By DANIEL WEINTRAUB, Sacramento Bee

Facing a shortfall that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has estimated at $20 billion, California Democratic lawmakers are looking for a way to raise tax revenue. They might want to adopt and modify an idea advocated by a conservative think tank -- and increase tax revenue while lowering tax rates.

When Cindy Hailey applied for health insurance for her family in 2000, she didn't tell the insurance company that her husband was overweight and had been treated for headaches, hypertension and throat problems, or that he had been in the emergency room just nine days before.

Californians gain more from free trade than the people of almost any state in the country. But their leading representative in Congress -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco -- is trying to kill a new trade agreement with Colombia, aligning herself with a wing of the Democratic Party that has grown increasingly hostile to consensual acts of commerce.

This weekend, Matthew Cate will be leading 20 runners from his office on a 120-mile relay from the Southern California town of Baker over the mountains and through the desert to Las Vegas, where Cate plans to complete the race's final, 4.5-mile leg across the finish line.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's pals didn't wreck the state Board of Chiropractic Examiners. The board was a mess long before they arrived.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he does not want to raise taxes to solve the state's budget problem. But he also says he has not ruled anything out, and he is willing to discuss any idea that could reasonably help narrow a persistent gap between the state's spending and its revenues.

As the Oscar-winning film "There Will be Blood" chronicles well, the discovery of oil in California's Kern County in the late 19th century triggered a rush of greed, chicanery and, sometimes, violence in the region. Oil made the world go 'round, and the people chasing after it were not always the most savory of characters.

Somebody forgot to tell the engineering world about the slumping economy. Even as job creation slows and unemployment climbs in California and nationwide, students graduating from college with degrees in engineering have plenty of opportunity awaiting them.

California's budget roller coaster is more than just an annoyance to the green eyeshades who track state spending and taxes deep inside the government.

If the previews are any indication, the summer of 2008 is shaping up to be a blockbuster show in Sacramento, a classic struggle for the hearts and minds of Californians, a contest between those who want bigger government and advocates of a slimmer state.