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MADISON -- The state Department of Transportation has scrapped new bids on the massive Zoo Interchange project as lawmakers put the long-delayed state budget on the back burner and focus on Foxconn incentives instead.A special session will start at 11 a.m. Tuesday, August 1st on a bill that would extend $3 billion in tax breaks to the Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn, which has pledged to build a multi-billion dollar plant in southeastern Wisconsin and hire thousands of workers. A public hearing could happen this week.Meanwhile, Wisconsin's budget is a month late. Without funding, the state DOT has withdrawn three proposals...

Illinois is the reason people hate government. The state is in the middle of a terrible financial crisis and two political titans are battling over bragging rights to the political carnage. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who is likely to spend more than $100 million on his political campaign if he runs for re-election next year, claims to be on the side of reform. Rauner wants to freeze property taxes, cut worker’s compensation and undermine collective bargaining rights. He would also like term limits for state officials and reduce the gerrymandering of legislative districts. On the other side there is Michael...

As the fifth day of the federal government shutdown began, members of the House came together in a moment of rare bipartisanship to pass a bill, by a vote of 407 to 0, approving back pay for furloughed government workers....

President Barack Obama is once again warning House Republicans that he will not negotiate over a debt-ceiling increase, even as the U.S. government moves closer to its borrowing limit. Obama called Speaker John Boehner Friday night to reiterate his hard-line stance. The Ohio Republican’s office said the president called to say “he wouldn’t negotiate with him on the debt limit.” “Given the long history of using debt limit increases to achieve bipartisan deficit reduction and economic reforms, the speaker was disappointed but told the president that the two chambers of Congress will chart the path ahead,” a Boehner aide said...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is offering to add billions of dollars in funding for the U.S. nuclear stockpile in a deal that it hopes will win enough Republican support for approval of a nuclear arms control treaty with Russia. White House officials outlined the proposal to Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who is seen as the key to winning enough support to ratify the New START treaty, according to a congressional aide briefed on the proposal Friday. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment.

President Barack Obama is pushing Iraq's democracy out of the nest before it can fly and abandoning Iraqis while they are still at war, many Iraqis said on Wednesday after the end of U.S. combat operations. Obama said in an address on Tuesday that it was "time to turn the page" in Iraq, declaring the Iraqi people now had primary responsibility for their security and future.

To put it charitably, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is not having a good 2009. In February, the Los Angeles Democrat was one of a handful of state leaders who put together five budget-related ballot measures that included $16 billion in tax hikes. She then went along with the dishonest decision to omit any mention of the hikes in ballot language. When voters figured out the truth and overwhelmingly rejected the measures in a May 19 special election, Bass proclaimed she had gotten the message. Within days, however, Bass joined in efforts to spin the May 19 results as somehow having...

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls a special election this year, California voters might be forced to make the hard choices on the budget and taxes that the Legislature won't. State Controller John Chiang said in an interview that he would support putting a tax increase package to voters in an effort to break the long-running legislative stalemate that has left California with a $42 billion deficit and weeks away from delaying refunds to taxpayers and grants to college students and low-income and disabled residents. If Republicans and Democrats can't compromise on budget cuts and tax increases, "they may at least...

This was to be the year of big ambitions in California politics. In January, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, ever eager to put his stamp on outsized ideas, proposed a $12 billion overhaul of the state's health care system. It would provide universal coverage and give relief to the state's 6.5 million uninsured, a bold plan he hoped would become a national template. At the same time, he wanted a $5.9 billion makeover of California's complex network of reservoirs, pumps and canals to help the state weather future droughts and accommodate an ever-expanding population. And to increase competition for legislative seats, the...

SACRAMENTO The Democratic leader of the state Senate on Thursday said lawmakers have reached an impasse in negotiating California's overdue budget and blamed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for not doing more to broker a deal with his fellow Republicans. The comments by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata came as lawmakers in the Assembly were scheduled to begin a late-night floor session to debate the budget plan. "The (budget) bill going up tonight is a sign that we are at an impasse, and only the governor can come in and make a deal," Perata said in an interview. He "has not...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A staffing dispute that has helped shut down the U.S. House of Representatives ethics committee most of this year neared resolution on Wednesday, a top Democrat said. Such a settlement would clear the way for the anticipated investigation of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican. "I think we have a deal," Rep. Alan Mollohan (news, bio, voting record) of West Virginia, the panel's ranking Democrat, said after talks with the panel's chairman, Washington Republican Rep. Doc Hastings (news, bio, voting record). Hastings had no immediate comment. Mollohan said in a telephone interview that they had...

Koreas Can't Break Nuclear Impasse By PAUL ALEXANDER, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago SEOUL, South Korea - The two Koreas concluded their first face-to-face talks in 10 months Thursday without making any progress on the impasse over the North's nuclear program, although they did agree to hold Cabinet-level talks next month. The agreement came hours after word emerged of a secret meeting last week between U.S. and North Korean officials. The focus of both efforts was to get Pyongyang to rejoin six-nation talks on getting it to abandon its nuclear program, but the reclusive communist country -- which regularly uses...

WASHINGTON - Both political parties are to blame for the impasse on confirming President Bush (news - web sites)'s judicial nominees, says Arlen Specter, Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites). "No one wants to back down and no one wants to lose face," Specter said Thursday in his first interview with Washington reporters since disclosing he has Hodgkin's disease. Specter will initiate this year's confirmation battles between Bush and the Democrats by holding hearings on the nominations of former Interior Department Solicitor William Myers on Tuesday, a nominee who was blocked last year, and U.S....

Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, a key Democratic player in budget talks, on Friday blamed a band of shopping mall-heavy cities for holding up budget negotiations over the matter of protecting their bank accounts. Steinberg said he and other lawmakers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and local government groups agree that city and county treasuries must be protected in the state constitution. But he said cities, in particular those paying their bills from large sales tax bases, are asking for too much, to the possible peril of other government services, and are balking at important changes to the system through which the...

House, Senate negotiators bicker as deadline looms BY APRIL CASTRO Associated Press Writer AUSTIN - Adopting new Texas congressional district lines without delaying next year's primary election seemed increasingly unlikely Saturday as a key House negotiator called the Senate's latest proposal impossible. House and Senate negotiators are working around the clock to agree on a map that would increase the number of Republicans from Texas in Congress. Republican Gov. Rick Perry has called Monday the "drop dead date" to approve a map without affecting the state's March 2 primary. But there is a constitutionally required 24-hour waiting period between when...

<p>State Superintendent of Education Jack O'Connell plans to ask the California Supreme Court to intervene in the state's budget standoff and ease the way for tax increases to minimize school cuts, a spokesman said late Wednesday.</p> <p>O'Connell is expected to announce today that he plans to file a petition like that of GOP Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, which led that state's Supreme Court to lift strict requirements, similar to those in California, to enact tax hikes.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO - The stalemate over how to fix California's massive $38.2 billion budget shortfall appears to come down to a dispute over what to do about less than $2 billion.</p> <p>Republicans and Democrats -- at least in the Senate -- have reached agreement on cuts and borrowing that will plug most of the deficit.</p>

SACRAMENTO -- Ending a record two-month budget impasse, the state Assembly approved a $98-billion spending plan late Saturday that includes $2.4 billion in additional taxes. Republicans blasted the budget proposal as unbalanced and irresponsible, but it passed the Assembly with the minimum 54 votes on the final night of the two-year legislative session . The Senate, which approved its version of the budget two months ago, was expected to agree to at least most of the Assembly version by early today. The deal, negotiated by Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) and Assembly Republican leader Dave Cox of Fair Oaks,...