Opinion

Whether it's been water, highway spending – or even the Giants and the Dodgers – California's regional conflicts have historically pitted the north against the south.

Here’s something to smile about on the way to the gym: Residents of San Luis Obispo County are among the slimmest folks in the nation, according to a recent Gallup survey.

As noted in this space countless times, California's government is broken, endemically incapable of addressing the state's most pressing policy issues.

Shhhhh! We wouldn’t want this to get out to the wrong people, but we’re air mailing a top-secret brickbat to California lawmakers who insist on keeping records of their past plane trips secret — even though taxpayers picked up the tab.

Political California is fixated on the rapidly developing contests for high-profile offices, particularly what appears to be a looming slugfest between Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown for a governorship that will be dominated by the state's chronic budget crisis.

Two years in state prison is a ridiculously lenient sentence for Bradford Mitchell, the 52-year-old Michigan man convicted of sex crimes with a 16-year-old San Luis Obispo girl he met over the Internet.

Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, two erstwhile centrist Republicans running for governor, spent the weekend in a race to the right, each trying to persuade delegates to a state GOP convention that he or she was more conservative than the other.

No one expects everything on reality TV to be real. But ramping up personal drama for the sake of ratings — as in “Real Housewives,” for instance — is one thing. Playing fast and loose with geography is another, which is why we’re calling out MTV.

Why in heaven's name should the state of California, its residents and its taxpayers cough up countless millions of dollars to build a new professional basketball arena in Sacramento – especially when the state budget is hemorrhaging red ink?

The level of fundamental agreement among California's three candidates for governor is truly remarkable.

A legitimate question has been raised about the relicensing of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant: What’s the hurry?

Democratic legislative leaders, acknowledging the dysfunction of state government, say they want to place reforms before voters this year.

We’re delivering above-and-beyond bouquets to Lucia Mar students and teachers who voluntarily attend Saturday school in order to help improve the district’s bottom line.

Rather than ax the popular Emeritus Program — which offers free enrichment courses geared for adults over 50 — Cuesta College plans to begin charging for the classes.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca released hundreds of jail inmates last week before their terms were up, citing county budget problems.

Cal Poly administrator Dave Christy should be commended — not condemned — for recruiting Kinko’s founder, Paul Orfalea, to teach a special course in international business.

When Art Agnos was representing San Francisco in the state Assembly during the 1980s (he later became mayor), he would annually introduce legislation to end anti-gay discrimination, but never gained enactment.

When Darrell Steinberg, the president pro tem of the state Senate, outlined his priorities last month, he included "oversight."

California is buried in a deep economic and fiscal hole, but our politicians seem bent on burrowing even deeper.

In an impressive display of cooperation, South County communities are banding together to establish a homeless services center somewhere in the Five Cities.