SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Lawmakers, after a grueling 20-hour session, approved a budget package Friday that would close most of the state’s $26.3 billion deficit with deep, broad cuts to state government. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would sign the legislation next week even though the Assembly rejected key provisions that left it short by nearly $1.1 billion. The governor had demanded repeatedly during months of negotiations that lawmakers close the entire deficit. The portions of the package that did not survive included a controversial proposal for the first new offshore oil drilling in four decades and another to borrow gasoline tax revenue that belongs to local governments.
Massachusetts: 757 returns
An American Airlines flight bound for San Juan, Puerto Rico, returned to Boston for an emergency landing about an hour after takeoff after a spokesman said the smell of smoke was discovered in a rear bathroom. An American Airlines spokesman said Flight 1937, a Boeing 757, returned Saturday to Boston’s Logan International Airport at 9:45 a.m. He said none of the 185 people on board were injured.
Tennessee: Sotomayor vote
The senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said he has made up his mind on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, but he’s not ready to make his decision public. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama said before the Tennessee Republican Party’s annual fundraiser on Saturday that he expects the vote on Democratic President Barack Obama’s nominee to take place Tuesday. Session said he remains “very troubled by her responses” at confirmation hearings.
Pennsylvania: Wandering tots
Pennsylvania welfare officials have ordered the closure of a day care center after four toddlers wandered 200 yards away from it and were found by truck drivers along a busy road. The Department of Public Welfare on Thursday accused the Walnut Grove Christian Day Care in suburban Pittsburgh of “gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct.” A department spokeswoman said the children were 3 or younger and walked the equivalent of two football fields away Tuesday. Passing truckers saw the children and took them back to the center.
Nevada: Boy, 4, shoots girl, 2
A 2-year-old girl was in critical condition Friday after being shot by her 4-year-old brother at their Las Vegas home, police said. “While the brother was holding the weapon it discharged, striking his sister’s torso,” a police spokesman said. Police were investigating how the boy got the 9mm handgun. Police said their father was home when the shooting happened about 8:30 p.m. Thursday. It was not immediately clear if the father would face any charges. “At this time it appears the (boy) was able to gain access to the weapon because it was improperly secured,” the spokesman said.
China: Workers kill manager
Some 30,000 Chinese steelworkers clashed with police in a protest over plans to merge their mill with another company and beat the company’s general manager to death, a human rights monitor said Saturday. Several hundred people were injured in the clash Friday in Tonghua, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. Workers were angry that the manager was paid $438,000 last year while some retirees received as little as $29 a month, the center said.
Britain: The right to die
The main nurses’ organization has dropped its opposition to assisted suicide, as a new poll released Saturday showed solid support for the right to die. The Royal College of Nursing said it was adopting a neutral stance on the issue after its research showed nurses were divided. Doctors group the British Medical Association remains opposed. A survey by Populus published Saturday found 74 percent of people wanted the medical profession to be able to supervise assisted suicides, although a large majority — 85 percent — felt it should be legal only in specific circumstances.
Vatican: Pope’s wrist healing
Doctors examined Pope Benedict XVI’s broken wrist at the pontiff’s Alpine vacation chalet and are pleased with how the injury is healing, a Vatican spokesman said Saturday. During the half-hour checkup, the cast on the fractured right wrist was removed and a new one put on, the spokesman said. The 82-year-old pope had surgery at the hospital on July 17 on his right wrist, which he fractured in a fall in the chalet near Aosta.
From Herald news services
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