SACRAMENTO -- California officials are still cleaning up the mess after halting an expensive and troubled overhaul of the payroll system for public employees earlier this year.

Roughly two dozen workers are responsible for sifting through the rubble to determine exactly how many errors were made while the upgrade was tested on 1,300 employees for several months.

The faulty tests led the controller’s office, which was overseeing the upgrade, to fire its contractor, SAP Public Services, in February.

During the testing, some workers were paid too much, others too little. Money was not sent...

Operators of medical marijuana dispensaries are welcoming action Monday by state lawmakers that would block prosecutions for illegal drug sales by cooperatives and collectives under certain conditions.

The state Senate on Monday approved legislation saying that a medical marijuana cooperative, collective or other business entity is not subject to prosecution for drug sales as long as the compensation they receive is reasonable and they follow security guidelines set by the state attorney general in 2008.

“It’s a long time coming. I’m glad they are doing something,” said...

Medical marijuana dispensaries that abide by security rules in California would not be subject to local or state prosecution for illegal sales under a measure approved Monday by the state Senate.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) proposed the measure to clarify ambiguous laws on medical marijuana, which was approved for legal use in California by voters in 1996. The current law allowing the sale of medical cannabis has resulted in “needless” arrests and prosecutions, he said.

SB 439 says collectives, cooperatives and other business entities can receive...

BERKELEY -- Gov. Jerry Brown said Monday he was "digging deeply into" the questions surrounding the safety of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and said he could not commit to a scheduled Labor Day opening for the new span.

"I take it very seriously and that thing is not going to open unless it's ready," he said. "The engineers are telling me that they're doing the kind of work that will be needed for that to happen."

Brown's comments came before his commencement address to political science students at UC Berkeley, where he received his undergraduate degree 52 years ago. In a 10-...

Hoping to build on momentum for changing the country’s immigration laws, busloads of immigrants from throughout California are descending on Sacramento on Monday to push for a half dozen bills at the state level.

About 500 immigrants from as far away as San Diego are expected to participate in Monday’s 17^th annual Immigrant Day, meeting with lawmakers and their staffs to advocate for priority bills, according to Reshma Shamasunder, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center.

"As immigration reform picks up unprecedented momentum, a critical mass of Californians...

Back in February, George Skelton examined the Republican field of potential candidates for governor and said Abel Maldonado seemed like a pretty good idea.

Maldonado is a moderate in a party that has drifted to the right and a former mayor, lawmaker and lieutenant governor. Plus, he's Latino, a demographic group Republicans are desperate to win over. 

"Certainly he could carry the GOP banner while passing the laugh test," Skelton thought.

Three months later, Skelton is wondering what happened to Maldonado. In his Monday column, he says the potential candidate has played loose with the facts...

SACRAMENTO -- The Legislature's top budget advisor said Friday that California can expect much more tax revenue than Gov. Jerry Brown has estimated.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office projected that the state will receive a bit more than $100 billion in general-fund revenue in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

That's $2.8 billion, or nearly 3%, higher than the Brown administration's estimate of $97.2 billion. The governor had downgraded his estimates since releasing his initial budget proposal in January, saying the economy was not growing fast enough.

The Legislative Analyst's...

SACRAMENTO -- Earlier this week, Gov. Jerry Brown surprised budget watchers with his pessimistic outlook for California’s future, predicting that state revenues will come in about $2 billion lower next year than his administration thought in January.

Now, the Legislature’s number crunchers will make their predictions.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office will release its own revenue forecast Friday afternoon, setting the stage for the next four weeks of budget negotiations before the June 15 constitutional deadline.

Brown blamed federal cuts associated with the sequester and a...

Ever squinted to read the directions on a medicine bottle but couldn’t make out the small print?

California lawmakers have the prescription to solve that problem.

The state Senate has approved legislation requiring pharmacists to print specific, important information on prescription labels in at least 12-point type.

The bill was the idea of Senate Majority Leader Ellen M. Corbett (D-East Bay), who cited a survey by the state Board of Pharmacy that found 60% of people want larger or bolder print on prescription labels.

“SB 205 assists patients to better read the labels on their...

Felons released from prison are committing new crimes at roughly the same rate they did before Gov. Jerry Brown switched their supervision to county probation, but a new report says repeat offenses are up.

The study, released by the state corrections department Thursday, holds that there is "very little difference between the one-year arrest and conviction rates of offenders released pre- and post-Realignment." That was the message highlighted in a press statement from the corrections department.

The press office chose not to highlight a study finding that repeat offenses increased during the...

SACRAMENTO -- A California lawmaker is making a renewed push to limit the detention and deportation of immigrants who are in the country illegally after his legislation was vetoed last year by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The bill, authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), was approved by the Assembly with a 44-22 vote on Thursday. It now goes to the state Senate.

The measure (AB 4) would limit local law enforcement from working with federal authorities to detain illegal immigrants except in cases involving a serious or violent crime.

“We have to move this bill forward to restore...