Today is day two of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's twin conferences on climate change and small business in the Los Angeles area.
The Big 5 is also set to meet today to discuss the state budget.
As Kevin Yamamura reported on Tuesday, Schwarzenegger will have to fit that into a packed schedule: "a scheduled 9 a.m. speech, a 1:30 p.m. panel discussion and a 3:30 press conference, all at the climate change conference in Los Angeles, not to mention a 5 p.m. appearance at the Los Angeles Auto Show."
Floor sessions in both houses remain scheduled for Sunday, but there has been little apparent movement toward an agreement.
How close are they?
So close that the chair of Senate Budget Committee is a continent away.
Democratic Sen. Denise Ducheny -- along with a bipartisan crew of seven other senators -- is traveling in India as part of a foreign outreach trip. The other traveling senators are Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine, and Bob Margett, R-Arcadia.
"The senator has been in constant contact with her leadership, current and prospective, and she's doing her job like she would be if she was in the district," said Ducheny chief of staff John Ferrera.
The group's trip isn't scheduled to end until Nov. 26 - next Wednesday - but Ferrera said, "We have contingency plans if she needs to be back for Sunday (when session is scheduled)."
A group of lawmakers is also traveling in China, on a trip organized by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco.
Also today, Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, chairs an informational hearing on California's disclosure requirements for retailers to notify customers when a retailer has had data stolen.
Jones has carried legislation to bolster the state's data breach laws for the last two years, but Schwarzenegger has twice vetoed the bills.
The Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (known around town as MRMIB) will hear testimony on a proposal to put children who apply to the state's Healthy Families Program on a waiting list due to the budget shortfall.
The regents of the University of California will meet in San Francisco today. Lt Gov. John Garamendi, who serves as a regent and is running for governor in 2010, will be there to protest the 2009-10 proposed UC budget.
Garamendi says he is opposed to the 9.5 percent student tuition increase in the spending plan.
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