The seats were filled last night when Madeleine Albright came to the Mondavi Center to discuss her life, her political career and her concerns for the future. A former secretary of the state and ambassador to the United Nations, Albright played a prominent role in global politics during the Clinton administration. A self-described “idealistic realist,” Albright said she sought justice and peace through diplomacy and democracy, though she was well aware of how challenging that could be. “Believe in the fact that we are all the same,” Albright said. “Don’t believe that people aren’t ready for democracy – believe people aren’t ready for anything else.” Albright was once the highest-ranking

If you run a business or work with a nonprofit group, you might have received a letter recently from the Business Filings Division, located at 980 9th St., 16th Floor in Sacramento. Although it says "Business Mail - Important Notice Enclosed", underneath that it also says "This is not a government document". You wouldn't know that by looking at the form that is enclosed. It is an official looking form that looks suspiciously like a form from the California Secretary of State's office and demands that you remit a payment of $235.00 by October 15th! They also include frightening information that says you will face fines and penalties and perhaps even a dreaded suspension. But at the bott

Today's online edition of The Sacramento Bee featured an interesting story by Phillip Reese, the paper's stat master, who has been putting together a terrific series of interactive maps and charts using data from various state and local databases. Today's was a listing (and slide show) of the most liberal and the most conservative cities in the state, based on data from the Secretary of State's office. According to the charts, the most liberal city (that is, the city with the highest percentage of registered Democrats) in the state was -- no surprise -- Berkeley (only 4.5 percent Republican). The most conservative (highest percentage of registered Republicans) was tiny Canyon Lake, a gat