Here is a terrible, tragic story about the separation of an elderly gay couple by Sonoma County, California, the subsequent death of one member of that couple, and the auctioning of their property. A suit has been filed.

Poor blogger Mickey Kaus is running for Senate, and no one really cares. But we do, so we launched a little project to gather dirt on him. The best we got is that he brings heroin-addicted sex perverts into schools.

A repeal of California's ban on same-sex marriage will not be voted on in November.

The ground is still acting up in Mexico in the wake of Sunday's 7.2 quake.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit southern California and northern Mexico at 3:30 this afternoon, local time. The quake's epicenter was 108 miles east of Tijuana in Baja California. The quake was felt throughout the LA area, and there have been scattered reports of damages. [NYT]

California has finally realized the only way to rescue itself from the sinking tarpit of its fiscal crisis is to pimp out Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's why the Governator is doing ads in Japan, tagged with the slogan "It's-Got-Everything-fornia!"

Come November, the state may be the first in the US to legalize, and therefore tax, weed. A $20 billion budget deficit may have something to do with it. But isn't it already legal there or something? [LA Times]

There's never been a better time to go on a crime spree in California. To cut the state's $20 billion budget deficit, under a proposed plan convicted felons can be released on parole with no supervision. Not a bad idea!

Uhhh, clearly California legislators have not been studying our list of Places People Can Always Smoke, No Takebacks. They're now trying to outlaw smoking at state parks and at beaches. Is there no smokin' nature left?

Slate blogger and union-buster Mickey Kaus is running for Senate in California. It's kind of a gag—he doesn't expect to win. But we'd like to make it a realistic experience for Mickey, and we need your help.

Slate blogger and pathological counterintuitionist Mickey Kaus is actually serious about challenging Barbara Boxer in the California Democratic primary. The deadline to file nomination papers is tomorrow, and he's been gathering signatures. Will Slate let him write as a candidate?

This is Roy Ashburn, a Republican California State Senator, was arrested yesterday for drunk driving while leaving a Sacramento gay bar with a trick in the car! But look at these pictures. How did he stay closeted for so long?

It needed but this. Prince Frederic von Anhalt, who the AP describe as the "lover (never confirmed) of Anna Nicole Smith," and a "self-proclaimed member of European royalty," will try and fill Arnold Schwarzenegger's chair in the upcoming election.

At least that's what I think is going on in this video? A sheep with laser-eyes is running around, gunning down other sheep in order to win the California Republican primary on the platform to end California's sheep infestations. Right?

Out in California, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is running for Senate as a Republican against terrible liberal Barbara Boxer. And her former company is, for some reason, donating a lot of money to Boxer.

Jersey Shore, the (overly) buzzed-about documentary series created by the vengeful ghost of Margaret Mead, is coming to an end tonight. (Well, a season end, at least.) So what do we do now? Explore other terrible youth cultures, of course!

Ted Olson, the attorney who won Bush v. Gore, also won today's Supreme Court campaign finance decision. He is basically terrible! But here is the twist: he is arguing for gay marriage in the ongoing Proposition 8 suit!

Our Supreme Court has just barred District Judge Vaughn Walker from putting the upcoming California Proposition 8 trial on YouTube. "The high court did not explain its reasoning."

As of right now, major networks and newspapers are failing to report what's being noted on Twitter as a giant fucking earthquake that just hit somewhere around Humboldt County. But Twitter users sure seem to know what's up.

Today, a judge ruled video of next week's trial on the constitutionality of California's gay marriage ban could be uploaded YouTube. Now a question looms larger even than Prop. 8's constitutionality: Will the trial go viral?