By STEVE WIEGAND, Sacramento Bee

California's budget coffers are emptier than a politician's promise, but there may be a silver lining to the state's dark financial clouds: Fewer new laws.

Legislators approved only 872 bills in their 2009 regular session, and just 632 have become or will become law by Jan. 1.

People reading newspapers in Australia and England last week learned that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had troubles with the Internal Revenue Service.

In October, hundreds of millions of Chinese were regaled with tales of motor-vehicle misconduct by the governor's wife, Maria Shriver.

Early -- very early -- one morning last week, state Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod wandered to the back of the ornate Senate chambers and expressed a feeling shared by many of the other people in the room.

"I would rather stick my finger in a light socket," she said, "than spend another hour in here."

It's the kind of statistic that makes radio talk show hosts drool:

California is home to about 12 percent of all Americans -- and more than 30 percent of all Americans on welfare.

Critics of the state's welfare program, called CalWORKs, say the statistic provides clear proof that the system is flabby and overly beneficent, particularly as compared to other states.

They don't care how you slice it: Californians think the idea of splitting up the state is still baloney.
In fact, they are less in favor of bisecting the Golden State than at any time since 1981. And it doesn't matter much whether the proposal to make two states out of one is proposed along longitudinal or latitudinal lines.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- An ambitious proposal crafted in the dwindling days of the legislative session would for the first time give state regulators broad authority to oversee chemicals in consumer products.

On Oct. 3, 1985, you could have stood in a long line outside a liquor store a few blocks from the Capitol for a chance to buy a small piece of cardboard and win a big sum of money.Today, you can do the same thing -- only with no line.