By KEVIN YAMAMURA, Sacramento Bee

Month after month this spring, California officials cheered as personal income and sales taxes flowed into state coffers at a robust clip.

But one area repeatedly underperformed: taxes on corporate profits.

While California corporations have reported strong profits this year, taxes on those profits repeatedly have underperformed, state officials say.

Antonio Villaraigosa may be considering a statewide run for office, but he didn't seem particularly concerned about controversial tax positions coming back to haunt him.

Children in frigid areas have "snow day" school closures. Could students across sunny California face "budget days" in bad fiscal times?

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California's excise taxes on wine, beer and liquor remain a 1991 vintage, the last year the state hiked the price that producers pay on each gallon of alcohol.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has long relied on the ballot as a political weapon, wielding direct democracy over the heads of opponents throughout his time in office.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger threatened last week to veto a bill that would reduce a corporate tax break, calling it a tax increase. He says requiring Amazon.com to collect tax dollars already owed is a new tax burden.

But he believes a new surcharge on property insurance is a "fee" that Californians ought to pay.

In his latest effort to patch California's cash-strapped budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has resurrected an idea to convert overhead freeway displays into electronic advertising billboards.

For months, California's Republican U.S. Senate candidates wanted to talk only about Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer.

Now they shifted their attention to someone else: Scott Brown, the Republican from Massachusetts who claimed the GOP's first U.S. Senate seat in the Bay State since 1979.

As California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to emphasize job creation as his top priority in his State of the State address, his watchdog for federal stimulus dollars says a tiny state office is delaying hundreds of projects that could employ out-of-work Californians.

Carly Fiorina launched her U.S. Senate campaign this month in a Garden Grove, Calif. warehouse not with a promise or policy statement, but a simple question:

"What's with the hair?"