California

One man in the classroom earned more than $100,000 framing tract homes during the building heyday. Another installed pools and piloted a backhoe. Behind him sat a young father who made a good living swinging a hammer in southern Utah. But that was before construction jobs vanished like a fast-moving dust storm in this blustery high desert. Hard times have brought them to a classroom in rural Kern County to learn a different trade. Tonight's lesson: how to avoid death and dismemberment.

Government bureaucrats want your water softener. The Culligan Man is fighting back. The company behind the renowned "Hey Culligan Man!" advertising campaign of the 1950s has launched a political and public relations offensive to kill a bill targeting its signature product. That proposal would allow regulators to ban conventional water softeners that discharge salt into municipal sewer lines.

California plans to sell $4 billion in tax-free bonds next week to fund infrastructure projects, and the state is hoping for robust demand from individual investors. The offering is expected to be a big test of California's standing in financial markets amid a still-precarious budget situation. The last state bond sale was in June.

Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners -- holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear. Technically, it's not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers' annual tax bills won't change.

California on Wednesday became the biggest issuer so far of a new type of municipal bond that has caused investors to rethink the muni market overall -- in a way that is driving down bond interest rates. Robust investor demand allowed Treasurer Bill Lockyer to boost the size of a planned $4-billion bond offering to $6.85 billion. Proceeds from the securities will finance voter-approved infrastructure projects. Included in the deal were $5.

California's auto dealers are worried that the state's new budget will put an even bigger dent in already miserable sales. Increases in the sales tax and vehicle license fees were key components of the measure signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday. Both raise the cost of buying a car.

California prison officials, facing severe overcrowding and a financial crisis, have been granting early releases to inmates serving time for parole violations. State officials said the dozens of prisoners set free from the California Institution for Men in Chino and from lockups in San Diego and Shasta counties had 60 days or less left on their terms, or had been accused of violations and were awaiting hearings. The releases were approved by the state parole board.

Does Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have a deal for you. His plans to cut up the state's credit cards didn't go so well, and voters gave the thumbs-down to his bid to shackle government spending. No matter. In his latest effort to balance the budget, the governor is cleaning out the state's storage sheds and holding a garage sale on Craigslist and EBay. Need a 2001 Ford Focus wagon with 110,059 miles and Schwarzenegger's autograph on the visor? Someone did, offering the high bid of $1,625.

The days may be numbered for hybrid car owners who have enjoyed traveling solo in California's carpool lanes. The stickers granting that privilege to 85,000 hybrid owners are set to expire Jan. 1, 2011. There are proposals in Sacramento to extend the deadline, but they would exclude most of the vehicles that originally qualified for the program, such as the Toyota Prius, the Honda Civic hybrid and the original Honda Insight. "We're bummed," said Cathy Margolin, president of the 250-member Orange County Prius Club.

More than three decades of rapid growth in the country's foreign-born population came to a halt last year, census data show, as surging unemployment made the U.S. economy less attractive to outsiders. In California, which has a long history of attracting immigrants, the number of foreign-born residents actually declined, shrinking 1.6%. "This is clearly a consequence of the economy, with the biggest impact on Mexican and low-skilled immigrants," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution who analyzed the census figures, which are to be officially released today.