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"But perhaps no issue is more important for the region than protecting the interests of Lake Tahoe, a crown jewel of California."

"It's a huge honor to be recognized statewide," Abrams said. At its summer conference this week in South Lake Tahoe, the association will present its Outstanding Prosecutor award for rural counties.

"You know and I know that bond is just a four-letter word for tax." Democrats in the Assembly not only passed the managed care tax, but also a bill that would ask voters to lower from two-thirds to 55 percent the voter-approval threshold for a local government to incur bonded indebtedness for certain public improvements.

In an omen for California, Detroit just was declared insolvent by Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, who said, “We are tapped out.” Bankruptcy is expected in 30 days. As with California, pensions are a big part of the problem.

If you have a quality school district you get less money. A bad district gets more money. The good districts have a choice, become bad districts or raise taxes and have parents sell lots of cupcakes.

The news that Gov. Jerry Brown appears to have mostly gotten his way on school funding changes is likely to be presented as a dramatic victory for the people who believe helping struggling English learners is the key challenge facing California education. Why the skepticism? Here goes:

For several years now, scientists have been struggling to determine why bee colonies across the world are disappearing. US has recently experienced the highest loss of honeybee populations so far, with most of the nation’s beekeepers losing anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of their bee population.

If you’re interested in running for office, helping someone else in their campaign, or just getting the skills needed to maximize your impact on the California political playing field, this program is for you.

the San Onofre nuclear power plant sits along Pacific Ocean coastline in San Onofre, Calif. Officials announced Friday, June 7, 2013 that the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant is closing, after an epic 16-month battle over whether the twin reactors could be safely returned to service.

While the conservative organizations targeted by Lerner were seeking 501c4 tax exempt status (which permits political activity), it turns out the overtly political Humane Society was receiving tax-deductible contributions as a 501c3 organization, a classification that includes foundations and which must strictly limit any political action.

Last year, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power imposed an 11 percent rate hike — which it called a “rate change” — on its power customers, while water customers saw rates go up 5 percent. Millions of Angelenos will no doubt be thrilled to know what this is paying for: $70,000 a year janitors. No wonder DWP unions want to keep pay data secret.

Unfortunately, the essential public health function is being lost in the budget battle between Gov. Jerry Brown and the counties in the jostling over preparing for the federal Affordable Care Act. In 2013-14, Brown would take $900 million of the $1.5 billion block grant. After that, he would take $1.3 billion. That's too much.

One of the worst failings of journalists who cover California government is their failure when writing about budgets to always mention the automatic “step” raises that many public employees get each year. These auto raises explain why government agencies depict any reduction in proposed spending increases as “cuts.”

AB 391 require antiques dealers, specifically those with brick and mortar locations, to become part of a statewide electronic reporting system, the online database that tracks the buying and selling of all secondhand property. The new law also require that all merchandise bought or taken on consignment by the antiques dealer must be held for 30 days before it can be offered for sale – an unheard of requirement for antiques sellers.

The fact that Obamacare dramatically raises premiums on young people is a big deal, because the majority of uninsured people are young. It’s the fact that insurance is already so expensive that leads so many young people to opt out. They’re perfectly healthy; they don’t have a lot of money; but they’re being asked to shell out thousands of bucks for policies they won’t use. And Obamacare’s solution to this problem is…to force them to pay more? We’ll see how that goes.

Last week, California announced that the Affordable Care Act would increase non-group insurance premiums by as much as 146 percent.

The Geography of Hate is part of a larger project by Dr. Monica Stephens of Humboldt State University (HSU) identifying the geographic origins of online hate speech.

A proposal to ban plastic grocery bags in California went the way of so many plastic bags - into the trash can

California counties and Governor Jerry Brown don’t agree on what to do with more than $1 billion counties spend on health care for the poor once the new federal health law kicks in next year.

As we have seen on the news recently, wildfires, tornadoes or floods can strike at any time. Survival can be predicated upon who was prepared in advance of the disaster. So what can you do today to help prepare you and your loved ones?