California

High above Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles nests th three-room headquarters for the California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI). Looking out the 14th-floor window, a visitor notices a lush green golf course across the street.''That's the Hillcrest Country Club,'' explains Joe Gelman, the 35-year-old campaign manager for the CCRI, which, if passed by California voters next year, would wipe out government-sponsored racial and gender preferences in the Golden State.As recorded in Neil Gabler's ''An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood,'' Hillcrest was founded by the Los Angeles Jewish community in 1920, when the existing country clubs were WASP-only preserves.

Have no fear that California ever will become "normal" or "boring" -- at least so far as its tourism advertising is concerned.Recently the state kicked off a $3 million nationwide television-and-print ad campaign geared to polish California's tarnished image as a vacation destination. Developed under contract with the J. Walter Thompson agency in San Francisco, the campaign includes as a component a new, toll-free telephone number -- (800) GO-CALIF ([800] 462-2543) -- that consumers can call to receive any of four "travel tip sheets" within minutes via fax machine.

LOS ANGELES -- When the California Legislature recently advanced the date of the state's 1996 presidential primary from June to March, the chief beneficiary was widely seen to be President Clinton.In 1992, candidate Bill Clinton won the Golden State handily and his approval rating here has been higher than in most other states. He has returned here often and has appeared to take a special interest in lifting California out of the depths of its recession, to the point of naming Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown to oversee federal efforts to enhance its economic recovery.

Washington. -- If today's California is any measure of where the other 49 states are headed on the immigration issue, stormy seas lie ahead.The tide of immigration, legal and illegal, flooding across the once-Golden State is tossing up a political backlash of some proportions and raising some deep and troublesome questions about the American character, and where the country may be headed.California's population is expanding by some 700,000 people a year, mostly immigrants, some 100,000 of them illegal.

WASHINGTON -- A decision this week by the Environmental Protection Ageency (EPA) clears the way for Maryland and other Northeastern states to combat the region's smog problems by requiring more stringent controls on auto and truck exhaust than the federal law requires, state air quality officials said yesterday.The EPA, after several months' delay, Thursday granted California a waiver from the 1990 Clean Air Act, allowing the state with the worst pollution problems in the country to impose the nation's toughest emission standards on new cars and trucks, starting with model year 1994.

It certainly would seem that way. One calamity after another has hit the Golden State. Earthquakes. Firestorms. Prolonged drought. Intense smog. Unreal traffic gridlock. Recession. And now massive urban rioting. California seems to be under a perpetual state of siege.Yet for millions, California remains the land of opportunity. A vast tidal wave of Asian and Latino immigrants has swelled the population to 30 million, with another 650,000 people arriving each year. They are placing a strain on a state government already on the verge of breakdown.

Los Angeles. -- In June 1991, as California was in the throes of its annual budget war, a Democratic state legislator scoffed at the idea that the impending tax increase -- the largest in the history of any state -- would cause businesses to flee California. Oh sure, he said, ''They're going to take all those yachts from Newport Harbor and move them to Tonopah, Nevada.''Try Tucson. That is where the Hughes company is taking 4,500 jobs. When considering relocation of its missile-building operation, Hughes compared Arizona and California regarding about 50 factors -- taxes, regulatory burden, utility rates, labor costs, housing, etc. -- and decided Arizona was superior in all but two categories.

LOS ANGELES -- A large rooftop billboard looking down at the Bill Clinton state campaign headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard proclaims: "A Race Even a Democrat Can Win."The sign does not, however, refer to this year's presidential race, but rather is an advertisement for the Hollywood Park racetrack -- an ad that mocks the Democratic reputation for losing, as in the string of five defeats in the last six presidential elections.Mr. Clinton hopes to demonstrate he has the support to buck that sorry record by winning the final major primary on the 1992 political track here in California on June 2. Ordinarily a candidate so far ahead in delegates at this time -- 1,824.

WASHINGTON -- The latest opinion poll numbers from California -- in which Democratic nominee Bill Clinton leads President Bush 62 percent to 28 percent -- have hit the 1992 campaign with explosive force. It is suddenly clear to everyone that the president is in serious trouble.California is a special case in the political arithmetic this year: 54 electoral votes, one-fifth of the 270 needed to win the election. From the outset, the conventional wisdom in both parties is that it is a "must win" state for Clinton, and now the new Mervin Field poll indicates he has an excellent chance of winning it.The poll had a particular impact, however, because it is the latest in a series of surveys showing Clinton leading Bush all over the country, although not everywhere by such bizarre 34-point margins.

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Brian Hendrick scored 15 of his game-high 25 points in the first half, as California built a 55-24 halftime lead en route to a 97-50 victory over Morgan State last night.California (2-0) took control of the game by forcing Morgan State (0-3) to commit 13 first-half turnovers and out-rebounding it, 35-18. Morgan State made eight of 34 shots (23.5 percent) in the first half.Ural Hogans scored 12 points and Charles Feagin added 10 for Morgan State, which shot 29 percent from the floor.

The Obama administration granted California permission Tuesday to begin enforcing its stricter auto emissions standards, paving the way for Maryland and other states to also curb tailpipe emissions, considered a major culprit in climate change. Under an agreement reached among the governments, industry and environmentalists, the federal government will adopt the California standards and begin enforcing them nationwide in 2012. The accord means that California, as well as Maryland and a dozen other states that also formulated their own plans, will move modestly ahead of schedule, with the most efficiency achieved by 2016 - when the average miles per gallon for passenger cars and light trucks sold across the country will be 35.5.

CHICAGO -- Part of becoming an adult is accepting responsibility for the consequences of your actions. That's one tempting argument for arrested adolescence. It's much more satisfying to congratulate yourself for everything good that happens to you while blaming someone else for everything bad. Judging from his recent conduct, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has been watching too many reruns of Peter Pan. His is the latest bid for membership in the Have Your Cake and Eat It Too Club.

Evidence that California no longer occupies the special place it once held in the American psyche can be found in the state's declining suicide rate. Two decades ago, Californians committed suicide at a rate 50 percent higher than the rest of the country. The explanation was that California was the end of the line for those searching for the frontier that was so central to the American character. People seeking that elusive goal just beyond the horizon could go no further. So, they ended the journey.

THE STATE of California made its bed. It enacted partial electric power deregulation - wholesale but not retail - in the hope that a permanent supply surplus would always keep price down. California grew its economy, increasing power use by one-fourth in the past five years while building no generating capacity in a decade. California was legally, structurally and emotionally unprepared for a shortage. Then the rains stopped in neighboring states, on whose hydroelectric power generation California arrogantly depends.

LAKE MEAD, Nev. - In a final effort to settle the Western water wars, the Clinton administration plans to announce this week a tentative truce between California and six other states over how to divvy up water from this enormous reservoir behind Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. But the guys who run the Lake Mead Marina are skeptical. California's reputation as the water hog of the West is firmly rooted in this part of the country. "California seems to have a surreal attitude about water," said Taz Hansen, 50, the marina's maintenance supervisor.

LOS ANGELES - In the 40 years since Sen. John F. Kennedy was nominated for president by the Democratic Party here, California has played an often critical role in the politics of both major parties. It is doing so again this week as Vice President Al Gore is chosen as the Democratic standard-bearer and his party strives to win the state for the third presidential election in a row. Most polls show Gore holding a lead over Republican nominee George W. Bush in California. But with Green Party nominee Ralph Nader registering support among Democratic liberals, the Gore campaign can't take California for granted, as President Clinton was able to do the past two times out. With 54 electoral votes at stake, the largest single share available and one-fifth of the 270 required for nomination, Gore needs California.

High above Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles nests th three-room headquarters for the California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI). Looking out the 14th-floor window, a visitor notices a lush green golf course across the street.''That's the Hillcrest Country Club,'' explains Joe Gelman, the 35-year-old campaign manager for the CCRI, which, if passed by California voters next year, would wipe out government-sponsored racial and gender preferences in the Golden State.As recorded in Neil Gabler's ''An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood,'' Hillcrest was founded by the Los Angeles Jewish community in 1920, when the existing country clubs were WASP-only preserves.

Have no fear that California ever will become "normal" or "boring" -- at least so far as its tourism advertising is concerned.Recently the state kicked off a $3 million nationwide television-and-print ad campaign geared to polish California's tarnished image as a vacation destination. Developed under contract with the J. Walter Thompson agency in San Francisco, the campaign includes as a component a new, toll-free telephone number -- (800) GO-CALIF ([800] 462-2543) -- that consumers can call to receive any of four "travel tip sheets" within minutes via fax machine.

LOS ANGELES -- When the California Legislature recently advanced the date of the state's 1996 presidential primary from June to March, the chief beneficiary was widely seen to be President Clinton.In 1992, candidate Bill Clinton won the Golden State handily and his approval rating here has been higher than in most other states. He has returned here often and has appeared to take a special interest in lifting California out of the depths of its recession, to the point of naming Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown to oversee federal efforts to enhance its economic recovery.

Washington. -- If today's California is any measure of where the other 49 states are headed on the immigration issue, stormy seas lie ahead.The tide of immigration, legal and illegal, flooding across the once-Golden State is tossing up a political backlash of some proportions and raising some deep and troublesome questions about the American character, and where the country may be headed.California's population is expanding by some 700,000 people a year, mostly immigrants, some 100,000 of them illegal.