Let's Just Chop Off Those Cities

By Janice Castro

Inflamed by tax squabbles, water fights and rampant north-south snobbery, Californians who can't get along often talk about cutting the state in half. Usually they imagine a line midway, somewhere around Monterey. But Stan Statham, a Republican assemblyman from far-north Redding, wants more radical surgery. He would draw the border above Sacramento for a new 51st state called Northern California. But that would leave most of the state's economic hubs -- including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Silicon Valley -- in the new state to the south. Hey Stan, whose side are you on?

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart