Editorials

Today, you can see squadrons of them soaring, single file, just above the waves along the beaches and cliffs at Point Reyes National Seashore or alongside a ferry boat in San Francisco Bay. They're thriving now in the surf zone across the state.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department has disbanded its Problem Oriented Policing unit. The unit is gone, along with 122 deputies who were laid off in the last year amid the county's downturn in tax revenue.

A number of Placer County charities were stunned and honored when they discovered that Virgil Harrigan had left them roughly $5 million when he died in January at the age of 91.

California, like other states, has been preparing for months to count everybody for the 2010 census. That count of the "whole number of persons in each State," required by the U.S. Constitution every 10 years, determines each state's representation in Congress. It also determines allocations of federal funds for schools, hospitals, roads and other programs.

Ever since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger departed on his latest foreign trip, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento has served as acting governor of California.

The train is leaving the station for federal stimulus funds and, once again, it appears that California commuter rail will be taking up the rear.

The Capitol Corridor stretches 170 miles through eight counties from Auburn and Sacramento to Oakland and San Jose. Just three round trips a day when it started in 1991, it offers 16 round trips today thanks in large part to Eugene Skoropowski, one of California's modern visionaries.

What do you do when year after year after year a school continues to struggle?

Officials at the California Public Employees' Retirement System are scrambling to respond to a series of embarrassing disclosures regarding close relationships between CalPERS officials and placement agents – politically connected middlemen who helped steer billions of dollars of pension fund investments to their clients.

Two of California's most powerful politicians, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, appear headed for a showdown.

One thing is clear from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's interview Thursday with The Bee's editorial board: He's not quietly settling into lame duck status.

Nobody disputes the basic facts. Federal judges for the Eastern District of California are the most overworked in the country. Each judge in that district averages 1,004 filings per year. Compare that with the next highest - 821 filings per judge in Minnesota, and the average, 471 for judges in all federal district courts.

It is tempting to dismiss Friday's forced closure of United Commercial Bank of San Francisco as the isolated problem of one troubled institution. As The Bee's Andrew McIntosh reported in September, the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating the bank after discovering it had hidden huge commercial real estate losses.

Days after lawmakers agreed to ask voters for $11.1 billion in debt for water projects, the state had to pay more than expected to sell its most recent bond issue.

Autumn is supposed to be a season of quiet splendor, a time to reflect on the rhythms of nature as leaves fall from their boughs.

California's budget nightmare shows no sign of ending. It merely drags on, year after tortured year, as state leaders fail in their basic task of balancing the books.

After struggling for years to revamp the K Street Mall, Sacramento city officials have turned their attention to the Capitol Mall. City economic development officials want to launch a design competition to transform the barren stretch east of the Tower Bridge.

Sometimes a blighted street must be razed before it can be saved. Officials in Citrus Heights are moving rightfully in that direction as they seek to rehabilitate Sayonara Drive, the most dangerous street in their city.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a liberal lawmaker from San Francisco, faced some wrenching political choices going into Saturday's vote on a health care reform bill.