Free Republic

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst warned Wednesday that while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $111.7 billion budget plan solves next year's problem, the state still faces big deficits in the future because spending remains out of balance with tax income. But Analyst Elizabeth Hill also advised against Schwarzenegger's proposed long term solution to the problem - a constitutional amendment that would trigger accross-the-board cuts when revenues fail to meet spending obligations. Hill said the measure, which Schwarzenegger wants to put before voters in a special election this year, would put even more spending "on cruise control" while undermining the Legislature's...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

US Saudi hostage ultimatum looms People in Mr Johnson's hometown are rallying round his family Saudi authorities are stepping up their search for a US hostage whose captors have threatened to kill him on Friday if their demands are not met. Paul Johnson, 49, was seized in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, last Saturday. The group said on Tuesday he would be killed within 72 hours if al-Qaeda members in Saudi jails were not freed. Mr Johnson's Thai wife, Thanom, pleaded for his release on Arabic TV, as the US and Saudi Arabia insist they will not negotiate with hostage-takers. Door-to-door...

<p>In August 1996, the California Legislature unanimously passed Assembly Bill 1890, which provided for electric utility restructuring within the state. One of the primary goals of the bill, which was signed into law in September 1996, was to give customers a choice of electricity providers and to make available to them the expected price- reducing and service-enhancing benefits of competition.</p>

Australia watches as death looms in Nauru asylum camp By Kathy Marks in Sydney 16 December 2003 Two years after Australia introduced its so-called "Pacific Solution" for asylum-seekers, eight Afghans on the remote island of Nauru were taken to hospital yesterday after refusing food and water for almost a week. The eight are among 284 people, including 93 children, being held in a detention camp on the South Pacific island in conditions condemned as deplorable by refugee advocates. Campaigners claim that several protesters are urinating blood, and fear they may be close to death. Twenty-four men - 23 Afghans and...

<p>In a little-noticed provision of his initial budget proposal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking the Legislature to deny welfare recipients a cost-of-living increase that would have been triggered by his rolling back of the state car tax.</p> <p>The proposal came to light Wednesday as lawmakers started asking questions about the budget package Schwarzenegger unveiled the day before and held a strained first meeting with the governor's finance director.</p>

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Gov. Gray Davis, after months without filling a single judicial vacancy, began churning out appointments the day the election to recall him was certified, state records show. Davis has appointed 15 judges since July 23, the day the secretary of state announced the recall question would go to voters. The appointments, along with one other made two days before the special election became official, were the governor's first since April 3.</p>

<p>Some of the tens of thousands of Mexicans who were forced to renounce their nationality upon becoming U.S. citizens are scrambling to reclaim it this month at the Mexican consulates in San Jose and San Francisco.</p> <p>Faced with a March 20 deadline, some of these American citizens are applying for Mexican nationality so they can obtain a Mexican passport and take advantage of certain benefits should they or their children decide to return to their birth country.</p>

<p>The campaign for the top board post at the nation's largest and most influential public pension fund pits one of California's most powerful politicians against a state labor leader.</p> <p>On Thursday, the 13-member California Public Employees' Retirement System governing board is expected to elect as its president either San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown or Sean Harrigan, a vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.</p>

<p>Sen. Ross Johnson, R-Irvine, urged Democrats to "think hard" before passing the vehicle bill because there will be times they need bipartisan support, a sentiment echoed by Gov. Davis.</p> <p>The Senate approved a bill Monday that would allow state vehicle license fees to triple, setting the stage for an almost-certain veto by Gov. Gray Davis and a setback in efforts to address the state's fiscal crisis.</p>