Dan Morain

As the young 'uns preened on a national stage in Charlotte, Gov. Jerry Brown stepped out of his Sacramento loft and into his Pontiac a few minutes before 9 the other morning. He was focused on the issue that matters most to him, an initiative that would raise taxes by $6 billion a year.

As the legislative session was ending, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez was on the verge of striking a deal that came down to this: help kids while granting a multimillion-dollar tax break to Altria, the world's largest cigarette company.

Mike Reynolds would prefer to spend his retirement puttering around his Fresno home and playing with his grandchildren. But he can't.

Interest groups have handed out no less than $42.37 million in campaign donations in the final weeks of the legislative session, as lawmakers decide the fate of hundreds of bills.

The U.S. Navy has come to the defense of the ecotopian college town of Davis, where streetlights have been adjusted to make stargazing more productive.

Gov. Jerry Brown hopes that voters don't focus on the $68 billion for high-speed rail, or on the debacle in which the state Department of Parks and Recreation hid $54 million.

Extraordinarily smart people at the California Air Resources Board have taken to using the term "leakage" as they go about devising the experimental cap and trade system for reducing greenhouse gases.

On Monday, Assemblyman Brian Nestande, a Palm Desert Republican, broke with the GOP and voted for Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez's $1 billion tax hike to fund "middle-class scholarships."

A UC Davis study prepared earlier this year for the state Water Resources Board found that "nitrate contamination is widespread and increasing" in the Tulare basin and Salinas Valley, sources of much of the nation's produce.

William Tolson exercised his fundamental constitutional right by downing Chick-n-Minis at the Chick-fil-A restaurant in Elk Grove the other day, and then brought mor chikin home for his wife and three kids.

Evidently, Bill Lockyer is serious about becoming chancellor of the California State University system, the nation's largest four-year institution of higher education.

There was nothing unusual about the University of Colorado's grant to its once-promising student, James E. Holmes.

Jonathan Soros, son of hedge fund billionaire George Soros, is about to meet casino mogul Sheldon Adelson in a smackdown over the Sacramento-area congressional seat held by Republican Dan Lungren.

President Barack Obama has gone out of his way to try to make amends for America's history of genocidal treatment of Indians.

House Republicans today plan to take what for now will be a symbolic vote to repeal President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, as a national campaign group backed by Aetna Insurance attacks Democrats over their health care stand.

Gov. Jerry Brown is showing himself to be both the principled public official who keeps his word and the slick inside player who seeks to grease the November ballot in his favor.

There's a move afoot to place a statue inside the Capitol honoring Ronald Reagan, the most consequential politician ever to come from this state and the only California governor to become president. It's a great idea, so long as it teaches a lesson about the vanishing art of compromise.

In his day, Frank Shamrock was a bright star in the world of mixed martial arts, kicking, kneeing and punching his way to championship titles.

Mike Florio, a lifelong consumer advocate turned California Public Utilities commissioner, hasn't often found himself aligned with the California Chamber of Commerce, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and major power companies.

We know the troubled story of California circa 2012 all too well. But there also is promise, renewed at this time each year in commencements across the state.

Then as now, oligarchs were making their desires known.

The California Nurses Association can place its record of campaign wins against any of the other big-time players on the left. But watching its lobbyists work the Capitol halls, I'm left to wonder which side they're on.

Richard Roth is a retired two-star general in the Air Force Reserve and a lawyer who defends businesses. He is a former Riverside Chamber of Commerce chairman who is married to the Riverside chamber's president, and she sits on the California Chamber of Commerce's board.

In this state where Democrats control virtually all that happens in the Capitol, the pressure is on. At least, it should be.

Bill Bloomfield probably won't win his congressional race in November, no matter how much he spends. But he has emerged as a poster politician for California's new political order.

Unfortunately, the Republican presidential primary is over, voter turnout will be dreadfully low on Tuesday and Lt. Gov. Gavin "Ugh" Newsom won't be on the ballot.

Like grifters operating games of three-card monte, slick political consultants and lawyers can move money in ways that we mere mortal voters never will spot.

A promise of big money has a way of quieting nagging questions.

National politicians are delighted to come to California to raise campaign money. As Mitt Romney showed recently, some of them are perfectly happy to take shots at the Golden State once they leave.

Mods seem to be on the rise, and that's good for California, although partisans remain convinced that the middle of the road is a place for yellow streaks and dead skunks.

Wherever he sleeps at night, Facebook billionaire Eduardo Saverin could never dream of living like Jonetta Hall.

Attorney General Kamala Harris is sponsoring bills in the Legislature that would allow prosecutors to more readily seize pimps' property.

In California, corporate profits are not merely up. They are "booming," the Legislative Analyst's Office reported not long ago.

Wearing a lab coat and speaking from an exam room, La Donna Porter looks every bit the wise physician, even as she does the bidding of the tobacco industry, which contributes to the deaths of 443,000 Americans every year.

Ira Reiner vaguely remembers the ballot measure he helped champion 25 years ago, back when he was a politician on the rise and groundwater contamination was the crisis of the day.

State Sen. Lois Wolk wants to encourage – not require – that health care workers get annual flu vaccinations if they come into contact with patients in hospitals and nursing homes.

Elizabeth Emken takes many of the standard conservative stands. She opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, and she signed the no-tax pledge. But her work on behalf of autism has made her suspect in the eyes of some Republicans.

Darryl Davis' problems began when his wife, Nancy, an attorney, was pregnant with their second son, and was diagnosed with breast cancer.

In the coming weeks, Californians once again will witness the tobacco industry's formidable power. Cigarette makers Altria and R.J. Reynolds will spend tens of millions of dollars telling us why Proposition 29, the latest attempt by anti-smokers to raise tobacco taxes, is a terrible idea.

Mitt Romney ought to be worried that he is coming down with a bad case of Meg Whitman syndrome.

Delaware has a reputation for being friendly to corporations. It has now landed one that received a $200 million subsidy, courtesy of the state of California.

What a difference 10 days and the stroke of a pen can make.

In the world of alternative power generation, Bloom Energy is golden. It certainly has figured out how to get some the public's green.

There couldn't be a worse time for a new governor to take office, right?

It's a sleazy little ad, the one alleging that Sen. Barbara Boxer supposedly voted against the interests of injured war veterans and in favor of giving Viagra to pedophiles.