Government Programs

The cash-for-clunkers program will continue at least through this weekend, and perhaps beyond. Here's a Q&A guide to how it works: What's the basic idea? You trade in a used car and you get a new car with better gas mileage for a $3,500 or $4,500 discount. The federal government is funding the program. Does the program apply to private transactions? No. You have to go to a participating dealer. Is the program retroactive? Yes.

Auto dealers found themselves in an unusual situation over the weekend: crowds of anxious buyers and a dwindling supply of cars. The overwhelmingly popular $1-billion federal effort to stimulate auto sales gave dealers another busy weekend, capping nine days of activity they hadn't seen in a long time. And the "cash for clunkers" program will continue for at least two more days.

Washington's $1-billion "cash for clunkers" program is getting credit for giving automakers, including Ford Motor Co., a huge sales boost in July. Now the question is how long it will last. Thousands of consumers eager to trade in rusty beaters for brand-new cars crowded dealership lots over the last week, delivering automakers their best month in more than a year and injecting hope into the troubled industry. Ford saw its first year-over-year increase in U.S.

After gorging on clunkers this summer, can automakers make it through the fall? That was the question buzzing through the industry Thursday as the government announced that the popular "cash for clunkers" program would end at 5 p.m. Pacific time Monday. Economists credit the program with reviving moribund car sales. But with the cash incentives gone, some fear the newly buoyant auto market could quickly crash in its wake -- just as automakers rushed to boost production in response to clunker-driven sales.

In a rare showing of bipartisan unity, the state Assembly approved a proposal to keep nearly 700,000 children from being pushed off a government health insurance program for the working poor. The measure brokered by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) barely passed in the state Senate a day earlier but sailed to an easy victory in the lower house on a 62-5 vote. Bass called the resounding victory for the state's Healthy Families program -- achieved with the support of 13 Republicans who joined the majority Democrats -- one of the most heartening votes in a year beset by partisan squabbling.

Key members of the Senate Finance Committee moved Friday to quell the latest furor over President Obama's healthcare overhaul, discussing added identification and enforcement requirements intended to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving federal benefits. Committee members ended their closed-door deliberations without reaching agreement on a response, but they are scheduled to work into the weekend. The concern is whether the proposals being worked out by congressional Democrats with Obama's support would make benefits available directly or indirectly to people who are in the United States illegally.

The Veterans Affairs Department said Friday it would begin issuing emergency checks of up to $3,000 to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans whose payments under the new GI Bill have been delayed. Tens of thousand of veterans from the recent wars have been awaiting payments under the newly enacted Post 9/11 GI Bill, which was the largest expansion of education benefits since World War II. "It's clear to me that we have to do something, just to be on the safe side to alleviate any stress that students are facing," Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said late Friday afternoon in an interview.

California is embarking on an unprecedented civil court experiment to pay for attorneys to represent poor litigants who find themselves battling powerful adversaries in vital matters affecting their livelihoods and families. The program is the first in the nation to recognize a right to representation in key civil cases and provide it for people fighting eviction, loss of child custody, domestic abuse or neglect of the elderly or disabled. Advocates for the poor say the law, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed this week, levels the legal playing field and gives underprivileged litigants a better shot at attaining justice against unscrupulous landlords, abusive spouses, predatory lenders and other foes.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger renewed his push Tuesday for $3.6 million to help finance college education for the citizen soldiers of the California National Guard. The governor called it "unconscionable" that California is the only state in the nation that does not provide tuition assistance to the men and women of the Guard. "It's a mark of shame on our great state," Schwarzenegger said at a news conference in the Capitol rotunda. "It's a terrible wrong that must be made right." A bill by state Sen. Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto)

Joanne Weiss on Tuesday was named the leader of the nearly $4.4-billion "Race to the Top" fund, a federal effort to reform the nation's schools. The announcement was made by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in remarks delivered via videoconference at the annual NewSchools Venture Fund Summit. Weiss is a partner in and chief operating officer of the NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit that invests in efforts to turn around underperforming schools. Weiss, who has a degree in biochemistry from Princeton University, is also on the board of directors of Green Dot Public Schools, which operates 10 charter schools in Southern California and this year took over Locke High, which it divided into several small schools.