It wasn’t taken as a joke or a typo or an anonymous quote from some trolling conspiracy theorist. It was a real-live tweet from a billionaire with mystery hair: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

Last year, we hired someone to run our small business, and we paid him very well. However, he was always coming in late, taking Fridays off, calling in sick, having car trouble and dentist appointments, etc. He was an exempt employee, so we kept paying him as if he was there all the time. He quit and we don’t want to have the same problems with the new hire.

Seven years after passage of the Affordable Care Act created a new world order in health insurance, it all may be upended. With a new administration in Washington, all or parts of Obamacare could be repealed and replaced. All the while, premium increases have continued apace: 

California plans to reduce oil-refinery emissions 20 percent by 2030, providing more details about its effort to impose the nation’s strictest air-quality rules just as President Donald Trump takes office vowing to roll back federal climate policies.

California is considering a system to protect projects that cut global-warming emissions from a market downturn that may worsen under a Trump administration.

California is enjoying its highest credit rating since the turn of the century, thanks to a record-setting stock rally, a resurgent real estate market and a Silicon Valley boom that’s left the government reaping budget surpluses.

Last year was one for the history books. But as we start the new year, we wanted to take one last look back at some of our best-performing and most-read articles of 2016. Take a look and see if you missed any of our greatest hits — or if something might deserve a second read.

California will be forced to pay billions more in pension contributions for government employees after the state retirement system’s decision to lower its assumed rate of return.

Californians in April will start paying more to register their cars — not to help maintain roads, but to keep the pension checks rolling for the motorcycle cops who policed them.

Wells Fargo’s attempt to force aggrieved customers into closed-door arbitration over its fake-accounts scandal is drawing a legislative backlash in its home state of California and risks subjecting the bank to another round as a public punching bag.