CALIFORNIA
State facing big deficit, big cuts
After voters reject ballot measures, lawmakers and governor must make up $21 billion shortfall
SACRAMENTO — The day after voters overwhelmingly rejected a slated of ballot measures intended to ease California’s financial troubles, state lawmakers awoke to a harsh reality: a projected $21.3 billion deficit and the prospect of yet another round of bitter negotiations among Democrats, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and conservatives.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, Schwarzenegger said the message from voters, unpalatable as he found it, was clear.
“There’s a certain point where you feel that it will be devastating to some people, and so we tried not to make those cuts,” said the governor, who last week outlined grim plans to cope with the deficit. “But now we have to. We have no other choice.”
Like many Californians, state lawmakers on a personal level will have to learn to do more with less. A state panel Wednesday morning slashed the salaries of elected officials by 18 percent, starting with those elected next year.
There was a rare bit of good news: The Obama administration backed off its threat to withhold $8 billion in stimulus money for California, telling Schwarzenegger the state did not violate federal law by cutting pay for home health-care workers in a bid to balance the budget.
That still leaves a huge hole in the state budget, however, and Democratic leaders in Sacramento acknowledged that closing the deficit will result in painful cuts.
INDONESIA
Military plane crash toll at least 98
Soldiers inspect the wreckage of a military cargo plane that crashed Wednesday in East Java. The plane was carrying at least 110 passengers and crew, including troops and their families, when it went down. The aircraft slammed into a row of houses and then burst into flames, killing at least 98 people, including two on the ground, said the chief of the military air base in Magetan.
IRAQ
Car bomb kills dozens
BAGHDAD — A car bomb exploded Wednesday near several restaurants in a Shiite neighborhood of northwest Baghdad, killing 41 people and injuring more than 70, police and hospital officials said.
No group claimed responsibility for the horrific blast. But the style and location of the attack suggested it was carried out by Sunni extremists, such as Al Qaeda in Iraq, apparently in a bid to rekindle sectarian warfare as the U.S. draws down forces in the capital.
The blast appeared timed for maximum civilian casualties, going off about 7 p.m. when many people take advantage of cooler evening weather for shopping and dining in outdoor kebab restaurants.
MINNESOTA
Hunt is on for mom, ill son
SLEEPY EYE — A courtroom clash between medicine and faith took a criminal turn, with police around the country on the lookout Wednesday for a Minnesota mother who fled with her cancer-stricken 13-year-old son rather than consent to chemotherapy.
A court-ordered X-ray on Monday showed a tumor growing in Daniel Hauser’s chest, and doctors said it probably will kill him without conventional medical treatment.
Before she took off, Colleen Hauser told a judge that she wanted to treat her son’s cancer with natural healing methods advocated by an American Indian religious group known as the Nemenhah Band. But even that group’s founder said Hauser made a mistake by running from the law.
Authorities said Hauser’s husband was cooperating with investigators.
Daniel has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a highly treatable cancer when treated with chemotherapy and radiation.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Border arrests drop 27%
The number of arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped 27 percent this year, a decline that could put the figure at its lowest level since the early 1970s, federal officials said Wednesday.
The decline accelerates a three-year trend that experts attribute to the economic downturn, with stronger U.S. immigration enforcement measures also playing a role.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar released the data, noting that the number of Border Patrol agents has more than doubled from 9,000 in 2001 to a projected 20,000 by September. The government also has completed 625 miles of the planned 661 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers on the 2,000-mile frontier.
PAKISTAN
Army pushes back Taliban
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani forces killed 80 militants and drove the Taliban from a major urban stronghold Wednesday, the army said, as U.S. military planes brought aid for civilians fleeing fierce fighting in the northwest.
In an indication that the fighting in the Swat Valley area and the resulting humanitarian emergency may drag on, a U.S. military official predicted that 250,000 refugees will still be in camps at the end of the year.
Government forces cleared Sultanwas, the main Taliban-held town in Buner district, overnight after intense clashes, said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, an army spokesman.
The army claims it has killed more than 1,000 militants and won back swaths of territory from militants in Swat. More than 50 troops have died, including one soldier Wednesday.
