Opinion

Here's a daunting thought in this age of rapid technological advancement. Fuel economy in the U.S. vehicle fleet has changed little since the days of the Ford Model T.

To many, releasing tens of thousands of inmates from California prisons might seem a radical solution to ease the serious overcrowding and dangerous conditions that have plagued the prisons for years, but a special panel of federal judges ordered the state to do just that. The judges said that no other solution will improve the poor conditions that have regularly led to inmate suicides and death from lack of proper care. The order to release prisoners comes as California struggles with a multibillion-dollar deficit that has forced the state to furlough employees, has forced courtroom closures one day a month and has caused drastic cuts in services across the board.

Same-sex marriage, Nestlé, health care.

In a state as large and fractured as California, it is always cause for celebration when lawmakers can reach some form of agreement on an issue as divisive as water.

Rob Feckner, president of the California Public Employees' Retirement System board, has asked his fellow trustees to stop meeting with placement agents. Cutting contacts with placement agents is the absolute minimum board members charged with protecting retirement funds for 1.6 million California public employees should commit to, given the string of recent embarrassing disclosures about CalPERS.

Though it contained little new information, the state inspector general's report on Phillip Garrido's parole supervision still is stunning. Incompetence in the oversight of the man accused of kidnapping Jaycee Lee Dugard, and holding her captive for 18 years, defies belief.

On Wednesday, The Bee's Jim Sanders and Steve Wiegand broke news that the state's proposed water bond package included $10 million for a nonprofit tolerance center in Sacramento – a favored project of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine got some unnerving news about his health. I told him not to worry: The problem was caught early, medical science has such matters well under control, people no longer just up and die. I have a related condition, so, to further reassure my friend that his prognosis was good, I decided to consult the doctor who has been treating me for years. I called his office.

One year after the election of President Barack Obama, it's time to ask whether his ambitious campaign promises about Latin America are being fulfilled, or whether, like others before him, he has placed the region at the bottom of his foreign policy priorities.

You'd think that a city that's grown from 66,000 in 1920 to nearly 500,000 today might want to reconsider its nearly 90-year-old city manager form of government.

A recent example in the city of Elk Grove illustrates California's tax dilemma. Elk Grove residents, like residents across the state, have faced cuts in their neighborhood parks. In June, 6,000 residents in the older, central area of the city and northern newer neighborhoods received ballots to raise a $79 annual fee to maintain parks. They roundly rejected it.

Greener televisions, Curtis Park development, Coast Guard

The recently issued rankings of the world's universities by the Times of London Higher Education supplement ranks five University of California campuses as among the 100 best universities in the world. No other state has more than one university in this highly influential international ranking, while 42 states – and many countries – have none.

Liberals and conservatives each have their own intellectual food chains. They have their own think tanks to provide arguments, politicians and pundits to amplify them, and news media outlets to deliver streams of prejudice-affirming stories.

Remember those Republican boasts that they would turn health care into President Barack Obama's Waterloo? Well, exit polls suggest that to the extent that health care was an issue in Tuesday's elections, it worked in Democrats' favor. But while health care won't be Obama's Waterloo, economic policy is starting to look like his Anzio.

For those who think there is no hope for the homeless, that government programs and private charities can't make fundamental change in homeless people's lives, Rebecca Hahn, Wesley Colter, and Sheffine Houghton offer proof that they can and do.

It's easy to dismiss Placerville's decision to slap a 45-day moratorium on opening or relocating thrift stores as just another sign of the harsh economic times.

It's nice that Steinberg wants to help his fellow human beings get along, but please do it without everyone else's money.

For those of us in the parks business, these have been pretty grim times. Budget cuts often fall hardest upon parks and recreation programs, both at the state and local levels.

Democrats have some thinking to do after Tuesday's elections, but Republicans don't have time to think. They're too busy trying to survive the party's internal purge and avoid being shipped off to political Siberia.

Sure, Election Day 2009 will scare moderate Democrats and make passage of Obamacare more difficult.

A batch of amendments to a massive water bond bill was submitted to the state Senate's clerical desk Monday, and one, as it turned out, had nothing to do with water.

Two things seem clear about the historic water measure that was jammed through the Legislature early Wednesday morning.

Just days after he was elected, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson invited other mayors in the region to a breakfast. The top leaders of West Sacramento, Marysville, Elk Grove, Auburn, Citrus Heights, Loomis, Live Oak, Yuba City, Rocklin, Lincoln, Winters and Rancho Cordova showed up.

The loss of Scott Hawkins' life was tragic. But also tragic (although on a much smaller scale) is the current medical system that could charge $29,186.50 for five minutes of work!

I had a four-hour dinner once with Rush Limbaugh at the 21 Club in Manhattan, back in the days when I was still writing profiles as a "reporterette," to use a Limbaugh coinage.

One thing that has always set California apart is our drive to innovate. That spirit is part of our DNA. It's evident all across California in everything from business to the environment to public policy.

To its credit, UC Davis Medical Center has admitted its mistake. It should not have sent the parents of Scott Hawkins a bill for $29,186 just 10 days after the Sacramento State student was pronounced dead in the emergency room after a beating in his dormitory.

Monday night at Arco Arena, if you closed your eyes and just let the sound wash over you, it was the glory days again.

Advice to readers about the coming orgy of analysis about the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections: Ignore it. Disquisitions on The Meaning of It All for President Barack Obama or the 2009 results as a harbinger for Congress in 2010 have scant basis in reality.