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Hostage Situation Over California's Budget Still Not Resolved

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"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.

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