You know how this works, feel free to add anything you found interesting in the comments.

• Blue dog Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Atwater) will not seek to replace Xavier Beccera as Democratic Caucus Vice-Chair if Beccera takes the trade representative post within the Obama administration. California progressive superstar Hilda Solis is still considering a run though.

• If you want your heart broken, read this story about the “Gifts for Guns” program in Compton.  The short version is that people are turning in their guns for groceries.

• It’s not just schoolkids who need subsidized lunches in this economy. Senior citizens are increasingly relying on public and non-profit programs that provide food for seniors.

• An F-18 crash in San Diego (near the Top Gun facility in Miramar) as the result of engine failure killed three yesterday.  Our condolences to the families of the victims.

• Sam Zell’s deal to buy the Tribune Company, owner of the LA Times, essentially stole from the pension funds of the Tribune employees.  The bankruptcy of the Tribune company is a sad chapter in American journalism.  One can only hope that the Times emerges stronger out of this disaster, this time without a right-wing idealogue holding them down.

• Some investors are going to buy up a bunch of foreclosed homes, fix them up, and then help get qualified buyers to purchase some of the excess housing stock in the Inland Empire.

• Rep. Joe Baca is having a Holiday Open House for his constituents in San Bernadino next week. Sounds like fun!