Gold Medal Talk Tonight

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Pastor Robert Jones went to the Capitol last Wednesday hoping to make his voice heard. What he got instead was a swear-word laden rebuke from Democratic Sen. Pat Wiggins, who interrupted Jones' testimony to say, "I think your arguments are bull---." Courtesy of Shane Goldmacher SacBee Capitol Alert

The Culligan Man could soon join the Maytag repairman in California, as regional water agencies seek more authority to remove home water softeners if they threaten local water supplies. Assembly Bill 2270, by Assemblymen John Laird and Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, would allow cities, counties and special districts – whichever entity oversees wastewater – to ban water softeners. Daniel Zarchy in the Sacramento Bee

The parade of capital spending cuts may feed the economy's downturn. Many firms' optimism for 2009 evaporates. Martin Zimmerman in the Los Angeles Times Here is an interesting twist; more government spending (more tax money raised, spent) actually helps the economy. Cutting taxes, spending hurts the economy. If this is true, we now have a socialized government, right?

A few weeks back, Time magazine was musing that John McCain was in danger of sliding from “a long shot” to a “no-shot.” Around the same time, a hard-nosed former Hillary Clinton insider declared the race “effectively over” thanks to the McCain campaign’s ineptitude, the tanking U.S. economy and Obama’s advantages in cash, charisma and hope. And Obama, up by three to six points nationally, was about to leverage a much-anticipated trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and Europe into a pre-convention poll surge. Politico

Fremont may double its bus fees, to $700 a kid. In Gilroy, elementary students must now live a mile away from school before they can board a school bus. And transportation directors everywhere are working the phones to find the best price on diesel fuel. With classes just a few weeks from resuming, the fuel crisis is heading to school. And while businesses and families have been struggling to handle the costs, schools have a few special issues. Most of those big yellow buses are fueled by diesel. With diesel at $4.56 a gallon, those 96-gallon tanks cost $438 a fill-up. Dana Hull in the San Jose Mercury

The Republican Party, which overtook Valley Democrats in voter registration totals eight years ago, is losing ground for the first time in at least a decade. After peaking just ahead of the 2004 presidential election, Republican registration numbers are down in Fresno, Tulare, Kings, Madera, Mariposa and Merced counties. John Ellis in the Fresno Bee