Hostage Situation Over California's Budget Still Not Resolved

With members of the state Senate confined to the Capitol, state Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, puts his feet up to relax before dawn (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

"Nobody move or the state gets it!" That's the latest text from a Sacramento Bee polical cartoon showing a Republican holding a gun to the state of Califiornia.

State senate members were locked in the capitol into the early morning after a grueling night. They didn't pass a budget (what's new?), but the Republicans did perform a late-night ousting of their caucus leader replacing Sen. Dave Cogdill with Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth shortly after midnight.

The reality of a budget passing last night was so little that even Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger left Sacramento for his home in Los Angeles around 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, a group is trying to get a proposition on a future ballot that will enable the state not to pay elected officials until they pass a budget.