Ann Ravel, the California Fair Political Practices Commission chairwoman, intends to seek clarity by compelling nonprofit corporations that donate huge sums to state campaigns to disclose sources of their money, at least in some circumstances.

Political rallies have become so yesterday, so passe in California in 2012. National candidates do their best Willie Sutton imitations by going to where the money is, meeting and greeting jaded donors in Orange County, Beverly Hills and San Francisco, with an occasional stopover at a Hillsborough estate. Except on Tuesday. For once and maybe for the only time this year, the campaign came to California. Former President Bill Clinton, the explainer-in-chief, told a noonday crowd of 8,000 to 10,000 at the UC Davis quad why they ought to vote.

Howard Broadman doesn't second-guess decisions he made during the 13 years he spent as a Tulare County judge.

The question was simple enough. If Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen could do it over again, would she have signed the pledge in which she promised to never vote to raise taxes? She paused and thought and finally said she didn't know.

A campaign ad airing statewide portrays crooked politicians and shady lobbyists meeting in garages and stairwells, seemingly at the state Capitol.

Interest groups have handed out no less than $42.37 million in campaign donations in the final weeks of the legislative session, as lawmakers decide the fate of hundreds of bills.

The U.S. Navy has come to the defense of the ecotopian college town of Davis, where streetlights have been adjusted to make stargazing more productive. Defense Department representatives have been walking the Capitol halls advocating for a bill that could help Davis and any other town or military base in the state become more energy independent, while permitting civilians to more easily plug in to solar power.

Gov. Jerry Brown hopes that voters don't focus on the $68 billion for high-speed rail, or on the debacle in which the state Department of Parks and Recreation hid $54 million. Sometimes, you have to wonder if Democrats want Brown's tax initiative to fail.

Extraordinarily smart people at the California Air Resources Board have taken to using the term "leakage" as they go about devising the experimental cap and trade system for reducing greenhouse gases.

In the village of Easton, where summer temperatures regularly reach beyond 100 degrees, some lawns are unusually green for this time of year, and people think twice before drinking from the tap.

On Monday, Assemblyman Brian Nestande, a Palm Desert Republican, broke with the GOP and voted for Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez's $1 billion tax hike to fund "middle-class scholarships." On Tuesday, Nestande ceased being Assembly Republican Caucus chairman.

In the village of Easton, where summer temperatures regularly reach beyond 100 degrees, some lawns are unusually green for this time of year, and people think twice before drinking from the tap.

The CDC and NIH award billions in grants. They fund research into cancer, brain injury, tobacco use, obesity, AIDS, abortion, hearing loss, allergies, infectious diseases, back pain and virtually everything else related to human health. But gun violence is the one area that carries that specific language. The effect has been to limit federal funding into research that could be used to shape policy.

Jonathan Soros, son of hedge fund billionaire George Soros, is about to meet casino mogul Sheldon Adelson in a smackdown over the Sacramento-area congressional seat held by Republican Dan Lungren. Soros is using his wealth and connections to create a super PAC that, in essence, seeks to rid the political system of the influence of super PACs. There are multiple levels of irony in the undertaking.

Richard Roth is a retired two-star general in the Air Force Reserve and a lawyer who defends businesses. He is a former Riverside Chamber of Commerce chairman. He's also a Democrat who wants to become a state senator, despite his obvious intelligence. You'd think Roth would be the sort of guy that the California Association of Realtors, Farmers Insurance, Chevron, Philip Morris, Anthem Blue Cross and the California Chamber of Commerce might welcome to the Legislature. But you wouldn't be thinking like the high-powered political consultants who run Sacramento.