Lots of things officially represent California. We have a state mineral — yep, gold! We have a state fabric — denim, of course. We have a state fossil — no, not Gov. Jerry Brown — it’s the saber-toothed cat.

Now lawmakers in the state that gave us the wetsuit, Gidget and the Beach Boys are well on their way to proclaiming surfing California’s official sport. A bill to that effect passed overwhelmingly out of the state Assembly last month and is finding no resistance in the Senate.

SANTA CRUZ >> Surf’s up — for debate — in Sacramento as the state Senate considers a proposal that would make surfing the Golden State’s official sport.

Assembly Bill 1782 is in the lineup to be heard on the Senate floor as soon as this week, after which it would head to the governor’s desk. It passed through the Assembly in May with little opposition.

Mas Okui was 10 years old when he was separated from his mother.

It was April 1942. Two months before, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed Executive Order 9066, which turned the West Coast into a military zone after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. American citizens and other residents of Japanese ancestry were evicted from their homes and held in internment camps across the country.

Surfing is primed to become the official sport of California after a group of local politicians rode a wave of popular enthusiasm in the state to clinch an initial vote suporting its adoption.

The proposal will now be debated in the senate, with supporters hoping it can see off competition from backers of skateboarding, another quintessentially Californian sport.

Things got gnarly last month when a group of wetsuit-loving California lawmakers voted on a bill in the state assembly to make surfing the official state sport.

State Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, a coastal Democrat from Los Angeles County, and a "proud member of the assembly surf caucus," said he was "stoked" he had introduced the measure.

The 24th annual Manhattan Wine Auction on June 9 raised more than $1.3 million to help fund Manhattan Beach schools.

More than 40 local restaurants and 80 wineries, breweries and distilleries took part in the event. A silent auction raised a new high of $260,000 and the live auction raised $400,000, according to Hava Manasse of Manhattan Beach Education Foundation, which hosted the event.

The march toward a state budget deal for the coming fiscal year took a significant step forward Friday as Gov. Jerry Brown and leaders of the California Assembly and Senate agreed Friday on a proposed spending package that funds the governor’s marquee higher education plans to create a new online college and dramatically overhaul how community colleges are funded by the state.