State Politics

Thirteen weeks after losing his bid for the GOP nomination in a bruising primary battle, Steve Poizner has for the first time voiced support of former rival Meg Whitman.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Orline Hebesin, above, sample deviled eggs at a Save Mart store on Tuesday in Sacramento, where the governor encouraged consumers to buy and eat California eggs.

With a new flu season nearing, California has fallen more than a year behind in letting the public know which hospitals have the most – and the fewest – employees who have gotten flu shots.

California's dismal economy and deficit-ridden state and local budgets created a yeasty political climate this year for efforts to undermine state redevelopment laws and thus gain access to multibillion-dollar pots of money.

As he promised to do throughout the summer, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown ramped up his campaign over the Labor Day weekend, debuting his first TV ad and making a four-stop swing down the state on Monday.

Could you have a weed vote without these guys?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is clashing with the state ethics agency over rules restricting politicians from using ballot measure campaign funds for other purposes.

It was the day after Labor Day in 1960 – exactly a half-century ago – when a 16-year-old kid climbed very steep, rickety stairs into the newsroom of the Humboldt Times in Eureka to begin a $50-a-week job as a copyboy.

One of the more intriguing starting position battles at the Mountain Lions' training camp has been at tight end.

Here's what state workers see when they look at their jobs on this Labor Day.

It's been 28 years since Californians have seen simultaneous, too-close-to-call duels for the governorship and U.S. Senate.

Work-site informational blitzes are a major component of the California Labor Federation's campaign to get union members to head to the polls and vote for Jerry Brown come Election Day.

A story worthy of Hollywood will soon unfold in California courtrooms - allegations of government corruption and corporate greed to rival the infamous Los Angeles water grab that inspired the film "Chinatown."

Quick quiz: When was the first Labor Day holiday celebrated, and where?

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman is running a radio ad that proposes cutting $1 billion from the state's welfare-to-work program and investing the money in public colleges and universities. Following is the text of the ad and an analysis by Jack Chang of The Bee Capitol Bureau.

For the people who police California's 100,000 doctors, little is black and white.

Any claim by Capitol politicians that the just-concluded 2009-10 session of the Legislature was a success rests on a complex water package that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators hammered out late last year.

Despite eligibility for Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, 700,000 children in California remain uninsured, and a push is under way to get them enrolled in government health insurance programs.

Assembly hits rewind: Pérez says recording devices are permitted

An oil company headed by conservative billionaires David and Charles Koch has contributed $1 million to the campaign to suspend the state's landmark climate change law.

Two days after her opponent chided her for not taking a position on Proposition 23, Republican Senate nominee Carly Fiorina said Friday that she is now backing the controversial measure.

Democratic leaders are floating a new tax overhaul that the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst says would generate $1 billion without raising taxes on average for any income group.

As California's fiscal fortunes have waned, state park advocates say the physical condition of California's 278 state parks has worsened.

A flicker of job growth touched the private sector last month, raising hopes that the nation's economy might avoid a double-dip recession. But the latest job figures suggest the nation and California are in for a long slog toward recovery.

In response to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, California lawmakers are looking to strengthen the state's oil spill prevention requirements.

When the Legislature's Democratic leaders staged a vainglorious debate on the state budget Tuesday – the last official day of the biennial session – Republicans derided it, accurately, as a meaningless political drill.

The California Assembly has begun enforcing a dusty rule in which the media can watch lawmakers debate public policy on one condition: Turn off the cameras and microphones.

When Halow Hung started kindergarten at Irene B. West Elementary in Elk Grove a few years ago, he spoke little English and felt more comfortable talking in his native Vietnamese.

A state appeals court has denied a conservative legal group's request that it force Attorney General Jerry Brown and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to defend Proposition 8 in federal court.

California's Cash for Appliances program is speeding up.

To serve or not to serve? That was the question for Meg Whitman this week as she answered a jury summons at San Mateo Superior Court for a high-profile child molestation trial.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina traded jabs for 60 minutes Wednesday night in what may be the only debate in the hotly contested race.

They crammed Capitol hallways, hailed lawmakers, worked phones, sweated, counted votes – and when the Legislature's session ended at midnight Tuesday, powerful interests left happy.

Oh, the games people play – as lawmakers.

The bizarre escape – and fatal police shooting – of a pregnant cow at the State Fair this summer has prompted an examination of the live birthing exhibits that have been a crowd favorite for more than 37 years.

In a bitter debate filled with personal attacks Wednesday night, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer repeatedly slammed Republican rival Carly Fiorina's record as the CEO of tech giant Hewlett-Packard while Fiorina called the veteran Democrat an out-of-touch career politician indifferent to the suffering of ordinary Californians.

Proposition 8 supporters are ramping up political – and legal – pressure on Attorney General Jerry Brown and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to defend California's same-sex marriage ban in federal appeals court.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest tax reform idea would probably result in higher costs for low- and middle-class taxpayers based on an initial review, the nonpartisan legislative analyst said Wednesday.

Leaders of the union-backed independent expenditure committee California Working Families said Wednesday they will take a "less visible" role in the governor's race after spending $8.7 million running TV, radio and online ads attacking Republican candidate Meg Whitman.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman is not alone in believing the current state budget standoff is "unacceptable," as she said Wednesday at a campaign stop in Folsom.

The California Democratic Party has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against a nonprofit group that has run television ads attacking Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown.

Dan Walters has been liveblogging tonight's Boxer-Fiorina debate and says it was pretty much a draw until the closing statements when Carly Fiorina went a bit flat and Barbara Boxer hit her stride with an emotional declaration of the differences between the two.

For only the second time in 34 years, state lawmakers have reached September without passing a budget.

Both legislative houses voted Tuesday on competing versions of the long-stalemated state budget after hours of flowery debate. The net result was zero, as everyone knew in advance that neither could muster the required votes.

California's sluggish economy has led to a sharp drop in greenhouse gas emissions from the state's struggling building industry, prompting regulators to consider a two-year delay in implementing pollution control rules for heavy construction equipment.

A measure to ban plastic carryout bags in supermarkets, drug and convenience stores was defeated late Tuesday in the state Senate, where key lawmakers said it could prove too costly for consumers.

Throwing confusion into California's case against former CalPERS board member Alfred Villalobos, a bankruptcy judge indicated Tuesday he would block the state's lawsuit accusing Villalobos of bribing officials with the pension fund.

The first and only U.S. Senate debate scheduled so far between Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and her Republican challenger Carly Fiorina is set for 7 p.m. today at St. Mary's College in Moraga.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued a message to top officials in his administration: Stop hiring.