California running out of time, and more

California running out of time

Faced with a $24 billion budget gap, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature were weighing deep cuts to schools, welfare programs, and prisons. Democrats proposed raising new revenue through taxes on the oil and tobacco industries, but Schwarzenegger’s spokesman scoffed at that idea. “All legislators are doing is running a drill,” said the spokesman, “and the time for drills is over.”

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Most of the $2.2 billion in stimulus funds allocated to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is flowing to the pet projects of legislators who oversee the corps. Two-thirds of the infrastructure repair and construction projects the corps has taken on are in the home districts or states of members of the House or Senate appropriations committees, which direct the corps’ spending. The corps conceded that its list of projects came from Congress.