Lifeguards rescued -- Seasonal lifeguards will remain on duty across San Diego area beaches. There had been some concern that the state budget crisis would claim seasonal lifeguards
at the height of suntan season. Also, rangers will remain on patrol and entry fees will still be collected at state parks. Michael Gardner San Diego Union-Trib weblog -- 8/1/08

Union sues to reverse state layoffs -- The SEIU's suit was one of at least 3 actions designed to counter Gov. Schwarzenegger's order to lay off 10,000 employees, including a protest featuring a big pink slip addressed to the governor. Michael Rothfeld in the Los Angeles Times Kevin Yamamura in the Sacramento Bee Don Thompson AP -- 8/1/08

Reading the budget tea leaves -- As the budget impasse slips into its second month, just how close are the state's leaders to passing the overdue budget? Here's an update, based on the words of the leaders doing the negotiating. Shane Goldmacher SacBee Capitol Alert -- 8/1/08

'Sarah's Law' would not have applied to 'Sarah,' acknowledge backers of the abortion-notification measure -- Backers of a ballot measure that would require parents to be notified before an abortion is performed on a minor acknowledged Friday that the 15-year-old on which "Sarah's Law" is based had a child and was in a common-law marriage before she died of complications from an abortion in 1994. Patrick McGreevy in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/1/08

Schwarzenegger's layoff plan could length lines for state services -- Beaches at Lake Natoma and Folsom Lake will go without lifeguards. Drivers could wait longer for licenses at the Department of Motor Vehicles. But state officials said Thursday that they couldn't predict how much state services will suffer now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has laid off an estimated 10,300 temporary workers. Kevin Yamamura, Bobby Caina Calvan and M.S. Enkoji in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/1/08

Governor orders layoffs, heavy pay cuts -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the layoffs of thousands of state workers Thursday and steep pay cuts for most other state employees to ease California's budget crunch, moves that could mean longer lines at the DMV and delays in processing of workers' compensation claims. The state has been without a budget since the fiscal year began on July 1 as the governor and the Democratic-controlled Legislature work to come up with a spending plan to fill a $17.2 billion gap. Matthew Yi in the San Francisco Chronicle Michael Rothfeld in the Los Angeles Times Mike Zapler in the San Jose Mercury Ed Mendel in the San Diego Union-Trib -- 8/1/08

State cutbacks add to Sacramento area's jobless woes -- Already burdened with its worst unemployment in 12 years, the Sacramento area figures to suffer even more following Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision Thursday to lay off 10,300 temporary and part-time employees and cut most full-time workers' salaries to minimum wage. Though the cutbacks are expected to be temporary, the news sent a chill through a metro area that has one of the worst foreclosure rates in the country. Dale Kasler in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/1/08

Fewer hours leave DMV worker in pinch -- Cassandra Saucedo's $15.99-an-hour salary as a customer service rep at the Department of Motor Vehicles certainly won't make the difference between solvency and insolvency for the state of California. Mike Zapler in the San Jose Mercury -- 8/1/08

Top California Democrat Faces Probe at Key Time -- The Democratic majority in the California Legislature is counting on a veteran leader, Don Perata, to see the party through a fight with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over the state's $15 billion budget deficit. But a federal corruption investigation of Mr. Perata could stymie his efforts to get the job done. JUSTIN SCHECK and BOBBY WHITE in the Wall Street Journal -- 8/1/08

Pelosi blocks offshore drilling vote GOP wants -- For weeks, pressure has been mounting in Congress to approve more domestic oil drilling, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has held the line, using her power to block a vote on offshore drilling. Zachary Coile in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 8/1/08

Walters: Maybe offshore drilling isn't so bad after all -- It's been nearly 40 years since an offshore oil well malfunctioned, polluting beaches in and around Santa Barbara, a playground for the rich and famous. But the images of oil-coated birds and other effects of the spill have continued to make expansion of oil drilling off the coast a political third rail that any office-seeker avoids. Dan Walters in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/1/08

Fire rigs kept from fight spark frustration -- When Northern California was engulfed in flames, a fleet of shiny new fire engines sat idle in a parking lot. State officials say it came down to a choice between taking valuable time to outfit the just-arrived engines or immediately dispatching available crews to the fires. Michael Gardner in the San Diego Union-Trib -- 8/1/08

Funding for California ballot initiatives flows in from out of state -- Large sums from outside the state are pouring into the campaign coffers of several hotly contested initiatives that will appear on California's November ballot, including funding for and against measures that would ban same-sex marriage and require egg ranchers to provide roomier quarters for hens. Dan Morain in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/1/08

Gay-Marriage Opponents Lead In California Fund-Raising -- Proponents of Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that would ban same-sex marriage, raised about $3.7 million from Jan. 1 through June 30, according to state filings. In contrast, gay-rights activists who oppose the measure raised about $2.5 million through June 30. MYLENE MANGALINDAN in the Wall Street Journal -- 8/1/08

Villaraigosa raises $1.6 million for 2009 reelection campaign -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised $1.6 million for his 2009 reelection campaign in the first half of the year, a sizable bundle of cash in a race where, so far, the first-term mayor faces no well-funded challengers. Villaraigosa raised the vast majority of the money during a fundraising tear in June, when he held more than a dozen events and hopscotched across the country, according to campaign finance reports filed Thursday with the city Ethics Commission. Phil Willon and David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/1/08

Exxon's second-quarter profit breaks its own record -- The oil giant brings in $11.68 billion, the largest profit for a U.S. company, and still fails to meet analysts' expectations. Critics say Exxon and others aren't doing enough to reduce gas prices. Elizabeth Douglass and Richard Simon in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/1/08

Workers' pay and benefits lagging far behind inflation -- Inflation surged in the second quarter with soaring energy and food costs, as any consumer can attest. The growth in workers’ compensation, however, remained flat with the first quarter and down from a year earlier, the government’s latest data show. It’s another sign that the pain in your wallet is real -- and maybe worse than you think. Tom Petruno in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/1/08

Risking Life and Limb, Riding a Bike to Work in L.A. -- Paula Rodriguez, who lives in the San Fernando Valley, got so disgusted with soaring fuel prices last spring that she stopped driving, sold her SUV and bought a bike. But pedaling the 15 miles home from her job, the 30-year-old Ms. Rodriquez has encountered something more frightening than $4.50-a-gallon gasoline: the mean streets of L.A., home of the nation's most entrenched car culture. RHONDA L. RUNDLE in the Wall Street Journal -- 8/1/08

Hillary Clinton rouses union workers in San Francisco -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a rousing call to thousands of union workers in San Francisco on Thursday to put Sen. Barack Obama in the White House come fall - but it was a bittersweet moment for some of her most loyal supporters, particularly women, who said they are still deeply pained she's not the Democratic candidate. Carla Marinucci in the San Francisco Chronicle Josh Richman in the Oakland Tribune -- 8/1/08

Democrats mend fences in Bay Area -- It's kiss-and-make up time in Silicon Valley for Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's major fundraisers. Some of the valley's biggest Obama backers co-hosted a Los Altos Hills fundraiser with Clinton on Thursday afternoon to help the former Democratic presidential candidate retire her more than $20 million campaign debt. Mary Anne Ostrom in the San Jose Mercury -- 8/1/08

For Clinton supporters, it's a gender issue -- As her chances of becoming vice president recede, some of Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters are pushing for the Democratic Party's new platform to state that the primary elections "exposed pervasive gender bias in the media" and to call on party leaders to take "immediate and public steps" to condemn future perceived instances of bias. Peter Nicholas in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/1/08

McCain accuses Obama of playing 'race card' -- The race issue, long a subtext of this historic presidential contest, flared into the open Thursday when John McCain and his campaign chief accused Barack Obama of playing "the race card" to seek political advantage. Mark Z. Barabak and Nicholas Riccardi in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/1/08

Website comment boards bring out the inner vulgarian -- Despite its power to inform and connect people across cultures and time zones, the Internet all too often discourages, or coarsens, a healthy civic discussion. James Rainey in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/1/08

$7-billion L.A. school bond joins November ballot -- The Los Angeles Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to place a $7-billion bond on the November ballot. It would be the largest local school bond ever -- by far -- and would allow officials to tax property owners for building and repairing schools for the next 10 years. Howard Blume and Evelyn Larrubia in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/1/08

Whistle-blowers lose case against UC -- University of California employees who claim they were fired for reporting wrongdoing or unsafe conditions can't sue for damages if the university rejects their claims, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The state's whistle-blower law, which allows employees of state agencies to seek damages for alleged retaliation by supervisors, shields the university from monetary claims as long as it conducts its own investigation and reaches a conclusion within specific time limits, the court said. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 8/1/08

San Francisco mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash -- Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom. And if residents or businesses don't separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped. John Coté in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 8/1/08

Application filed to bury power plant waste gas -- A subsidiary of two of the world's biggest energy companies applied to state regulators Thursday to build what could become the nation's first full-scale power plant to capture the carbon dioxide in its exhaust and store it underground. Jim Downing in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/1/08

California's pot law upheld in appeals court -- A state appeals court upheld California's 12-year-old medical marijuana law Thursday, rejecting two counties' arguments that allowing patients to use the drug with their doctor's approval condones violations of federal narcotics laws. The Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Diego dismissed challenges by San Diego and San Bernardino counties, which objected both to the 1996 marijuana initiative and to recent legislation requiring counties to issue identification cards to users of medical pot. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 8/1/08

DEA agents raid Culver City medical marijuana dispensary -- Federal agents raided a Culver City medical marijuana dispensary where they spent more than four hours this afternoon, serving a search warrant that resulted in no arrests but left the shop in disarray. Tami Abdollah in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/1/08

Questions are raised on death at hospital -- State health regulators and the county medical examiner are separately investigating whether a finance author died July 25 because of a lapse in care at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, which already is under scrutiny for three preventable deaths since March. Cheryl Clark in the San Diego Union-Trib -- 8/1/08

Big money in San Francisco supes' race -- Candidates for San Francisco's Board of Supervisors already are raising and spending big-time dollars on the November races. Thursday marked the first deadline for candidates to disclose how much money they have collected, and several have surpassed the $100,000 mark months before the prime time for their campaigns. Wyatt Buchanan in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 8/1/08

Garamendi to run for governor -- Hoping his third time will be the charm, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi Thursday became the first Democrat to jump into the 2010 governor's race, vowing to provide a new vision for the state. John Wildermuth in the San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hecht and Shane Goldmacher in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/1/08

Oakland program uses GPS to track felons -- Oakland police and Alameda County officials unveiled a pilot program Thursday to outfit convicted felons on probation with ankle bracelets linked to a Global Positioning System, saying the devices will alert officials immediately if an offender strays into an off-limits neighborhood. Under a test program paid for by the city, 20 people authorities deem to be at high risk of committing more crimes will be outfitted with devices strapped onto their ankles. Henry K. Lee in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 8/1/08

Teachers' billboard targeting Niello draws family protest -- Assemblyman Roger Niello is just fine when his critics heckle him for opposing tax hikes. But when a mobile billboard campaign funded by a teachers union used the image of his family's car dealership, the lawyers quickly got involved. Shane Goldmacher in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/1/08

Demand grows at Sacramento food banks -- Operators of area food banks say the weakening economy and higher food costs are changing the patterns of demand for free groceries. Not only are there noticeably more first-time clients, the timing of demand also has changed. Ed Fletcher in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/1/08

Recreational boaters win reprieve on permits -- Recreational boaters who were set to pay as much as $1,500 in annual fees for a federal environmental permit were spared this week. A federal ruling filed last year on a California lawsuit said all sailing vessels should be required to participate in a permit process designed to control the influx of foreign marine life. M.S. Enkoji in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/1/08

FBI examining firm of woman fatally slashed in Century City garage -- Detectives investigating the stabbing death of a woman in a Century City high-rise parking garage earlier this week are looking for possible links to an ongoing FBI fraud inquiry of the international gold trading company that she and her estranged husband owned, law enforcement officials said. Catherine Saillant, Richard Winton and Andrew Blankstein in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/1/08