Ok, there may be one or two things going on besides the budget:

• Your daily Meg Whitman update from Carla Marinucci: She’s named a finance team. Predicatably it’s loaded with CEOs.  Because, you know, CEOs are really popular these days.

• Home prices in Southern California have fallen to 2002 levels. Sales have picked up, but most of that is bargain hunting for foreclosures.  The median price for homes has fallen by close to 40% from a year ago in some counties. Home sales in Sacto have also increased, also for the same reasons.

• The Bee has a profile of new Minority Senate Leader Dennis “Zed” Hollingsworth

• There’s a new airline in LAX.

More news outside of the budget

• Despite a week’s worth of rain in Southern California, Los Angeles is still unsustainably dry, and the Department of Water and Power is contemplating water rationing for the first time in two decades.  Homes and businesses will be charged double for “excessive” water use.  I’m not sure this will work, as you don’t see the meter running in the shower.

• In response to the shooting of Oscar Grant, Asm. Ammiano and Sen. Yee have introduced legislation to create a civillian oversight body. AB 312 should create some accountability where there was no formal structure in the past.

• A very interesting article comparing Prop. 8 to the anti-housing discrimination law of the 1960s is in the Sac Bee.

• The CA Labor Fed is having an event tomorrow with Father Michael Kiernan, Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento,Dr. Chris Benner, Professor of Regional Economic Development, UC Davis, Dean Murakami, President of Los Rios College Federation of Teachers-AFT Local 2279, and Sacramento workers at the Matsui Courthouse, (501 I Street, Sacramento.) tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.  The event will highlight an upcoming report showing the benefits of increased unionization in the state.

• I just got an email from Bill Durston, announcing that he may not be running again for CA-03. That’s a disappointment, as Durston came quite close.  I think 2010 might be the year that we knock Dan Lungren out, let’s just hope we get a strong candidate.

• What Washington taketh away, Sacramento giveth? The stimulus package originally had a provision for film production in the US, but that was removed by the Senate. The Wall Street Journal peers into the budget for a review of the proposal here.

• The LA Times’ Steve Lopez takes a look at former LA planning commission member Jane Usher’s beef with the LA establishment.

• Blogger and econ professor at Berkeley Brad DeLong is calling on his chancellor to fire John Yoo.  It’s a great letter, go read it.

• Tourism is headed in the wrong direction. Estimates show it down by about 8% in 2009. It’s hardly shocking considering the economy and the increasing strength of the dollar, but it’s still more bad news for the state.

Other things happening around the state

• Who said Republicans never lifted a finger to save anybody from a burning car? Well, not me.  Asm. Curt Hagman(R-Chino HIlls) apparently saved two people from their burning car right outside of his apartment.

• The Meg Whitman for Governor campaign is getting a ton of attention from the media. And why not? She has so much experience lowering costs by outsourcing jobs and employing slave labor that she would certainly be able to build barbie dolls for our kids to hold while they aren’t attending public schools. As for fixing the state’s structural problems, well, I peg her chances somewhere between those of Gary Coleman and the Ask a Ninja guy. I take that back. Gary Coleman might be able to get us a payday loan, that’s probably better than Whitman could do.

There is a video on the SF Chronicle’s site. It’s almost funny how she tries to use the Arnold post-partisan rhetoric while at the same time trying to woo the crazy wingers that are in the GOP primary.  How exactly do you say that you would never vote to raise taxes at the same time that you are arguing that the legislators can’t see past their narrow ideological barriers.  The logic, or lack there of, of it all is just staggering.

• There could be another problem for Whitman: she’s not the typical GOP candidate, ie a white dude. The obstacles to her getting the GOP nomination are really quite staggering.  Honestly, if I were her, I would just say screw the GOP, I can win this without them.

• At least the stimulus will help out with the HSR plans.

• CapAlert’s story about how Chuck DeVore tried and failed to remove Mike Villines from power, based apparently on a email between the two Republicans leaked to the John and Ken show that forced DeVore’s hand, is really symptomatic of Yacht Party politics and how the game is played.  It’s really like a junior-high playground over there, not a political party.  

• The idea that filmmaker Roman Polanski is seeking to get his child sex charges dismissed based on a separate filmmaker’s documentary about the case folds life and art on their collective heads in interesting ways such that the whole story becomes a kind of Moebius Strip… UPDATED the judge denied the motion for dismissal but suggested that he only did it because of Polanski’s fugitive status, and that there is credible evidence to dismiss the case.

• The funny caption contests are usually fun, but I have to say I find the selection of Schwarzenegger’s Finance Director Mike Genest’s caption of a picture with DiFi and CIA chief Leon Panetta sort of offensive, and clearly a partisan stab at our junior senator.  The caption? “As long as you’ll be working on Intelligence, can you do something for Senator Boxer’s?”

• This really isn’t anything new, but I wanted to once again commend John Myers of KQED for his tremendous Twitter feed.I think Myers is, if not revolutionizing, certainly evolving the journalistic use of twitter to cover a news-worthy event.  Last night I was at Drinking Liberally, but I was able to quickly pull up my twitter feed, and there was the latest budget news, in 140 character bites. Twitter allows real-time publishing that even puts blogs to shame. He has poured an incredible amount of time into these tweets, basically supplementing his additional workload.  If you can, please think about supporting the nation’s most listened to public radio station, KQED. I just renewed my membership. Please note your support for John Myers in the “comments” section. I forgot when I renewed, but I want to make sure he gets the credit he so richly deserves.

How about some non-budget news?

• A conservative student got the Alliance Legal Defense Fund (the same folks who helped out on the legal case to protect Prop 22) to help him sue LA City College for the response from his teachers critical of his speech supporting Prop 8. Apparently several students, and then the teacher, got visibly angry over his public speaking assignment.

• Exactly why did LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa give the headline prayer at the annual prayer breakfast to Pastor Rick Warren this weekend?  And why were no other communities of faith but Christians represented?  Lisa Derrick at La Figa has more.

• The Meg Whitman for Governor campaign gets a somewhat agnostic review from the LA Times’ Michael Hiltzik.  He thinks the jury is out.  Well, I suppose an open mind is nice, but during the budget disaster her statement against any tax increases is simply out of touch with reality. She would be even worse of a failure than Arnold Schwarzenegger. In other words EPIC FAIL.

• Here’s a balanced report on Los Angeles’ Measure B, the solar power initiative, from Grist.  If I were an LA city voter I honestly don’t know how I’d vote on this – there are valid arguments on both sides.

• California is the leading producer of dairy products in the nation.  So, the collapse in milk prices is hitting the state pretty hard.  In the short term, a lot of farmers are turning to slaughtering their dairy cows for meat because they cannot afford the feed.

• Speaking of agriculture (or not), Teddy Partridge takes another look at the “Chile option” state break-up plan.

• Ok, this is budget related. Sorry. It looks like one of the items that got chopped was the UC Riverside medical school. The school needs a boost of cash to gets going, but will now have to look to other sources to get started.

• For a lot of reasons, the increased enrollment at Adult Schools is a really good thing. Unfortunately, it is clearly a symptom of the terrible economy, and it will put an additional strain on the budget.  The schools were originally intended as a sort of retiree FunEd, but have now become a great system providing GED classes and support, literacy training, and vocational training.

• Finally, I think this story just about sums up California these days: During this weekend’s budget lockdown, Lance Armstrong came to Sacramento to participate in the Tour de California.  And then, after the race, his bike was stolen from the truck.

Bonus: Marie Lakin at Ventura County Star’s Making Waves Blog has a good take on the budget disaster vis a vis Grover Norquist.