National News

By E.J. SCHULTZ
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut deal after deal with the Democrats this year, Republicans in the California state Assembly watched with frustration.

By ANDY FURILLO
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Facing a double whammy of a population cap and a court decision that threatens to wipe out the state's sentencing law, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is considering a sentencing commission that would help decide who goes to prison and for how long.

"We are willing to engage in sentencing reform," Corrections Secretary James Tilton said in an interview with The Bee, adding that as part of the discussion, the Schwarzenegger administration is looking at establishing a sentencing commission.

Such panels take different forms but can allow states to manage prison populations by altering the approach to sentencing.

By JANE KAY
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Widely used chemicals with suspected links to cancer and developmental problems in humans are present in common baby products like the yellow rubber ducky, bath books and clear plastic bottles, a San Francisco Chronicle analysis confirmed.

By JASON B. JOHNSON
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
San Francisco and Berkeley, Calif., voters may oppose the Iraq war, but the oak-studded hillside suburb of Lafayette has taken center stage among Bay Area war protests thanks to an emotional debate over a highly visible memorial to U.S.

By BOB EGELKO
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
People who claim they were libeled on line can't sue the Internet service providers that carried the messages, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

By DANIEL WEINTRAUB
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Working from cramped quarters on the upper floors of a plain concrete-clad office building catty-corner from the state Capitol, California's nonpartisan legislative analyst is all but unknown to state residents.

By TOM BARNES
Monday, November 20, 2006
Thousands of lights flashed and blinked on slot machines, while the deafening sound of bells, bongs and sirens went off. Pneumatic "confetti cannons" showered the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs with paper chips and streamers, while loudspeakers boomed out Gretchen Wilson singing "Here For The Party."

And were they ever! Several thousand slots gamblers poured into the first casino ever to open in Pennsylvania, where history was made Tuesday.

After 18 months of planning and construction, the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which for 10 years has operated a huge casino in Connecticut, opened its $72.6 million "temporary" casino in a two-story steel-and-glass building holding 1,096 slot machines at a 40-year-old harness racing track five miles east of Wilkes-Barre.

"We've been waiting for this a long time," said Rose Zemantauski of Moosic, 10 miles away.

By LOLA ALAPO
Monday, November 20, 2006
A group of students in Knox County, Tenn., are giving their plastics a purpose. Or, as Carly Greene says, trying to "help save the world from disgusting trash."

Pounds of plastic milk containers from the Inskip Elementary third-grader's cafeteria and from 34 other schools will end up not at a landfill, but recycled into reusable materials.

Benches. Fleece jackets. Carpet backing.

"It's awesome," Greene, 8, said after dumping her plastic milk container into a recycle bin placed at Inskip earlier this week.

The National Dairy Council has launched a pilot plastic recycling program, "Drink It Then Sink It," at selected schools, mostly elementary.

By JIM McKINNON
Monday, November 20, 2006
A Pennsylvania mother and father pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, after their 10-year-old son refused to ride with them and ran away on a highway.

Kenneth and Paula Sutton, both 40, of Monaca, Pa., entered their pleas Tuesday.

By JOHN HILL
Sunday, November 19, 2006
The state's retirement system won't take "no" for an answer.

A committee of the California Public Employees Retirement System voted Tuesday to urge the Legislature to once again consider bills that would make it easier to crack down on fraud in disability pensions.

CalPERS sponsored the same legislation in 2004.