Federal Aid

A woman held a BlackBerry over the crowd surrounding Linda Ronstadt to get a shot of the onetime queen of country rock. Someone else thrust an album insert and pen at Josh Groban. "Just one more photo, please," followed jazz musician Wynton Marsalis out of the room. The three musicians were among a group who appeared Tuesday on Capitol Hill to speak in favor of increasing funding for the National Endowment for the Arts to $200 million in the 2010 budget.

When the going gets tough, the tough buy local. That's the crux of the more than $800-billion economic stimulus bill under consideration in the Senate. It contains a "buy American" provision requiring that most stimulus-funded projects use only American-made gear and goods. The House passed its own version of the legislation last week. It stipulates that we not buy any iron and steel from pesky foreigners seeking a slice of stimulus pie.

A proposed Anaheim-to-Las Vegas high-speed train became a hot topic as Congress prepared to pass an economic recovery bill. In reality, not a word about the train appears in the 1,000-plus page, $787-billion bill that Congress passed Friday night. However, the bill does provide $8 billion for unspecified high-speed and intercity passenger rail projects, more than three times as much as allocated in earlier versions of the legislation. "I guess they hit the jackpot," Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.

California could lose out on millions of federal education dollars unless legislators change a law that prevents it from using student test scores to measure teachers' performance, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is expected to announce in a speech today. California has among the worst records of any state in collecting and using data to evaluate teachers and schools.

The Obama administration is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget. Schwarzenegger's office was advised this week by federal health officials that the wage reduction, which will save California $74 million, violates provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Barack Obama portrays his stimulus plan as a quick jolt for the ailing economy and a "down payment" on his priorities as president. But those goals appear to be colliding in at least one key area: energy independence.

Although the formal unveiling is still a couple of weeks away, the broad outlines of President Obama's long-delayed plan for reviving the nation's financial system are coming clear: an ambitious but untested attempt to partner up private capital with government funds while limiting the risk to taxpayers.

For six months, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler have been trying to convince the government that they need billions of dollars in aid, while assuring the American consumer that everything is A-OK. It's proved to be the marketing equivalent of trying to stuff a Hummer into the trunk of a Corvette. The negative PR campaign appears to have reached the right ears in Washington. On Monday, President Obama will announce his plan for supporting the two automakers beyond the $17.

After an hours-long partisan debate, Republicans in the state Assembly on Monday defeated a bill that would have authorized spending more than $2.5 billion in federal stimulus money to provide 20 weeks of extra unemployment benefits. The bill would have provided extended benefits this year to an estimated 260,000 jobless Californians, including 74,000 whose unemployment checks are due to run out April 12. They are now eligible for up to 59 weeks of benefits.

The state Senate will hold hearings later this month to determine if legislators need to change a California law governing the use of student test scores in order to qualify for competitive federal education reform dollars. At issue is a 2006 law that bars the state from using student test score data for measuring teacher performance.