Chelsea Clinton says her mom is the greatest.

**  ON THE ROAD  –  A CALIFORNIA BUDGET PROBLEM. I’m on the road today. While in a luncheon, the state’s Legislative Analyst Office shot a hole through Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s May budget revision, especially with regard to his plan to securitize the California Lottery, a plan the LAO calls overly optimistic and possibly a threat to a guaranteed amount of funding for education. Republicans and Democrats both jumped on the report to push their respective agendas; cuts for Republicans, taxes for Democrats. The Schwarzenegger team had a media conference call to push back on this, which I listened to as I drove around, mostly in the wrong direction. They say the Lottery will perform better with appropriate modernization.

** CALIFORNIA REDISTRICTING REFORM INITIATIVE MOVES AHEAD. Common Cause has announced that the redistricting initiative for the November ballot has turned in over 1.2 million signatures. This should qualify it for the ballot. It’s backed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governor Gray Davis, former Controller Steve Westly, and other reform groups.

** IS ISRAEL TALKING WITH HAMAS? According to Haaretz, it sure sounds like it.

** READ MY FULL REPORT ON SUNDAY’S MEETING OF THE CALIFORNIA DELEGATION TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. You can read my report here.

Incidentally, 2006 California Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides, who endorsed Hillary Clinton, has no role with the 2008 California delegation. His narrowly defeated primary rival, former Controller Steve Westly, one of Barack Obama’s biggest backers, has, as you will see, a big role.

** MY NEW PODCAST. The road ahead.

** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.

Barack Obama is in Billings, Crow Agency, and Bozeman, Montana.

John McCain is in Chicago.

Hillary Clinton is in Kentucky.

Bill Clinton is in Kentucky.

** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger does another event this morning with local elected officials and other community leaders on behalf of his version of budget reform in Coronado at 11:15 AM. The event will be webcast live at www.gov.ca.gov.

** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.

While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.

** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil is trading in the $126 to $127 per barrel range.

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