California'sAfrican-American, white, Latino and low-income students all have improved significantlyon national tests in fourth-grade reading and eight-grade math over the pastdecade, and at a slightly better pace than the nation as a whole, accordingto a new report.

California leadsthe nation in financial aid offered to low-income college students. It's in themiddle of the pack - 25th - nationally when it comes to college affordability.

Amidstthe storm of budget "compromises" currently being turned into cause fora full-blown election circus, one in particular seems to be getting adisproportionate amount of attention, given its seemingly apoliticalnature.

That measure is Proposition 1C, a proposal to, as the Legislative Analyst's officeeuphemistically puts it, "allow the State lottery to be modernized."

I remember back in school, when one kid seemed to be taking too long at the drinking fountain, the next person would yell "Save some for the fishes!" Is the newest appropriate response instead, "Save some for the Californians!"?

California is as good asout of fresh water.

The state is thrown into drought conditions with everyless-than-abundant-rain year, and a series of dry years (like now) decimatereservoirs beyond sustainable thresholds. The fiscal situation is comparablydire; like freshwater, Californiauses more than they've got coming in, a fundamentally unsustainable equation inboth finance and ecology. How convenient and unusual that a silver bulletexists to solve both problems: desalination.

Possibly the only people happy last Tuesday when the Setton Pistachiorecall was expanded to include last year's entire crop were the folks at
PeanutCorp. of America.

Finally, they're out of the news for a while.

Now that theRepublican Party in California has officially passed the budget hurdle,the civil war which has plagued the Right since November appears tohave come to California. And interestingly, the battle is not betweenmoderates and hard-liners, but rather between different varieties ofhard-liners who have different tactics for achieving the hard-line.

True, California did not have a cohesive budget for months. Even while the governor struggled to force cohesion, even mandating that state employees take a proverbial during the work week. But state legislators didn't let that keep them from promoting... other legislation. From December 2008 through February 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger appeared to be cajoling legislators into doing their jobs, and it certainly appeared that his work was like pulling teeth.

It's justthe type of program the Obama administration should have wanted to hear about during yesterday's health-careforum in Los Angeles, because it's a great example of innovative ways tomeet health-care needs.

So is it time to stock up on bottled water, or to buy a raft?

It's hard work living in California. On nearly a daily basis, residents are told they will either continue to suffer from droughts, or are being told to prepare for the impending massive flood on the way. According to a March report by the Pacific Institute, around $100 billion dollars worth of coastline property is in danger of being washed away.

Asnewspapers across California and the nation continue to shed recordnumbers of staff, the profession of journalism seems to be headedtoward extinction.The implications this hason a democracy such as ours is both sobering and obvious.

When thereare no professionally trained reporters left to watch the proverbial"cash box," (e.g. government), guess what is likely to go missing?Democratic governments remain democratic only when a free press isthere to report on what they do and how they spend the people's money.