We study both the spin and electrical conductivities in models of relevance to the high
Tc cuprates. These models describe metallic states with or without spin-charge separation. We demonstrate that, given a linear in temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity, the spin resistivity should also be linear in temperature in the absence of spin-charge separation and under conditions appropriate at least for the optimally doped cuprates, but is in general {\it not} so in the presence of spin-charge separation. Based on these results, we propose to use the temperature dependence of the electron spin diffusion constant to diagnose spin-charge separation in the cuprates.
Using Gutzwiller-projected wave functions, I estimate the ground-state energy of the $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}J$ model for several variational states relevant for high-temperature cuprate superconductors. The results indicate that both the superconducting state and the staggered-flux normal state (proposed for vortex cores) are unstable at low doping towards antiferromagnetism and towards phase separation. While phase separation in the underdoped superconducting state may be relevant for the stripe formation mechanism, the results for the normal state suggest that similar charge inhomogeneities may also appear in vortex cores up to relatively high doping values.