Damage controller -- Susan Kennedy is nothing if not direct. Just ask Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, who sparred with the 5-foot-2, Democratic chief of staff to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over the color of the senator's socks. SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON in the Orange County Register -- 4/9/06

Angelides' rocky bank investment -- Nothing about the transaction was illegal. But if he had sold his interest for $250 or more, he would have been required to report the income on the conflict-of-interest forms that all candidates must complete. John Hill in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/9/06

Angelides, flagging in the polls, unleashes assaults on Westly -- Politicians rarely tell us directly what they're doing and why, so one is compelled to seek telltale clues to their motives. Last week's sharp escalation of hostilities between the two Democratic candidates for governor, Phil Angelides and Steve Westly, is a case in point. Dan Walters in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/9/06

Doolittle's foes focus on ethics -- As the election season heats up, Rep. John Doolittle's close association with felonious lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Tony Rudy is certain to remain the burning issue through the June primary and into November. Never has Doolittle, with 16 years in the House, had so many challengers seeking his seat. All said that Doolittle's connection to the Abramoff scandal is adding fuel to their campaigns. David Whitney in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/9/06

Acting, politics in race for governor's seat -- It seemed that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would have an easy time getting re-elected this year. After all, Californians have always liked actors playing politicians — even in real life. It doesn't really matter what they do in office. Face time on television or the movies is always worth several million votes in the Golden State. Jim Boren in the Fresno Bee -- 4/9/06

Ballot watch: The Secretary of State's race -- Graphic in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/9/06

18 Candidates Vie for Cunningham Seat in Congress -- A Democrat is expected to get the most votes -- but not enough to send her to Washington -- and then be defeated in a runoff by a GOP foe. Tony Perry in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

50th District campaigns hit home stretch -- The large field has made it a challenge for voters to sort through the qualifications, platforms and personalities of the candidates. It also has created a series of logistical problems for pollsters ---- who struggled to keep respondents on the line long enough to complete surveys ---- and for those who have organized candidate forums and have been forced to limit the amount of time each candidate could speak. WILLIAM FINN BENNETT in the North County Times -- 4/9/06

action urged on emissions -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted nothing to do with it. His top climate advisers endorsed it, then awkwardly retreated. Even environmentalists didn't press for a "gas tax," for fear of political backlash. The governor's advisory Climate Action Team issued ambitious recommendations last week for reducing global warming emissions without specifying how the 45-year effort would be financed. Chris Bowman and Edie Lau in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/9/06

Tempting fate: Bad assumptions undermine levees -- On a cloudy February day in 1998, the Army Corps of Engineers wrote Sacramento flood officials to tell them that Natomas, a deep floodplain with wide stretches of undeveloped land, had been fortified against 100-year floods. Carrie Peyton Dahlberg in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/9/06

Managing or manipulating? -- San Diegans pay millions of dollars in water and sewer fees each year, amassing a pot of cash that has proven too tantalizing to resist for a city struggling to finance day-to-day operations. Jennifer Vigil and Lori Weisberg in the San Diego Union-Trib -- 4/9/06

Organizers aim to get marchers onto voter rolls -- People who participate in the march for immigrant rights today will see as many as 100 voter registration volunteers working the crowd downtown, along with voter registration tables at the start and end points. Leslie Berestein in the San Diego Union-Trib -- 4/9/06

Immigration Recrimination -- With the Senate at an impasse despite reaching a bipartisan deal, Bush and a top Democrat jab fingers at each other. T. Christian Miller in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

'We can become good citizens' -- Illegal immigrants Manuel and Esther Dagio weren't exactly living in the shadows when Ronald Reagan's offer of amnesty came along in autumn 1986. They owned a business and a house and saw their four U.S.-born children off to public school every day. Not bad for two Mexican villagers who never finished elementary school. Joe Rodriguez in the San Jose Mercury -- 4/9/06

Rally around U.S. flag -- About 100 people carrying American flags gathered in front of Costa Mesa City Hall on Saturday, protesting recent rallies where the Mexican flag has been raised. VALERIA GODINES in the Orange County Register -- 4/9/06

Marchers honor Chavez, push for amnesty -- In a scene that has become increasingly familiar in recent weeks in Pomona, Latino demonstrators Saturday paraded through the city with signs and banners -- this time to pay tribute to celebrated labor organizer Cesar Chavez. Jason Newell in the Inland Daily Bulletin -- 4/9/06

Former security official fears 'catastrophic attack' possible -- Immigration reform legislation stalled last week in Washington, D.C., but continuing security problems along the southern U.S. border --and fraud allegations within the Department of Homeland Security --promised to keep the immigration profile high during Congress' two-week hiatus. Sara Carter in the Inland Daily Bulletin -- 4/9/06

Back on the road -- Similar scenes play out nearly every day in Sonoma County and throughout the state: an illegal immigrant who is prohibited by state law from getting a driver's license is pulled over for a broken tail light, an illegal turn, a lead foot. What follows is a cycle that is a way of life in the secretive world of undocumented residents who have easy access to vehicles, but no access to gaining a license to drive. MARTIN ESPINOZA in the Santa Rosa Press -- 4/9/06

Crash victim opposes licensing illegals -- The years have come and gone since Tiah-Marie Foley was nearly killed by an unlicensed driver in 1998, but the one thing time hasn't diminished is her constant pain. MARTIN ESPINOZA in the Santa Rosa Press -- 4/9/06

Revolving door for unlicensed drivers -- Their crime is driving without a license. One judge compared it to a parking ticket because it's a law you can violate over and over again and satisfy by paying a fine. But the costs are far greater. MARTIN ESPINOZA in the Santa Rosa Press -- 4/9/06

War's Cost -- Whenever a Californian is killed, the governor has flags at the Capitol lowered to half-staff. Each loss `hits my heart,' he says. Jenifer Warren in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

Soldier's the pride of his community -- Home from Iraq, Kou Saelor says reception from Iu Mien is 'overwhelming' Erika Chavez in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/9/06

Leaking Stories a Fine Art -- Months after U.S. troops stormed into Iraq, the Pentagon drafted a top-secret document using classified intelligence to spell out Baghdad's involvement with Al Qaeda. It supported one of President Bush's strongest arguments for the war. Within days, big chunks of the classified report appeared verbatim in a conservative magazine, the Weekly Standard, complete with the paragraph numbers that are a telltale feature of Defense Department documents. Richard T. Cooper and Faye Fiore in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

Healthcare Bill Is a Vital Sign of Bipartisan Progress -- Two miracles took place in Massachusetts last week. First, the Legislature approved the nation's most ambitious effort to expand access to health insurance. Second, the plan emerged from a process of creative bipartisan collaboration between Republican Gov. Mitt Romney and an overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature. Ronald Brownstein in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

GOP Tries to Drown Out Woes -- Burdened by an unpopular war and divisions over immigration and other issues, Republicans are turning to an old standby — taxes — to unite the party and boost its prospects in the midterm elections. From Washington to Sacramento, strategists say the issue can help put the GOP back on offense while energizing Republican loyalists, whose turnout is crucial to the party's November success. Mark Z. Barabak in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

'Good Judas' idea provocative, but a tough sell -- It's going to take more than the translation of an old Coptic papyrus to rehabilitate the image of Judas Iscariot. Julian Guthrie in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 4/9/06

beliefs unshaken by new gospel -- Faithful say they are interested in the document that says Judas didn't betray Jesus. MICHELLE DeARMOND in the Riverside Press -- 4/9/06

'Journalism by other means' makes its mark -- The invasion of Iraq and the three years of war that followed it seem unlikely to go down in history as a proud era for American journalism. Critics on the political left and right, journalism professors and even many reporters agree that the media -- print and electronic alike -- failed to provide accurate, unbiased or complete coverage of the past three years and particularly the run-up to the war. Matthew B. Stannard in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 4/9/06

Steve Garvey -- Financial chaos has plagued Steve Garvey for years. As his money problems deepened, he continued to burnish his `Mr. Clean' image. Scott Glover and Matt Lait in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

49ers scramble for new stadium plan -- Seeing the writing on the wall, the San Francisco 49ers are now trying to come up with a new stadium plan -- one that would not use the $100 million promised by the city. Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 4/9/06

Charters key to education reform plans -- Every California governor since at least 1990 has preached the value of local control in education - while practicing a top-down approach from Sacramento. With state government doling out most of the money that goes to the schools, the temptation is always there to also control how that money should be spent, and recent governors have not been able to resist the lure. Daniel Weintraub in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/9/06

Exit exam revolt -- In what could become the first school-based rebellion against the state's high-stakes high school exit exam law, one of the Bay Area's largest school districts is considering awarding diplomas to seniors who have failed the exam but are otherwise qualified to graduate. Luis Zaragoza in the San Jose Mercury -- 4/9/06

Degree of doubt -- Inland seniors who have yet to pass the California High School Exit Exam and are concerned about their futures without a diploma might have little to worry about, a Press-Enterprise survey suggests. STEVE FETBRANDT in the Riverside Press -- 4/9/06

UC Sudan Vote -- The idea to divest of investments in the violence-plagued nation was born in a UCLA feminist's apartment. It took on a life of its own. Arin Gencer in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

schools offer Vietnamese -- Some Orange County schools offer Vietnamese to help teens bridge the communication gap with their immigrant parents. Mai Tran in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

Building a foundation at SDSU -- Alzheimer's disease, AIDS, cancer, global warming, coastal pollution. These are some of mankind's most plaguing problems that San Diego State University researchers are trying to solve, financed by some $130 million annually from organizations as varied as the private Gates Foundation to the public Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lisa Petrillo in the San Diego Union-Trib -- 4/9/06

FBI Investigating UCI Liver Transplant Center -- Now-closed program rejected viable organs while it had patients on its waiting list. The extent and focus of the inquiry are unclear. Christian Berthelsen in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

What's wrong with UCI Medical Center? -- Michael Drake, officially inaugurated last week as UCI's fifth chancellor, faces a vexing problem that his training as a medical doctor can only partly fix - how to heal the reputation of UCI Medical Center. MARLA JO FISHER in the Orange County Register -- 4/9/06

Languages pose barrier to drug plan -- The jargon of the new Medicare prescription drug coverage has proved difficult to understand for many seniors and disabled people: Part D. Facilitated enrollment. Dual eligibles. Creditable coverage. Transitional assistance. Low-income subsidies. Lifetime penalties. And, maybe most confusing of all, the "donut hole." For those who speak little or no English, it can be impossible to decipher. Nancy Weaver Teichert in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/9/06

Growth has Sutter scrambling -- Faced with a chronically overcrowded emergency room, the top administrator of East County's only hospital plans to ask the county about what it can do to help alleviate the crunch. The region has four county-run clinics that serve low-income residents on a sliding fee scale, but Gary Rapaport of Sutter Delta Medical Center says there aren't enough of them to accommodate East County's growth. Rowena Coetsee in the Contra Costa Times -- 4/9/06

Moms pay big for other mothers' milk -- A growing number of parents are going to great lengths to feed their babies breast milk, buying it from licensed banks, accepting it from strangers and even purchasing it online. Janine DeFao in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 4/9/06

Heart attack patients may get treatment quicker -- The county is deploying high-tech heart assessment equipment into the field and designating Cardiac Receiving Centers at four local hospitals to get patients into proper treatment quickly. Rebecca Vesely in the Oakland Tribune -- 4/9/06

'Concerted push' made to expand offshore drilling -- The oil and gas industries are intensifying their effort to open more U.S. coastal areas to drilling, with a powerful assist from businesses ranging from chemical makers to corn growers. Numerous bills have been introduced in Congress to lift or ease the federal ban on new offshore drilling that covers California and other areas. Meanwhile, the coalition of coastal states that has fended off such efforts in the past is fractured, with some on the Atlantic coast willing to consider drilling. Toby Eckert in the San Diego Union-Trib -- 4/9/06

Solar power dims -- Cost of systems jumps and installation rate starts to slow down. Jim Wasserman in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/9/06

inventory of unsold homes -- In another sign that the real estate market is cooling -- but not collapsing -- the inventory of unsold homes in California is roughly double what it was a year ago. Inventory is calculated by dividing the number of homes for sale in a region by the number of homes that have closed escrow in the past month. It tells you how many months it would take hypothetically to sell all the homes on the market. Kathleen Pender in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 4/9/06

Fishers brace for limits -- Longtime Santa Cruz fisherman Mike Stiller spent most of last week replacing the engine on his 30-year-old boat. But with federal officials poised to enact the most severe limits on commercial salmon fishing in West Coast history, Stiller acknowledged that some people might wonder why he'd bother. Brandon Bailey in the San Jose Mercury -- 4/9/06

Victims of the Justice System -- A conference at UCLA brings together the state's wrongly convicted, to share their experiences and push for legal changes. Henry Weinstein in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

Muslims, Others Air Grievances to FBI -- At the agency's town hall meeting, speakers tell of their frustration and embarrassment at being singled out. Jean Merl in the Los Angeles Times Jeremiah Marquez AP -- 4/9/06

Youth Escape Issue -- Many security fixes at juvenile facilities were made after a report in '03, but several key ones weren't. Board sought no formal updates. Noam N. Levey in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06

$8.50 an Hour Buys a Bleak Existence -- In the seediest part of downtown Los Angeles we walk through a grim hotel lobby, go past armed guards and locked gates, ride the creaky elevator to the fourth floor and step into the only home Juanita Burroughs, a full-time security guard for 18 years, can afford. The 50-year-old grandmother opens the door to her one-room, $315-a-month place on 7th Street near San Pedro and we squeeze in together. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/9/06