From the time big retailers began fleeing Fresno’s downtown more than 40 years ago, community leaders have chased just about every easy fix that’s been dangled in front of them to make downtown vibrant again. Read comments

By Jim Boren Read comments

As cynical as I have become about the California Legislature, I was still stunned by the reaction to Controller John Chiang's decision not to pay lawmakers for not passing a balanced budget. Democrats had no idea that the controller wouldn't play along with their phony budget. Read comments

Here’s more evidence that we need a part-time Legislature in California: It took lawmakers almost six months to come up with a phony budget, which Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed within hours of its passage. Part-timers couldn’t have done any worse, and likely would have solved the problem. Read comments

Another round of standardized test scores have been released and education experts, politicians and parents are assessing the results. Unfortunately, this accountability system doesn’t tell us much beyond what we already knew about our public schools. Read comments