The thousands of college students who marched on the Capitol on Monday to protest rising fees and decreasing state support had a point: Higher education has taken a disproportionately heavy drubbing in recent years as politicians attempted – and largely failed – to balance the state budget.

We applaud our local state lawmakers, Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian and Sen. Sam Blakeslee, for being the only two legislators who accepted no gifts from special interests last year.

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of occasional follow-ups on Tribune opinions. We’ll recap our previous positions and update readers on what’s happened since the original editorial was published. If there is an issue you would like us to revisit, contact us at letters@thetribunenews.com.

So Stockton has suspended payments to its bondholders and is seeking to renegotiate its debts in hopes of averting a formal bankruptcy.

Bouquets of condolence go out to the family and friends of Rob Bryn, as well as to the entire Sheriff’s Office where Rob served as public information officer for the past five years. Prior to that, Rob was spokesman for the San Luis Obispo Police Department.

The California Republican Party has been frequently – and rightfully – criticized for insisting that GOP politicians adhere to a very narrow set of supposed principles, such as always opposing any purported tax increase regardless of its merits.

Even if the City of Stockton is able to avoid bankruptcy, it won’t escape becoming the new poster child for fiscal incompetence. That’s not entirely the city’s fault; the recession hit Stockton especially hard. At one point, it led the nation in home foreclosures and is now second only to Las Vegas.

Dan Richards, who chairs the California Fish and Game Commission, is under fire in the Capitol because he killed a mountain lion in Idaho and posed with his trophy for a picture that was later published on a hunting publication website.

For the past two months, Gov. Jerry Brown has been selling the concept that were the Legislature to approve his proposed budget and voters to approve his tax increase, the state's fiscal house would be repaired.

The California Teachers Association stands alone among major public education groups – at least so far – in supporting the tax-increase ballot measure Gov. Jerry Brown says is needed to prop up public schools.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has hung coastal counties out to dry by threatening to withdraw all funding for ocean water testing.

Gov. Jerry Brown says he's serious about reforming California's "unsustainable" public employee pension system, and has warned state legislators that if they don't do it, they could doom voter approval of new taxes this year.

We toss 17-year-old Noah Erwin a big bouquet of water lilies for his role in rescuing Donna Przybyla, 78, during an aqua aerobics class. Noah was on lifeguard duty at the Paso Robles Municipal Pool last week when Przybyla suddenly became limp during an exercise session in the pool. Noah pulled her from the water and checked for vital signs while others called paramedics, who transported her to Twin Cities Community Hospital.

Were California Republicans a biological genus rather than a political one, they could demand special protection under laws protecting endangered species like the kangaroo rat, to wit:

The restored Octagon Barn on South Higuera Street is an architectural delight and a historic treasure. We applaud The Land Conservancy, which undertook the restoration, along with the hundreds of volunteers and the many donors whose contributions and hard work rescued the aging structure from ruin.

The battle over the cameras that many California cities and counties use to nab motorists who blow through red lights or – more commonly – make rolling stops for right turns has raged in the Capitol for several years without resolution.

If Californians believed that electing Democrat Jerry Brown as governor would mean a big break with Republican predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger, they must be disappointed.

The state of California has made a full-blown commitment to reducing reliance on fossil-fuel energy and other limited resources.

Arroyo Grande City Councilman Tim Brown didn’t mince words when he called the city’s old police station “a dump.” That may be an overly harsh assessment, but we agree that a new station is long overdue.

We’re firing up the good humor truck and delivering a freezer full of sunflowers to Jodi Fisher, the Cayucos woman with inoperable cancer who celebrated her 44th birthday by handing out free ice cream to neighborhood children.