Fears abound as California faces the reality that besides all its other natural wonders, it sits atop an Arabian-sized oil and natural gas bonanza that only can be exploited via the process of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking.

If there is one dominant reason for the distrust Californians feel for governments, it is the sense that special interests regularly pour millions of dollars into federal, state and local election campaigns while contriving to hide their identities. That reality makes Senate Bill 52, the Disclose Act sponsored by Democratic state Sens. Mark Leno of San Francisco and Jerry Hill of San Mateo County, the most important measure state lawmakers will consider this year.

California saw plenty of change to its congressional delegation last year, with the long-serving Pete Stark (East Bay area), David Dreier (San Dimas), Jerry Lewis (Redlands), Joe Baca (San Bernardino County), Elton Gallegly (Simi Valley), Mary Bono Mack (Palm Springs) and more either retiring or getting turned out. For their remaining veteran colleagues, reelection seems

One thing is certain as California heads for a new health insurance era under the Affordable Health Care Act, better known as ObamaCare: Almost all parts of the state will need more medical professionals to serve the additional 2 million to 4 million newly-insured Californians. Should they, could they, mostly be physicians? Or should other healthcare professionals like pharmacists, optometrists and nurse practitioners do some things now in the exclusive realm of MDs?

Gov. Brown, construction labor unions and some others are determined to proceed with California’s nascent bullet train, with the first tracks scheduled to be laid later this year between Madera and the south end of Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley. Brown has used his appointive powers to ease the path of high speed rail, which he last rode on his weeklong April jaunt to China.

When it comes to setting education funding policies for California, preconceived notions long have held as much sway as actual reality. Thus it was that when the state Supreme Court in 1971 issued its landmark Serrano v. Priest decision demanding that per-student school funding be equalized throughout the state, the presumption was that districts like Los Angeles, Oakland, San Bernardino and others serving large numbers of the urban poor would benefit most.

Normally, it's uncomfortable to hear a federal judge –let alone a panel of three such jurists – thunder criticism at one from the bench. But as usual, Gov. Brown is different.

Like flowers blooming in the spring, Republican candidates for governor have begun to pop up during the last few weeks. There is a key difference this time between the folks jumping up and the many who ran in gubernatorial primaries of the last two decades…

No one seriously is suggesting California soon will become another Cyprus, the Greek-speaking Mediterranean island nation whose economic bailout plan includes dunning holders of “large” bank accounts as much as half their holdings while freezing the rest. Since a federal bankruptcy judge gave the go-ahead for the City of Stockton to seek shelter from more than $1 billion in debts via Chapter 9 bankruptcy, alarm bells have been ringing loudly in the heads of municipal bond investors.

Starting with the day in January 1848 when gold flakes and nuggets first turned up at Sutter’s Mill northeast of Sacramento, California has seen plenty of economic miracles, each focused in a different part of the state…Now the Monterey Shale formation, much further south and southeast of San Francisco, promises the next potential miracle…