Sacramento Topics

Shoppers cross between the Asian Garden Mall and Asian Village shopping center in Westminster, Calif. on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Surging Latino and Asian populations accounted for virtually all of California’s population growth over the last decade, new census data showed on Tuesday. In the decade spanning 2000 and 2010, Latinos grew by 28 percent to 14 million in the nation’s most populous state, while Asians grew even faster, by 31 percent, to reach 4.8 million. In contrast, non-Hispanic whites decreased by 5 percent and the state’s African-American population dipped by 1 percent. Over the decade, California’s population grew only 10 percent to 37.3 million, ranking just 20th nationally and lagging behind other western states such as Nevada and Arizona.

Ye Her, left, attends the citizenship ceremony with her daughter May Saechao on Wednesday. The Hmong refugee said, "I've never felt this happy in my life before." Census data show that the share of immigrants coming to California from Asia has grown to 57 percent.

The Career Expo at Sacramento's Masonic Temple include Melvin Griffith, 75, on Tuesday. He wanted a position that gives him more hours than his Census Bureau job. Others at the job fair would like a job, period, after searching for many months.

Morning traffic on Interstate 5 downtown backs up earlier this year because of a police manhunt. Californians take an average of 26.9 minutes to get to work, 10th longest in the nation, census data show.