(Bumped up – promoted by SFBrianCL)

UPDATE: Bill Bradley  is reporting that the Reps are now holding it up for budget considerations.  Arnold must be freaking it out at this point.  He needs this to run on.  We’ll see whether Arnold can actually excercise a little bit of leadership over HIS OWN PARTY.  I doubt it, but you never know.  At this point, my money is on no deal.

UPDATE: 8:24 PM: I hear that the Reps have demanded (and recieved) an additional billion in levee funding.  Well, I’m not too troubled by that.

UPDATE: 8:14 PM: It seems all over the place at this point.  Bradley says says that we’ll be delayed long into the night.  Another source has told me that some Republicans are having some hangups on transportation issues.

The bond deal is back again.  A vote appears likely for tonight.

In a sign of an impending agreement, legislative leaders scheduled floor votes for tonight to put $35.3 billion in bonds on the November ballot to build roads, housing, levees and schools.

Legislative leaders worked into the evening Wednesday on the details of the package, but broke shortly after 10 p.m. without announcing an agreement.
***
State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, scheduled a vote for 5 p.m. today, while Núñez planned to call his chamber into session at 5:30 p.m.
(SacBee 5/4/06)

So, we’re getting close to the announcement.  Arnold needs this.  Arnold really, really needs this.  What does he have to run on?  What has he accomplished as governor?  Worker’s Comp isn’t going to win a whole lot of elections in this state.

We’ll be waiting with baited breath for news of the votes.  I’ll check back in when I hear anything.

Todays California News Roundup is on the flip. Blog Roundup should come later today. Teasers: immigration, more on Westly payola (?), some oppo research on Angelides masquerading as news, CA-50, SacBee thrashing John Doolittle, global warming, salmon, rural roads.

UPDATE: Somehow I forgot the story concerning voter registration fraud by Republican-hired contractors.

• We lead today with immigration. First, Governor Schwarzenegger has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Editorial Pages (the nation’s most expensive platform for wingnuttery) in which he burnishes his compassionate conservative credentials on the immigration issue, without actually saying very much beyond “gastarbeiters good, I’m compassionate”. But one should check out Tom McClintock, Schwarzenegger’s running mate, to see what the Republicans are really about.
• The Mercury News profiles some of the undesirable illegals who the Republican Party wants to deport (or exploit, as long as they’re entirely outside of the law). And, the CC Times reports on Sunday’s march in San Diego.
• In the Democratic Primary, there’s a lot of news recently. First, a little follow-up on the question of whether Westly did anything wrong by recommending Healthpoint to CalPERS after taking money Healthpoint raised. In what looks like a piece of oppo research fed to the SacBee by the Westly campaign, it’s noted that in 1994, Angelides sold his minority share of a failing bank before he began his run for treasurer. The story is full of innuendo, but doesn’t seem to amount to much.
• Color me surprised — Daniel Weintraub doesn’t attack Phil Angelides for talking about fulling funding California schools. Dan Walters puts together a pedestrian response to the Angelides-Westly rhetoric ratchet that I won’t bother linking to, but he has an interesting piece on vocational education. If one can ignore the undercurrent of sneering at the “elite”, it’s not a bad read.
• CQ Politics (Is it a blog, is it news? I don’t know.) has a rundown on the mudslinging in CA-50. The one comment is particularly entertaining (maybe comments are a sufficient precondition for blogginess?) Also, the LAT notes that there is a special election in SD-35 on Tuesday as well.
• The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board explains in great detail exactly why John Doolittle’s arrangment skimming off contributions through his wife is so very troublesome. Their news page does a rundown on the rest of the candidates in CA-4.
• The Union-Tribune explains the current set of players, rationales, and proposals concerning California’s current thinking on global warming. Schwarzenegger, of course, wants to do less, not more. In related news, there’s still a shortage of raw materials for solar panels.
• 75 fish per boat per week. That’s the restriction on the California Salmon fishery this year. I’ve worked in the salmon fishing industry — on shore — and have a hard time imagining how few fish that is. When I worked, we pulled brailers full of fish off of the fleet from 6 at night until we were done, sometimes 3 or 4 the next afternoon.
• Last, I just thought this piece on the condition of rural roads was interesting. Turns out people who live in the sticks have pretty much the same needs as the rest of us.

The (admittedly tardy) California Blog Roundup for March 23 is below the fold:

• The Ruth Group tells us that there’s a Debra Bowen fundraiser in Marin on April 18.
• The Democratic Daily has a set of quotes from Dianne Feinstein’s recent in-state campaign swing and radio address. It’s astonishing how liberal Senator Feinstein can sound.
• Alliance for a Better California notes that among Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fat-cat spending is about $100K / month on private jets owned by his production company. So, he’s paying himself to fly himself around, with his contributors’ money? Well, I guess that’s better than the dodge that the federal legislators use.
• Dump Doolittle notices that the local papers in CA-4 have a suspicious lack of articles concerning John Doolittle’s (ties to) corruption.
• Say No To Pombo asks what lessons the recent DCCC v. grassroots Duckworth-Cegelis primary in IL-06 has for CA-11.
• More California news than usual in the BradBlog’s daily e-voting roundup.
• Last, The California Observer reports on Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez’s steps toward reworking California’s television / high-speed Internet landscape. This is actually really important, as more broadband for rural and lower-income folks is going to help drive their ability to get information and participate in the ongoing changes in politics and the economy. People’s eyes glaze over when they hear about telecom or broadcast infrastructure laws, but consider that these are the pipes through which information flows, and control of those pipes is important. Just ask Rupert Murdoch.