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.

Motorola's new Droid phone from Verizon is an exciting new smart phone that will exceed most expectations of those that buy it. While it has a number of elements similar to the iPhone, it has many unique features that chart new territory. It's a phone that's greater than the sum of its parts.

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."

San Diego County is home to more than 240,000 veterans and today on Veterans Day we remember each one of them is owed a debt of honor that can never be fully repaid. We should never forget that freedom isn't free.

There are troubling signs that while the economy is rebounding, we may be facing a jobless recovery. Last week, the presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks of San Francisco and Atlanta each suggested that unemployment will persist well into 2010. A recent public opinion poll by Hofsta University found that three out of four suburbanites had either themselves or knew someone who had lost their job during the recession. The Golden State is seeing unemployment higher than it has been in 26 years and almost every forecaster believes it will go higher. While some of the locally-tracked leading economic indicators are positive, help wanted ads and jobless claims continue to point downward.

The so-called "teabag" movement has received a lot of press lately. Seemingly they are demonstrating for individualism and liberty but ironically they don't want to pay for it with tax money. Meanwhile the media teabaggers at Fox News rail against high taxes, big government and loss of freedom and traditional values.

Stocks finally took a pretty good hit yesterday. The Dow Jones industrials fell 93.87 points to 10,332.44, although the index had been down more than 170 points earlier in the day. It was only the third time in November that the Dow has traded lower (out of 14 sessions). Concerns about the job market and rising foreclosure activity heading into 2010 put fear into investors. It is interesting that the media equates every unemployed person with being a homeowner. Sure, I realize that many homeowners have been impacted by rising unemployment, but it is true that many people who have lost jobs are renters.

Dear Reader: Some of you may wish to read this just before lights out.

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.

As the time of sharing and giving thanks beckons, I recall a wonderful presentation I recently heard on giving and sharing by a gentleman who serves on his family foundation board of directors.

The winter holidays are fast approaching, and with them the advent of a long season of being confronted by initiative petition circulators outside almost every big box store, grocery emporium and shopping mall in California.

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.

It's a well-known secret that maritime services in San Diego provide an economic engine serving several local industries. Why doesn't the community realize what we have?

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.

Veterans Day is important to me. It causes me to think about all those men and women who have put on the uniform and served on behalf of one of the branches of the U.S. military.

President Obama traveled all the way to China to praise the free flow of information. It's the only safe place he could do so without getting heckled. With a straight face, Obama lauded political dissent and told Chinese students he welcomed unfettered criticism in America. Fierce opposition, he said, made him "a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don't want to hear." How do you say "You lie!" in Mandarin?

Sunday night, "60 Minutes" ran a story titled, "The Deadliest Weapon." Before that broadcast and the story reported by Bryon Pitts, I had been ambivalent about the war in Afghanistan. But after watching "60 Minutes," I decided America cannot win -- no matter how long we stay or how many troops we send; that it's hubris to think our fate will differ from that of Alexander the Great, England or the Soviet Union.

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).

This weekend I had the privilege of spending Saturday morning with a wonderful group of people in Louisville as I presented my seminar on great relationships.

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.

So here we are, in an economic trough of Grand Canyon proportions.

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.

This week is the official start of the holiday season, with Thanksgiving coming on Thursday and then the famous black Friday for retailers.