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By CAROLYN LOCHHEAD
California's sheer size ensures plenty of fallout from its new initiative on global warming, analysts said, as businesses and politicians alike see an inevitability to the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions.

By GEORGE RAINE
It was Julio Cesar's first day planting trees in the olive orchard in the Sacramento Valley and he already had it down to a science:

Dig a hole half a shovel deep, place the root ball attached to a 12-inch-tall tree in the hole, return the dirt and stomp down on it.

By NANETTE ASIMOV
As part of the federal government's sweeping academic experiment known as No Child Left Behind, every California school this year is supposed to have about a quarter of its students performing at grade level in math and English.

By MARK MARTIN
The agreement between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators to cap greenhouse gas emissions will give a state agency with a history of shaping national environmental policy tremendous new clout over the California economy.

By JANE KAY
California's new effort to curb greenhouse gases will cut less than one-half of 1 percent of the world's emissions, slowing global warming by just a tiny fraction of a degree, scientists say.

Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have taken a monumental step in the fight against global warming with the passage of Assembly Bill 32. Once again, California is leading, and much of the world is cheering.

This legislation, which Schwarzenegger has agreed to sign, would make California the first state to set caps on industrial gases linked to global warming.

By JIM SANDERS
The California Legislature's last-gasp attempt to pass a package of flood-control proposals designed to lessen disaster risk and increase public safety died on the last day of the session in an Assembly committee.

"I am extremely, extremely disappointed," said Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, a Davis Democrat who had worked all year on the flood-control package but ultimately supported its demise on the final night of the legislative session.

Wolk ultimately concluded it was better to do nothing and tackle the issue next year, than to do the wrong thing and pretend the issue was solved.

Thursday night's death blow to the flood proposals, contained in Assembly Bill 1665, was dealt by the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee chaired by Wolk.

AB 1665 consisted of various Assembly bills declared dead last week by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who later changed his mind and decided to consider the proposals if they were combined into a single piece of legislation.

Wolk concluded the end result, cobbled together quickly, was an unsupportable mishmash.

"We should be ashamed," she said.

Earlier Thursday, the measure received the bare-minimum number of votes required for passage in the Senate.

Supporters hailed AB 1665 as a step toward improving protection of flood-prone Delta and Central Valley communities.

"This is a step in the right direction for providing better public safety," said Sen.

By LISA HOFFMAN
As a prime motivator to get out the vote, both the red and blue ends of the political spectrum are pointing to the congressional power shuffle to come if Democrats take back control of Capitol Hill.

The Christian Coalition of America sees peril, and MoveOn.org sees promise, in the fact that some of the more liberal Democratic lawmakers in Washington would ascend to pivotal committee chairmanships if seniority is used to decide such posts.

Among the ascensions in the Senate: Ted Kennedy, of Massachusetts, would lead the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; Carl Levin, of Michigan, would head Armed Services; Patrick Leahy, of Vermont, would run Judiciary, and John Kerry, of Massachusetts, would lead Small Business.

In the House: George Miller, of California, would be education committee chairman; John Conyers, of Michigan, Judiciary; Charles Rangel, of New York, Ways and Means; David Obey, of Wisconsin, Appropriations; and Barney Frank, of Massachusetts, Financial Services.

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TV's "West Wing" met the real West Wing when former "WW" star Rob Lowe, accompanied by his two kids, happened to be dining at the same New Orleans restaurant as President Bush and N.O.

By EDWARD EPSTEIN
Democrats _ who came up on the short end of the national security debate in the 2002 and 2004 elections _ reacted quickly and harshly to Bush's speech to the American Legion convention in Salt Lake City.

By MATT EHLERS
She remembered it fondly enough, seeing as how she referred to him as "Mr. Smooth" in open court _ the nationally televised kind.

They met in a breakfast joint, she explained to the judge, and were standing near the counter waiting to be seated.