Bellisario said, but the hiring market is no longer as overheated as it was just a few years ago.

In statewide political developments, Democrat Xavier Becerra has taken the lead in California’s primary race for governor, though his likely November opponent has not yet been determined. Republican Steve Hilton holds a narrow advantage over Democrat Tom Steyer for the second spot. If Hilton advances, Becerra would enter the general election as the favorite in a state where registered Democrats significantly outnumber Republicans. A Becerra-Steyer matchup would instead set up a high-profile contest between two Democrats.

Ballot counting could continue for days or weeks. President Donald Trump and Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli have raised concerns about widespread election fraud, though no evidence has been presented. Essayli said multiple investigations are underway. California Democratic officials have acknowledged the state’s slow vote count but defended the integrity of the election process.

Other statewide races are also taking shape. In the insurance commissioner race, Democrat Jane Kim has advanced and may face Democrat Ben Allen. For lieutenant governor, Democrat Fiona Ma has advanced and could face Republican Gloria Romero. Sonja Shaw and Richard Barrera advanced in the race for superintendent of public instruction. In the treasurer’s race, Democrat Eleni Kounalakis and Republican Jennifer Hawks advanced.

In congressional races, Rep. Kevin Kiley, who left the Republican Party to run as an independent in a different district, is positioned to face Democrat Richard Pan, a former state senator who holds a slim edge for second place in California’s 6th District. In California’s 7th District, Democratic Rep. Doris Matsui advanced and could face Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang, also a Democrat.

In Los Angeles, Republican Spencer Pratt has fallen behind Democrat Nithya Raman in the race to determine who will challenge incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in November.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal is also drawing concern from California’s life sciences industry. The plan would limit the amount of tax credits businesses can claim each year, affecting fewer than 100 of the largest corporate taxpayers in the state. The administration estimates the proposal would generate about $850 million in revenue during the 2026-27 fiscal year.

The proposed limit would reduce the value of California’s research and development tax credit, a provision long used by biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Industry representatives warn that reducing the credit could make it harder for companies to remain in California, build facilities or hire workers.

Tim Scott, president and chief executive of Biocom, said the credit plays an important role in keeping life sciences jobs and investment in the state.

The proposal has particular relevance in Southern California, where San Diego is one of the nation’s leading biotech hubs. Industry groups argue that lowering the credit could put California at a disadvantage against other states competing for research facilities and high-wage scientific jobs.

Other issues under discussion across California include proposed changes to how the state distributes funding for supportive services for older adults. Maral Karaccusian, director of the Los Angeles County Aging and Disabilities Department, has warned that the changes could reduce funding for high-need communities and jeopardize meal services for thousands of elderly residents.

Advocates are also urging lawmakers to preserve Treatment Atlas, a free online tool that provides information about whether addiction treatment facilities use evidence-based practices. Author David Sheff has called on the state to protect the program during budget negotiations.

Additional stories drawing attention around California include state workers protesting Gov. Newsom’s return-to-office mandate with another billboard; a long-delayed affordable housing project in Half Moon Bay facing renewed opposition; and Imperial County considering a moratorium on data centers.

In Southern California, federal training exercises with military-style helicopters have been tied to FBI preparations ahead of the World Cup. In San Diego, a Trump administration official has discussed a vision for additional desalination plants along the California coast. Meanwhile, Fresno County officials are preparing for a projected $300 million deficit, with expected cuts to social services tied to federal budget legislation cited as a major factor.

Original source: CalMatters

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Technology companies sighed with relief Monday after the Supreme Court sided with Google in a copyright dispute with Oracle. The high court said Google did nothing wrong in copying code to develop the Android operating system now used on most smartphones.

To create Android, which was released in 2007, Google wrote millions of lines of new computer code. It also used about 11,500 lines of code copyrighted as part of Oracle’s Java platform. Oracle had sued seeking billions.

But the Supreme Court sided 6-2 with Google, describing the copying as “fair use.” The outcome is what most tech companies — both large and small — had been rooting for. Both Microsoft and IBM were among the industry heavyweights that had filed briefs backing Google in the case. They and others warned that ruling against the Mountain View, California-based company could have profound consequences, stifling innovation and upending software development.

Oracle had won backing from the movie and recording industries as well as publishers, which favor expansive copyright protections to protect their profits from books, articles, movies, TV shows and music. The Trump administration had also backed Oracle.

In his opinion for the court’s majority, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that Google “took only what was needed” and that “Google’s copying was transformative,” a word the court has used “to describe a copying use that adds something new and important.”

Google had said its actions were long-settled, common practice in the industry, a practice that has been good for technical progress. It said there is no copyright protection for the purely functional, noncreative computer code it used, something that couldn’t be written another way. But Austin, Texas-based Oracle argued Google “committed an egregious act of plagiarism.”

The case has been going on for a decade. Google won the first round when a judge rejected Oracle’s copyright claim, but that ruling was overturned on appeal. A jury then sided with Google, but an appeals court again disagreed.

Breyer wrote that in reviewing the lower court’s decision, the justices assumed “for argument’s sake, that the material was copyrightable.”

“But we hold that the copying here at issue nonetheless constituted a fair use. Hence, Google’s copying did not violate the copyright law,” he wrote.

At one point in the decision, Breyer used a recipe-finding robot as part of an analogy to explain how code works. At another point, he invoked a one-sentence short story to acknowledge that copying a small amount could still be significant. Breyer included both the story, originally in Spanish, and its translation: “When he awoke, the dinosaur was still there.”

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a dissent joined by Justice Samuel Alito that he believed “Oracle’s code at issue here is copyrightable, and Google’s use of that copyrighted code was anything but fair.”

Only eight justices heard the case because it was argued in October, after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg but before Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court.

In a statement, Google’s chief legal officer, Kent Walker, called the ruling a “victory for consumers, interoperability, and computer science.” “The decision gives legal certainty to the next generation of developers whose new products and services will benefit consumers,” Walker wrote.

Oracle’s chief legal officer, Dorian Daley, condemned the outcome. “The Google platform just got bigger and market power greater. The barriers to entry higher and the ability to compete lower. They stole Java and spent a decade litigating as only a monopolist can,” she wrote in a statement.

Oracle’s dogged pursuit of a case had been widely derided by other technology companies as a gross misapplication of copyright law. They argued it threatened to make it more difficult for different computer programs to work together and could stifle innovation among startups that might not be able to pay royalties for a few strands of coding.

The founder of Privacy Lab at Yale Law School, Sean O’Brien, said both amateur and professional software developers will now “sleep a little easier without worrying that innovation and collaboration would be handcuffed by new restrictions.”

The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a major trade group, was among the technology voices celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision. The court decision will also be welcome news to independent software developers, small startups and others who are tinkering with code, said Tiffany Li, a visiting law professor at Boston University.

“This decision probably won’t change how startups and software developers operate. It just kind of confirms how they’ve been operating already,” Li said, adding that if Oracle had won that could have harmed a lot of developers because it would have been contrary to how the community currently functions.

The case is Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc., 18-956.

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