Stuart Leavenworth

"Tunnel muck" -- a byproduct of boring tunnels through the Delta to more easily ship water south -- is just part of the big footprint of the proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan.

Mayor Kevin Johnson laid out three priorities in his State of the City speech Thursday – greening the city, improving K-12 education and securing an ownership and arena deal for the Sacramento Kings.

On a crisp winter day in the Sacramento Valley, there probably is no sight more glorious than a glistening pond or flooded rice field filled with thousands of ducks and other waterfowl.

The compromise I suggest would create a CEQA exemption for housing, transit and certain mixed-use projects within cities – and only cities. It would not apply to developments that counties might want in their unincorporated areas.

Supporters of the Cordova Hills development in eastern Sacramento County seem to have settled on a strategy for blunting criticism of this leapfrog project as they head to the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 29:

Here's a sad fact as we near the end of 2012: The editorial director of an influential California news organization, one that says it is dedicated to producing "stories that hold those in power accountable," believes there should be fewer voices dedicated to that cause.

Readers of The Bee probably raised a few eyebrows when they examined the front page on March 11, 1893. Headlines were arranged in a way that they spelled out a message to state lawmakers: "THANK GOD THE SESSION NOW IS ALMOST OVER."

It's an all-too-familiar pattern: Land speculators purchase a ranch on the periphery of existing cities. Hungry for new tax revenue – particularly the sales tax that flows from a major shopping center – Sacramento County eagerly processes permits for the project, regardless of impacts on traffic, air quality, nearby cities or the region's overall real estate market.

As our plane topped the Peruvian Andes, I looked out the window and caught my first view of the headwaters of the Amazon. The green canopy of the rain forest spread out in all directions. Yet on closer examination, I noticed the wilderness was marred by a checkerboard of cleared fields, scarred stream banks and rivers stained brown by polluted runoff.

Below are some frequently asked questions about the editorial board's recommendations for candidates and ballot initiatives, and some answers:

The Sacramento Bee has been running original editorial cartoons since 1857, when it first started publishing. Today, we are excited to announce the hiring of a new editorial cartoonist - Jack Ohman, formerly of The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.

I've been trying to imagine what Thanksgiving might look like at the Munger household this year, a few weeks after two members of this family help plunge California into another financial crisis.

The future of the capital region is inextricably tied to the health of its largest city, as well as Sacramento's relationship with the rest of the region. Both the health of this city and its outward relationships should be cause for concern.

Each workday at The Bee, members of the editorial board gather and decide what editorials we will pursue for the next day's page or the pages to come. Often, in deliberating on topics we haven't commented upon for a while, we ask ourselves this question:

To secure Sacramento's future, there is no more important issue than flood control. Few cities in the United States face such a threat of catastrophic inundation. To prevent a Katrina in California's state capital, federal, state and local flood-control agencies must have a healthy working relationship. Thousands of lives depend upon it.

Hank Shaw, a Jersey boy who grew up eating self-picked blueberries, is busy schooling me on my backyard, the Sierra, as I try to collect gooseberries without encountering their sharp spines, an assignment at which I am failing.