New column in LA Times biz section

Rick Wartzman, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, has begun writing a new weekly column for the business section of the Los Angeles Times. The first one, which ran Friday, can be found here.

A short note in the paper stated, “This weekly column, ‘California & Co.,’ will chronicle the state’s $1.6-trillion economy from the executive suite to the factory floor. Through a blend of reportage and opinion, Rick Wartzman will keep a close eye on the concerns of the working class.”

Wartzman brings to the table 20 years of experience in business journalism, the last decade covering California. He served most recently as editor of The Times’ Sunday magazine, West, and before that was the paper’s business editor.

He is the coauthor, with Mark Arax, of ‘The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire.’ His new book, ‘Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of the Grapes of Wrath,’ is set to be published next year.

Wartzman has also been a writer and editor at The Wall Street Journal’s Los Angeles bureau. He has covered the steel industry, aerospace, the national economy, Washington lobbying and the Clinton White House for The Journal. Wartzman edited feature stories for The Journal and wrote a monthly column. He was the founding editor of The Journal’s weekly California edition, and also served as Houston bureau chief. He joined The Journal in 1987 in its Pittsburgh bureau.