By TIMM HERDT, Scripps Howard News Service

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - For more than a quarter-century, California-based outdoor apparel company Patagonia has contributed 1 percent of its gross revenues to environmental causes and lived by a corporate mission that compels it to make the best products that do the least harm.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - At some point during rallies organized by the Tea Party Express, one of the organizers typically asks those in attendance to get out their cellphones and send a text message with their email address.

The appeal works, says founder Sal Russo, a Sacramento political consultant.

Over the last 10 years there have been 265 congressional elections in California. In all but one of those elections, either the incumbent or a successor from the same party has won.

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. - As the state embarks on the high-stakes redrawing of legislative districts, a sea change appears to be in store.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - As Gov. Jerry Brown struggles to find the four GOP votes he needs to allow Californians to vote on tax extensions critical to his budget-balancing plan, a new poll has found public support for that idea has declined sharply since January.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A California state senator is accusing the operator of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant of operating under "a culture of disregard of risk."

The release of new census data has kicked off a frenzy of speculation of what California's political districts will look like in 2012 and triggered the start of a five-month sprint toward Aug. 15 -- the deadline for the state's new Citizens Redistricting Commission to produce a final set of maps for new congressional and legislative districts.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Dorelee Heisler isn't afraid to tell others a bit of information about herself that many consider taboo to disclose: She has Alzheimer's disease, and she deals with it as best she can.

VENTURA, Calif. - California voters are more certain where they stand on marijuana -- a majority want to legalize it -- than they are about who should be their next governor.

VENTURA, Calif. - To the list of urban myths, add this one: California's foreclosure crisis was driven by people who overreached and purchased luxurious new homes they couldn't afford.

That idea is wrong on several counts, based on an exhaustive analysis of the 877,173 homes that were foreclosed upon in California between September 2006 and November 2009.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - With the front end of an oil slick estimated at 600 square miles starting to hit the marshlands of the Louisiana coast Friday, California policymakers and spill-response experts said a similar disaster here could create even more problems, more quickly.