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SACRAMENTO (AP) - By a wide margin, Californians oppose granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, according to a poll released Friday. A Field Poll showed that 62 percent of state residents oppose granting the licenses, while 35 percent favor the idea. The poll also found that 49 percent support issuing a different kind of license to illegal immigrants, with 48 percent opposed. The survey found a large ethnic divide on the question. Three out of four white, non-Hispanics said they are opposed to issuing regular driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, while Hispanics favor the idea by a two-to-one margin. Of...

As a conservative Republican in Lafayette, Linda Ellman wouldn't even put a "Bush for President" sticker on her car for fear of what might happen. But when the president won re-election Tuesday, she was surprised to find she wasn't alone. "I go to a church where all four pastors are Democrats,'' Ellman said. "But when I called the church to find out the reaction to the election, I heard there had been a lot of high fives from closet Republicans.'' The Bay Area is the Promised Land for California Democrats, a region where liberal congresswomen like San Francisco's Nancy Pelosi...

SACRAMENTO - A larger proportion of California voters now believe the country is headed in the wrong direction than at any time since President Bush took office, according to a new statewide poll released Wednesday. Driven by worries over terrorism, the war in Iraq and the economy, 58 percent of Californian believe the country is on the wrong track, according to a new Field Poll. That figure has gradually risen since December 2001 when 68 percent said the nation was headed in the right direction. Meanwhile, Bush continues to receive record low approval ratings in California with 54 percent saying...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Worried about air pollution and related health problems, most Californians want lawmakers to make protecting the environment a top priority, even if it hinders economic growth, according to a poll released Thursday. The poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found wide support across racial, ethnic, regional and political lines for environmental protection programs to reduce air pollution, reduce auto emissions and develop alternative energy sources. "As our state becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, concerns about environmental issues are being seen across a broad spectrum of the population," Mark Baldassare, the San Francisco-based institute's...

Californians Pay Final Respects to President Ronald Reagan 9 minutes ago By JEFF WILSON, Associated Press Writer SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - Nancy Reagan touched her cheek to the flag-covered casket, then made way for Americans by the thousands to pay respects Monday to Ronald Reagan before a cross-country journey to a state funeral in Washington. A steady, near-silent stream of people — some saluting, some praying — circled through the rotunda of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where the body of the nation's 40th president will lie in repose through Tuesday before traveling to Washington. After Friday's state funeral, the...

<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces an uphill battle to win voter approval of the first phase of his fiscal recovery plan March 2. But if he is willing to place his personal and political credibility on the line, he can probably pull it off.</p>

The cost of being a Californian is going up in 2004 and few in the Golden State will be spared from the efforts to bolster the state and local budgets with higher fees and fines. Fishing will cost more. So will filing for divorce. And driving. Or flying. And drinking from bottles and cans. Planning to pitch a tent this summer? That'll cost you. But perhaps nobody will feel the immediate effect of the new calendar like BART's 315,000 daily patrons. BART's across-the-board 10 percent fare increase takes effect with daytime service on Jan. 1. The average price of a...

Californians Launch New Prop. 187 Measure 16 minutes ago By ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES - Backers of a contentious 1994 initiative denying some social services to illegal immigrants have resurrected their effort and are gathering signatures to qualify a new measure for the November ballot. The "Save Our State Initiative" would bar undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses and most public services, including non-emergency health care. Police, teachers and other public employees would have to notify federal authorities in writing of immigration violations or face potential misdemeanor criminal charges. "We don't think it's right to give welfare...

If anyone should learn from the recall election, it is voters. Just about the time we think state legislators have found a constructive lesson in California's recall election, they prove us wrong again. Take, for example, a recent display of petty tyranny. Petty tyrants, according to Carlos Castaneda, come in three subcategories: pinches tiranos, pinches tiranitos, and pinches tiranitos chiquititos (the teeny weeny kind). We'll leave it to you to judge the category befitting behavior in last week's special session. Members of both political parties qualify, as columnist Jill Stewart makes clear (on the Comment page). The Republicans started it...

<p>SACRAMENTO – The recall election that gave rise to Gov.- elect Arnold Schwarzenegger held Californians' attention as few news events have, according to a new survey, reigniting a disengaged electorate's interest in politics.</p> <p>As Schwarzenegger enters office for the first time, the results released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California suggest the Republican movie star may well find voters responsive to his campaign promise to take priorities before them through the initiative process if he can't make headway with a divided Legislature.</p>

<p>FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Californians can help create more than 5,500 jobs and generate $1.38 billion in revenue each year if they shift 10 percent of their purchases to state-grown produce, according to a new study released Thursday.</p> <p>Californians can also generate about $188 million in taxes for local and state governments if 10 percent of their total purchases included state-grown fruits, vegetables and other California farm goods, according to a study funded by the Buy California Marketing Agreement.</p>

<p>Civic leaders in the South Bay historically have been in the forefront of campaigns to give voters more flexible tools in funding infrastructure. For example, the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group recently announced plans to take an initiative to the ballot to lower the vote threshold for special purpose taxes. The California Legislature is considering similar proposals.</p>

<p>California's population grew very rapidly in the years after World War II, driven by an industrial expansion that attracted millions of opportunity-seeking émigrés from other states and an explosion of births.</p> <p>Between 1940 and 1960, the state's population boomed by an astonishing 128 percent, from 6.9 million to 15.7 million, forcing California's politicians to respond with an unprecedented expansion of highways, schools, parks, water systems and other components of what we now call infrastructure. It was, in a sense, a golden age when the state's socioeconomic reality meshed with its dominant political values. But, as it happened, the end of the postwar baby boom in the mid-1960s more or less coincided with the peak of California's industrial expansion, and a sharp drop in both births and domestic migration ensued.</p>

Survey: Californians Pessimistic About Economy, Leaders Most Of Those Polled Called Budget Deficit A Big Problem POSTED: 2:44 p.m. PST February 25, 2003 UPDATED: 5:39 p.m. PST February 25, 2003 SAN FRANCISCO -- A new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California finds Californians deeply pessimistic about the state's economy, fearful of a war in Iraq, and skeptical of elected leadership at nearly every level. The poll found 28 percent of Californians believe the economy and jobs are the biggest problems facing the state and 60 percent said their region of the state is in an economic recession. Seventy-one...