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.

The Public Policy Institute of California'srecently released "Californians and their Government Survey" hasyielded some fascinating information on the current mindset of GoldenState residents.

Generally speaking, the poll shows that mostCalifornians aren't happy with Sacramento and may not support severalof the ballot measures coming up on the May 19 special election.

It's been barely three weeks since Governor Schwarzenegger announced hisintentions to calla special election to validate his budget proposals, and already,skepticism is starting to shine through the cracks of Schwarzenegger'spro-democracy rhetoric.

While most of California is starting to enjoy warmerspring weather these days, chill winds, metaphorically speaking,continue to blow through Sacramento.

Those winds -- the sour, disenchanted sentiments of manyGolden State voters -- appear to be signaling that the May 19 ballotinitiatives that were brokered during the recent negotiations to closethe yawning multibillion-dollar deficit in the state's 2009-10 budgetare in serious trouble.

What happens when you combine digital-native collegeseniors with a tech savvy White House and a dash of"si, se puede" determination?

You wind up with first lady Michelle Obama deliveringthe commencement address to the 450 members of the Universityof California, Merced's firstfour-year class.

With the governorship up for grabs in 2010 and a wildly unpopular incumbent in office, Democrats in California have substantial reason for rejoicing and Republicans are stuck with explaining how it wasn't actually their fault that said unpopular leader got into office.

Probably no one who attended or watched last Friday's funeral service for the four slain Oakland Police officers spent much time reflecting on the fact that two of these brave public servants died at the hands of a career criminal wielding a Russian-designed AK-47 assault rifle.

That's wholly understandable and appropriate. Friday's service, touching and poignant as it was, was rightly focused on the lives of these four fine men -- Officer John Hege, Sgt. Mark Dunakin, Sgt. Ervin Romans and Sgt. Daniel Sakai.

The bestidea coming out of Sacramento these days is actually coming from the Bay Area, where a group of business leaders wants tocall a constitutional convention to revamp California's government.

The governance equivalent of a quintuple bypass anddeep brain stimulation surgery performed at the same time, a constitutionalconvention is a notion that should send shivers down the spine of anyreasonable person.

It slicesopen the body politic and exposes its vital organs to all sorts of poking andprodding.

Scary stuff.

On theother hand, what do we have to lose?

Ina likely indicator of voter displeasure with all things Sacramentothese days, a recently released poll shows that a clear majority ofCalifornians support the idea of having an "open primary" which wouldallow the two top vote-getters (regardless of party) to advance to thegeneral election.