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California wildlife experts recently confirmed that an adult bobcat died from highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1, marking the first detection of the virus in a wild mammal in the state. The bobcat's remains were collected in Butte County and tested for the disease. It was wearing a GPS collar as part of a study by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The HPAI H5N1 virus was first detected in wild birds in California last year and has since been found in birds from 44 counties and domestic birds from 18 counties. Waterfowl and domestic poultry are especially vulnerable...

The Newsom administration is proposing large bonuses to retain juvenile prison employees as the system prepares to close next year.

Awards season is in full swing in California, and the Golden State just took home a booby prize of its own. California ranks dead last among U.S. states in quality of life, according to a study by U.S. News, ranking behind New Jersey (49th) and Indiana (48th). The ignominious honor reflects California's low marks in the sub-categories of environmental quality and social engagement. The latter category measures voting participation and community bonds. Californians scored poorly in part because they're simply insufferable, U.S. News suggested. "In addition to a healthy environment, a person's quality of life is largely a result of...

--SNIP-- Three months ago, Brown’s Department of Transportation, fulfilling a 2009 legislative mandate, began circulating a draft of a California Transportation Plan, aimed at setting policy for the next quarter-century. Citing California’s commitments to reducing greenhouse gases and improving access to non-automotive transportation, the CTP proposes to reduce automotive travel by increasing motorists’ taxes, flatly rejecting “road capacity enhancing strategies,” and urging the state to “avoid funding projects that add road capacity.” Implicitly, therefore, it contends that increasing traffic congestion and the cost of driving would compel Californians to abandon their cars in favor of transit, bicycles and other non-automotive...

Months after closing its last budget gap, the Golden State is $20 billion in the red. Sacramento An old friend of mine has a saying, "Even the worm learns." Prod one several hundred times, he says, and it will learn to avoid the prodder. As California enters its annual budget drama, I can't help but wonder if the wisdom of the elected politicians here in the state capital equals that of the earthworm. The state is in a precarious position, with a 12.3% unemployment rate (more than two points higher than the national average) and a budget $20 billion in...

In a striking change of direction, the California Coastal Commission Wednesday voted 8-4 to give San Diego its third exemption from pollution standards set by the federal Clean Water Act. Just two months ago, commissioners overwhelmingly to deny the five-year waiver from “secondary” treatment levels at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant. The facility processes sewage from more than 2.2 million people in and outside of the city's limits. The commission's reversal saves San Diego from having to retrofit the facility at a price tag of up to $1.5 billion. The last major step is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,...

San Diego - -- Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez fidgeted with his BlackBerry as he sat in a leather seat in the back of a black Buick Park Avenue and zoomed south on Interstate 5. He checked voice mail, read e-mail and barked his ideas for fixing California's ailing health care system to his staff in Sacramento. --snip-- He was a novice politician who had just won his first election. He also was a divorcé struggling to reconcile with his ex-wife, who had been his college sweetheart. And he was recovering from personal bankruptcy. Five years later, he is living a...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - For more than two decades, if there was a scandal to be snuffed out in Hollywood, private investigator Anthony Pellicano was considered the man for the job. In 1983, his analysis of audio tapes and other evidence undermined testimony from witnesses and helped earn auto maker John DeLorean an acquittal in a cocaine trafficking case. Ten years later, he worked for pop superstar Michael Jackson in his first fight against child molestation allegations. Actor Sylvester Stallone once called the detective a "very good friend." Through his celebrity connections, Pellicano eventually became a star in his own...

SACRAMENTO — Coming off a losing campaign to curb state spending, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is promoting a statewide public works program that may be financed by a bond sale so large it would dwarf previous state borrowings. The governor hopes to join with Democratic leaders and businesses to address Californians' growing frustration with clogged roadways, polluted water, hospital shortages, overcrowded schools ... Schwarzenegger is seizing an issue with wide bipartisan support in an effort to restore his image as a moderate, although his plan threatens to cause tension with some conservative allies who have long warned against more government borrowing....

A federal judge in San Jose refused Wednesday to restrain the California Teachers Association from bolstering its political campaign account by imposing an annual $60 surcharge on its members for the next three years. U.S. District Court Judge James Ware's decision in a case filed by the Virginia-based Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation probably will allow the teachers union to raise and spend upwards of $50 million to contest Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's special election initiatives slated for the Nov. 8 ballot, representatives of both sides in the lawsuit said. "This is fantastic," CTA chief counsel Beverly Tucker said. "We...

SACRAMENTO — California First Lady Maria Shriver named as her top aide Tuesday a former senior official to ex-Gov. Gray Davis, the Democrat her husband tarred in the 2003 recall campaign as the symbol of ineffectual government. Daniel Zingale, who served under Davis as the link between the governor's office and the vast state bureaucracy, will be the new chief of staff to Shriver, a Democrat. He will return to the governor's suite of offices on the first floor of the Capitol, this time surrounded by many Republicans who labored to oust Davis. Zingale has also been an unpaid political...

As we expected, the State Senate Transportation & Housing Committee passed Gil Cedillo's driver's license bill on Thursday. All Republicans on the Committee voted no, all Democrats but one voted yes. There was one Democrat not voting. The bill will next be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The committee meets every Monday at 1:30 pm. As soon as a hearing date has been set, we will notify you. Please take time to contact the committee members and the committee consultant to oppose this bill.

<p>GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon predicted the jury's decision would be set aside or overturned. The investment firm he co-founded was among the defendants sued for fraud in the takeover of a pay-phone company.</p> <p>A Los Angeles jury Wednesday found the investment firm co-owned by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon liable for $78 million in damages after concluding it engaged in fraud during a botched takeover of a pay-phone company.</p>