Marcos Breton

It's not only unprecedented that Seattle and Sacramento will be bidding against each other for the future of the Kings before the oligarchs of the NBA in New York today.

The A's set an unwanted American League record with their ninth straight Opening Day loss Monday, a sour stat on an otherwise festive evening that was dampened by a world-class nemesis.

Vivek Ranadive, the man who would be the Kings' new majority owner, is an innovator, a job creator and a walking billboard for immigration reform.

Sacramento may lose the Kings, but if that happens through an NBA decision in April to relocate the team to Seattle, there is a better option than mourning a lost asset. It's called turning the page.

Somewhere in baseball heaven, Roberto Clemente is smiling.

It's hard to notice with the possible departure of the Kings dominating the news, but Sacramento has a healthy dose of civic momentum going after years of dismal recession.

Outside Sacramento, one can find knowledgeable people who think it's a fool's errand for the city to be pursuing a last-minute arena deal to retain the Kings.

Who would want to be superintendent of Sacramento's public schools?

If the offer to keep the Kings in Sacramento equals a rival bid to move them to Seattle, how could the NBA vote to tear the franchise out of here?

A few weeks ago I addressed an audience of more than 300 senior citizens, many of them quite hostile to the idea of a public subsidy to finance a downtown arena for the Kings.

One way or another, this Kings saga can't end soon enough for the good of the Sacramento region.

Her name is Tina Ford, but the formerly homeless woman with almost no memory of her past life isn't completely sure how she came by it.

According to Slate magazine, there have been nearly 2,000 gun-related deaths in the U.S. since 20 children and seven adults were massacred in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14.

Giovanni Peri, an Italian-born economist at UC Davis, is quickly becoming one of the most important voices in America's immigration debate.

This isn't a "not in my backyard" story.

My father-in-law used to love Chinese New Year, which is being marked today by 1.5 billion people from Sacramento to Shanghai.

If you're not a humble parent, you will be at some point in a way that your hubris would never imagine. You're going to have your feelings shanked with the tenderness of a serrated blade on a vital organ.

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned – today I will skip Mass to pray at the altar of a 55-inch TV screen.

As President Barack Obama gave the most important speech on immigration reform in years on Tuesday, it became clear that his greatest foe is not the Republican Party on this terribly divisive issue.

What is it going to take to revive the death penalty in California and to begin exacting punishment on those who deserve the ultimate sentence?

It seems very likely that the Kings could relocate to Seattle in a matter of months, but there is a very legitimate reason for the community to try hard to prevent it: Losing the Kings would be a huge setback to a Sacramento region in the early stages of a sustained economic recovery.

Anne Marie Schubert is not a household name in her hometown of Sacramento yet, but that could soon change with the career prosecutor in line to be the next district attorney.

Rarely have so many known so little about something so important and yet so absurd.

Get your popcorn ready. The stage is set. If not for Kevin Johnson, the Kings would have been gone already. But he was born for this fight.

Whether the Kings ultimately move or stay, it's time that Sacramento embraces an undeniable truth: None of the turmoil surrounding the team is the fault of this community.

If Barry Bonds is not fit for the Hall of Fame, then no player of the last quarter century is.

It's not easy being a Catholic and a lover of major league baseball, two institutions that have lifted me up as they've fallen from grace.

Sean Merold's most treasured gift this Christmas wasn't that he is a valued member of a Sacramento firm that closed a $600 million real estate deal last week – the largest in California this year.

No more distractions. No more fake arguments that lead nowhere.

For the first time since he died more than a decade ago, I am glad the late Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr. is not around to see this.

I'm tired of debating gun violence with people who cling to ideology as the bodies pile up.

There are so many things you wish you could say to someone once that person is gone.

Mort Friedman was one of those indispensable people who uplifted Sacramento with his intellect, his guts, his money, his work ethic and his unwavering sense of community.

You can't force relationships that can only flourish when both sides want them to work.

There is a chance for the city of Sacramento to pivot away from political pettiness that knew no bounds until, perhaps, now.

What better day than the Sunday after Thanksgiving to reflect on how much we ate and drank and how much we'll dread stepping on a scale or looking in the mirror?

In an era of math-based metrics where player value is quantified down to each pitch he hits or misses, Buster Posey tops them all.

At midnight tonight, I turn 50 years old. Fifty. 5-0. A half-century of me. From a rainy night in 1962 (or so I was told) to now, that's a political span that stretches from JFK to Barack Hussein Obama.

There is no feeling good about advocating for the death penalty.

The Giants winning the World Series over the Detroit Tigers was a triumph of the game of baseball – the essence of the game – after years of addiction to highlight reel home runs.

A Giants team for the ages won its second World Series title in three seasons by prevailing in a pulsating, extra-inning clincher by a razor-thin score of 4-3 over the heavily favored Detroit Tigers on Sunday – the final chapter in an improbable four-game Giants sweep.

Having followed the Giants since 1971, when I was 8 and my dad first took me to Candlestick Park, I have to say this turn of events is like some kind of dream.

President Barack Obama bailed out Detroit and the American auto industry, but there is nothing Obama can do for the Detroit Tigers.

I don't know if Jesus is a Giants fan. But it has felt somewhat biblical at times in the house of worship known as AT&T Park, where water isn't turned into wine – but balls off Giants bats do bounce favorably against bases. Or they roll fair when they should go foul as if guided by a higher power in orange and black.

Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval joined the legends of baseball Wednesday and powered an 8-3 Giants win over the Detroit Tigers by hitting three home runs in the first game of the 2012 World Series.

Win or lose the 2012 World Series, the Giants have conquered the enemy of every for-profit business – apathy.

In a cinematic downpour of rain and pulsating emotion, the Giants punched their ticket to the World Series on Monday night by thrashing the St. Louis Cardinals 9-0 to win the championship of the National League.

It's been a thrilling, passionate, never-say-die journey for the Giants to arrive today at Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.

Some monster investments take years to yield results, but this is one for the ages.