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In just under two months, students will start the new academic year at 23 California State University campuses. They'll encounter a new university, one that shows the effects of cutting $584 million from the budget.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been taking a beating from the public for recent comments intended to force Californians to stop blaming illegal immigrants for the state's budget crisis.
When Mac Taylor, the Legislature's chief budget adviser, declared this week that the state budget enacted just four months ago is already billions of dollars upside down, no one in the Capitol should have been surprised.
After nine years at The Bee, this is my final column as a regular feature on this page. But while I will be leaving the paper's payroll, I hope to be a frequent contributor to the ongoing discussion here about politics and public policy in this troubled state.
You'd think that Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, would be pleased that his party controls the White House, giving him better access to the executive branch than he had when George W. Bush was president. But Costa seems frustrated that he can't get the ear of the president at a time when his congressional district is suffering as much as any region in the country.