Capitol Weekly, LA Times team up

Sacramento political coverage is increasingly dependent on blogs to push stories, everything from the Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert to Rough & Tumble. With that in mind, the Los Angeles Times has joined forces with the Sacramento-based Capitol Weekly to produce a blog about California politics in the run-up to the November elections.

The blog is called, coincidentally enough, "California Politics," and the contents can be found here or here. The primary writer for the blog is Capitol Weekly editor Anthony York, but other reporters are contributing, including Shane Goldmacher, who was a driving force behind the success of the Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert before he got hired away by the Times.

Four in the evening

1. The nonprofit news outlet ProPublica has joined forces with Marketplace to do a comparison of the patchwork unemployment insurance programs across the United States - don't get fired in Mississippi if you can help it. ProPublica

2. The California State Parks Foundation has launched a campaign to stop Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from making real his threat to close up to 200 state parks as way to shave a little from the state's massive budget deficit. CSPF

3. The San Jose Mercury News has promoted Bert Robinson, 47, to be managing editor of the newspaper. He replaces David Satterfield, who left in November. SJMN

4. Another blow to the California ego: Census figures found the state ranks as the 16th lowest when it comes to Internet access for individuals. Capitol Alert