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SACRAMENTO -- A new water bond has risen from the ruins of two weeks of backbiting and false hope. Good thing too. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, an influential Democrat, has sent a letter accusing Democrat leaders of blocking progress on negotiations over how to respond to California's water crisis and subtly threatening to back a GOP/pro-business bond if they don't get their act together. State Sen. Mike Machado, a Linden Democrat who has been actively pursuing a deal and working with Republicans regularly, submitted a $6.8 billion compromise Thursday. Significantly, Machado's announcement included words of encouragement from Sen. Dave Cogdill,...

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush criticized Democrats on Saturday for going on vacation without first giving him what he wants: a war spending bill free of orders to pull troops home. "I recognize that Democrats are trying to show their current opposition to the war in Iraq," Bush said in his weekly radio address from Crawford, where he is on a break of his own. "They see the emergency war spending bill as a chance to make that statement," Bush said. "Yet for our men and women in uniform, this emergency war spending bill is not a political statement, it...

EL CAJON A fire ripped through an Islamic center early Thursday morning, causing $2 million in damages before it was put out, officials said. The three-alarm fire at the Kurdish Community Islamic Center was reported just after 2 a.m. and burned for more than an hour before firefighters from 15 different crews extinguished it, said Monica Zech, a spokeswoman for the El Cajon Fire Department. "When they got here, there was heavy smoke coming from the building and then the fire broke through the roof and flames were shooting through the roof," Zech said. "It's pretty much a total loss."...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Actor Warren Beatty leveled a blistering political assault on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday night, accusing him of governing "by show, by spin, by cosmetics and photos ops" while imposing Bush administration policies on California. Beatty made his remarks at a convention of the California Nurses Association, an organization that has emerged in the last year as one of Schwarzenegger's most vociferous critics. Beatty, a Democrat and longtime political activist who has been mentioned as a possible challenger to Schwarzenegger next year, did not announce his candidacy as many in the boisterous crowd had hoped. But...

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Katrina plowed into this below-sea-level city Monday with howling, 145-mph winds and blinding rain that flooded some homes to the ceilings and ripped away part of the roof of the Superdome, where thousands of people had taken shelter. Katrina weakened overnight to a Category 4 storm and turned slightly eastward before hitting land about 6:10 a.m. CDT east of Grand Isle near the bayou town of Buras, providing some hope that this vulnerable city would be spared the storm's full fury. But National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield warned that New Orleans would be pounded throughout...

Douglas rips Sen. Clinton on endorsement of tire burn MONTPELIER, Vt. Senator Hillary Clinton is jumping the gun in endorsing a two-week test tire burn at International Paper's Ticonderoga mill. That's the word from Vermont Governor James Douglas in a letter to the New York Democrat today. Douglas says Clinton's timing was off when she sent a letter earlier this month to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation urging that it approve the test tire burn. The governor notes that International Paper has yet to file an application for a permit amendment. He says he hopes the company will...

State auditors blamed Caltrans for mismanaging the Bay Bridge reconstruction and failing to report obvious cost increases — perhaps in violation of the law — in a blistering 77-page report released Wednesday. Bay Area lawmakers seized on the findings to call for an overhaul of Caltrans and to question proposals by the Schwarzenegger administration to scrap the region's preferred tower and make bridge users pay for massive overruns. Schwarzenegger's top transportation officials pointed to segments of the audit that show the elaborately complicated design is responsible for many of those out-of-control costs. Auditors offered the most complete estimate to date...

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) on Monday accused President Bush (news - web sites) of ducking his responsibility to protect the country from crime and terrorism by allowing a national assault weapons ban to expire. Kerry outlined his own $5 billion plan to fight crime and picked up the endorsement of the National Association of Police Organizations, a coalition of more than 2,000 police unions and associations. "Today George Bush (news - web sites) made the job of terrorists easier and made the job of America's law enforcement officers harder and that's just plain wrong,"...

GOP Senator Rips Bush on Iraq, Terrorism Sunday May 23, 2004 1:46 AM By MARK PRATT Associated Press Writer MEDFORD, Mass. (AP) - Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar on Saturday said the United States isn't doing enough to stave off terrorism and criticized President Bush for failing to offer solid plans for Iraq's future. Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the nation must prevent terrorism from taking root around the world by ``repairing and building alliances,'' increasing trade, supporting democracy, addressing regional conflicts and controlling weapons of mass destruction. Unless the country commits itself to such measures,...

<p>SACRAMENTO - In the wake of the Oracle software contract debacle, the state auditor on Wednesday blasted the Davis administration for shoddy oversight that allowed agencies to abuse the system by pushing purchases through quickly, but not necessarily for the best value.</p>