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.

WhileCalifornia and the rest of the nation continue to ride out the worsteconomic storm since the Great Depression, both President Barack Obamaand Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger know one thing -- getting Golden Stateresidents back on their feet and on the job is critical to turningthings around.

Herein the California, rebuilding our aging infrastructure has to be JobOne.

Sometimesthe right idea comes along at the wrong time.

Such isthe case with state Sen. JeffDenham's plan to sell the San Quentin Prison site for enough money to builda new Death Row and contribute a sizable chunk to the general fund as well.

In the beginning of "Pretty Woman," when the camera pans over a party, and a magician is playing slight-of-hand-tricks with some women, using witticisms aimed at the (in)famous Savings & Loans of the 1980s? If you haven't, the man is performing a coin trick, where a coin disappears in one location, and ends up in the next. Funny thing is, it could just as easily be a metaphor for the Lottery Modernization Act.

I once had an acquaintance who was arguing with another friend over the location of a certain beach. Was it 20 minutes South of one city, or 10 minutes North of another? The issue was solved when one whipped out their laptop, opened up Google Earth, and pinpointed the precise location of said beach: problem solved.