Off Beat: GOP says nein, nein, nein to California

This could have been such an exciting May in California and even in the great Mid-Valley.

Nine Republicans hopefuls criss-crossing the state, offering their peculiar views and visions of America.

Some of them might even have shown up in Yuba-Sutter, much like Rick Santorum, who parachuted in for a speech a few months ago.

But that's alternative history.

In reality, there were no GOP candidates. In fact, there were no GOP candidates left by the time this state's primary rolled around, save for one. The rest dropped out long before the vaunted California primary, which has been become less vaunted in recent elections.

No Michele Bachmann. No Rick Perry. No Dan Logue following Rick Perry around. No Newt Gingrich. No Ron Paul. No guy from Utah who actually looked liked a president, but nobody voted for him.

And Herman Cain? Nein, nein, nein.

No, you GOPers wound up with that tea party favorite, the really rich guy who is so high among the 1 percenters that he can barely see the other 99.9 percent.

So it would have been fun to have all of those Republicans in California, angrily spitting charges at each other and generally making fools of themselves.

But as things turned out, they just made fools of themselves earlier in the campaign. They got tired. They dropped out. Except for one.

Kudos to Capa Lo

Out at Yuba College, they publish The Prospector, the campus sheet that tells the unvarnished truth about what goes on in Yuba County's most important educational institution.

Earlier this month, writer Capa Lo broke this exclusive:

"Has school spirit died over the years at Yuba Community College, or has it always been this way? It seems that YCC students don't really care at all about what goes on around campus. I've discovered that there is a huge lack of student participation here at Yuba College."

This hard-hitting journalism was illustrated with photos of a lot of empty spaces around campus, unpopulated by anybody.

"When asked, a few students remarked that they're just attending Yuba College for the transferable credits. They're just not simply interested in what is going on, which is completely understandable," the story continued.

The author noted, "I have seen more school spirit at a high school than I do out here. I seriously hope it doesn't take a wide-scale scandal, like a student-teacher relationship for example, to get people to start looking at what goes on around here."

Way to go, Yuba College! Keep it going! Sort of.