Digital learning finds a bigger home in California’s state university system

At a press conference today, San Jose State University announced it would be expanding its online course offering, and opening a facility for adaptive and blended learning.

It’s officially illegal to ask job interviewees for Facebook passwords in California

Sorry, employers, it is officially against the law to ask prospective employees for their Facebook passwords in California and Illinois. Two bills banning businesses from the practice took effect Tuesday.

It’s now illegal in California to ask for your employees’ social media passwords

Two new privacy-focused bills has been signed into law in California that prohibit employers and universities from asking for social media usernames and passwords from employees, students, and potential hires.

We first heard about the unsettling trend in March where …

California passes law paving the way for driverless cars

California just added its name to the list of states allowing driverless cars to operate on public roads, and inadvertently made David Hasselhoff's work on Knight Rider a bit more relevant to future generations.

Silicon Valley job growth roars back

After Facebook’s botched initial public offering, observers feared that Silicon Valley would plunge into a downturn. But in June, the Bay Area job market came back in a big way, adding  16,900 jobs.

If it seems like it might be …

GM riles electric car advocates over charger sharing

Editor’s note: Automakers are making big bets on plug-in hybrids and range-extended electric vehicles, as VentureBeat’s Matthew Lynley recently wrote. There’s just one problem: In California, hybrids aren’t legally allowed to use public charging stations meant for electric cars. This 

Amazon net sales up 51%; investing in digital

During Amazon’s quarter two earnings call, the company reported the strongest growth it has seen in ten years, in addition to digital offerings growth.

In this past quarter, Amazon’s net sales increased 51 percent to $9.91 billion compared year-over-year with …

Amazon drops Calif. affiliates to protest e-commerce law

Amazon on Thursday said it had dropped the California members of its marketing affiliates program in response to the state’s new law to charge sales taxes on online goods. Amazon competitor Overstock also intends to drop its California affiliates.

Amazon …

Twitter: Make that almost San Francisco

Twitter, the popular messaging site, may be growing out of its startup phase with a possible headquarters move to Brisbane, California, according to brokerage sources in the San Francisco Business Times.

The company appears to have more than 175 million …

Legal cloud lifts from California stem-cell effort

The California Supreme Court swept away the last legal impediment to the state’s $3 billion stem-cell research program Wednesday when it declined to review two lawsuits that challenged its constitutionality.

Ideological foes of the state’s stem-cell effort, which voters approved …

Massachusetts jumps on the stem-cell bandwagon

(UPDATE: Minor editing.)
Massachusetts may soon be the next state to offer direct support for stem-cell research and related biotechnology developments. Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday proposed a $1 billion, 10 year life-sciences initiative that would provide a variety of …