California, Governors | featured news

California will enter the fourth month of its fiscal year on Friday without a state budget in place after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and top lawmakers failed to agree on Thursday on a spending plan.

With polls showing a tight race and a large block of undecided voters still in play, the state’s economy and its deep financial problems dominated the debate between Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman.

The GOP gubernatorial candidate promises to cut spending and suggests that lower taxes and less regulation will spur business. But experts say the bleak economy is mostly due to the real estate crisis.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers ended talks Thursday night without reaching a deal on how to close California's $19 billion deficit, breaking a state record for the longest budget impasse.

A new CNN/Time/Opinion Research survey in California finds Meg Whitman (R) leading Jerry Brown (D) among registered voters in the race for governor, 48% to 46%.

Said pollster Keating Holland: "The gender gap means that women usually vote Democratic, but female voters are evenly divided between Brown and Whitman. That may be due to some women choosing a female candidate over a male, depriving Brown of the traditional level of support from that key group."

Democrat Jerry Brown Tuesday will end his silence on the airwaves. Kicking off its long-awaited TV ad campaign on Labor Day, Brown's gubernatorial campaign unveiled a 30-second spot depicting the former governor as a frugal yet visionary leader who helped create 1.9 million jobs when he was governor in the late 70s and early 80s.

In rare simultaneous campaigning, each faults the other on past experience or the lack of it.Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown argued Thursday that his experience makes him the only candidate who can right California, and he slashed at Republican rival Meg Whitman by calling her a neophyte who has run an ugly and inaccurate campaign against him.

The gubernatorial candidate criticizes her rival for not offering a plan to boost employment and unveils a 34-page booklet on the issue, which she plans to mail to voters statewide.

The issue of employment dominated the race for governor Thursday as Meg Whitman slashed rival Jerry Brown for failing to offer a plan to create jobs while she unveiled a glossy, 34-page booklet on the subject that she plans to mail to voters across California.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday signed a $20-million settlement for Jaycee Dugard, a woman who was held captive for 18 years by a convicted rapist who had been under the supervision of the state.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an appeal from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and decide whether the state can be forced to release 46,000 inmates -- more than one-fourth of its prison population -- to relieve overcrowding.

The court's intervention is a victory for the governor and state prison officials, and it puts a judicial order on hold, at least until this fall.

At issue is whether federal judges have the power to order the release of state prisoners as a necessary means of curing a constitutional violation.