Darrell Steinberg

SACRAMENTO — State Capitol politicians may have an extra $3.2 billion to play with. Or they may not. It depends on whose figures you believe: nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor's or contrarian Gov. Jerry Brown's. I tend to have more...

SACRAMENTO — "Living in parallel universes," is how Senate leader Darrell Steinberg describes it. Gun control and gun rights advocates "talking past each other." Emanating from different cultures, incapable of agreeing on how to make us all...

SACRAMENTO—Let's welcome the governor back home. It must be sobering. The work has been piling up. The real, difficult work. Actually, it was piling up even before Gov. Jerry Brown departed on a weeklong "trade and investment" mission to China...

SACRAMENTO — Dynamics have shifted dramatically in California's Capitol since Gov. Jerry Brown returned two years ago—both fiscal and political dynamics. The two are intertwined. And Brown is the beneficiary. In short, because the state'...

SACRAMENTO — As the national firearms debate reaches a crescendo, a Northern California congressman is proving that you can be both a gun lover and a gun controller. Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, a moderate "blue dog" Democrat who represents...

SACRAMENTO — We used to call it "shop." Wood shop. Auto shop. Then the educators got fancy and renamed it "vocational education." Later, as the dot.com era dawned, it was rebranded "career tech." Now, throughout much of California, you can...

SACRAMENTO — State Sen. Jerry Hill grew up in San Francisco and vividly remembers the rare suffocating days of late summer when the fog fled and people sweltered. The city's natural air conditioner clicked off, temperatures soared into the 90s and...

SACRAMENTO — Enforce the laws already on the books. Take away the criminals' weapons, not the law-abiding citizens'. Sound familiar? It's the mantra of the gun lobby. That is, until the government actually attempts to do it. Then the lobby changes...

We've all heard the saw about California being hostile to industry. Here's an industry that indisputably has grounds for complaint: the gun industry. Finally, the Legislature is getting something right. According to many experts, California's firearms...

SACRAMENTO — Here's an idea for a new gun control law: How about immediately seizing the personal arsenal of a fired cop? Dishonorably discharged soldiers, after all, aren't allowed to own firearms. Why should dishonored cops? Like booted...

SACRAMENTO — There's an emotional risk to falling in love with a local pro sports team, because it can cheat on you. It can walk out and take up with another city. An owner sees greener pastures — more dollars — and jumps the fence....

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown wants to help inner-city schools at the expense of suburbanites. But there must be a better way to assist the disadvantaged than to trigger class warfare. And there is. It is to give school districts a better...