In case you're wondering: You didn't miss much.

The Bee reports, "Democratic legislative leaders Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass spent three hours negotiating over the budget last Friday via videophone with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was vacationing in Idaho. Talks continued over the weekend, with leaders hoping lawmakers can be called back to Sacramento by the end of this week to approve a final deal.

"According to the deficit clock outside Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Capitol office, the state budget shortfall will approach $7.4 billion today, on its way to $14.8 billion by June 30 unless state leaders take action."

Can't beat a $32 prop as an authoritative financial source...

The Bee and the Chron both begin their "new laws" features by focusing on the texting-while-driving ban.

Kevin Yamamura reports, "Plenty of drivers still talk with cell phones plastered to their ears, never mind that doing so became illegal in California in July.That doesn't mean the law isn't having an impact. The California Highway Patrol alone has cited 42,000 drivers in less than six months.

"And sometimes the law has even resulted in arrests for other crimes, as was the case in November when Sacramento Police Department officers pulled over a driver in College Glen for chatting on the phone before he led them on a chase and was captured as a parolee-at-large."

The Chron's Wyatt Buchanan also includes a more general approach to the annual "new law" roundup . "When the clock strikes midnight New Year's Eve, Californians will welcome 2009 and several new laws, including a ban on text messaging while driving, more-detailed labeling on bottled water, and rules to speed responses to oil spills.

"Other laws taking effect Thursday will double fines for traffic violations on three major San Francisco streets plagued by pedestrian injuries and fatalities, and make it harder for people pilfering from recycling bins to sell the goods."

The Chron's Joe Garafoli reports on California's new White House influence . "Naturally, the nation's most populous and electorally rich state (which is also rich with campaign contributors) would have a great deal of influence. But the Democratic stronghold mattered less to the Bush administration. As Chris Lehane, a former Clinton administration official and San Francisco political consultant, said: "Before, the door was slammed in our face. Now, the welcome mat is out. The access issue is a big deal."

"You have an awful lot of Californians in key positions now," said former Clinton administration chief of staff Leon Panetta, who has advised Obama's transition team on hiring and other matters. "It's pretty clear that California is going to have a lot of say in administration policy, both outside and inside the administration. In practical terms, that means when California has problems, when California needs something in particular, that there is somebody on the inside making the case for California."

The influence parade starts with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director Steven Chu, who is scheduled to be secretary of energy, and Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Los Angeles, nominated to lead the Labor Department. Between them, the state's cutting-edge ideas on climate change and green jobs will be aired across the Cabinet table."

Meanwhile, California Republicans are looking for the silver lining , reports the LAT's Michael Finnegan. 

"The California Republican Party is dead," election analyst Tony Quinn, himself a Republican, wrote last week on Fox & Hounds Daily, a political blog. "Call the undertaker, haul away the corpse."

"Others apply a less severe metaphor: dismal health. Either way, signs of doom abound.

"Starkest of all was McCain's loss to Barack Obama in the presidential contest last month by a staggering 3.3 million votes -- or a margin of 61% to 37%. Since 1900, the only Republican nominee for the White House to be trounced by a wider gap in California was Alf Landon, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's challenger in 1936.
 

Mike
Spence, however, sees opportunities to expand the party's reach. Conservatives can take heart, he said, in the strong support of Latinos and African Americans for Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage.

"There's at least one issue we agree on," he said.

Spence, a former Mormon bishop who serves on the West Covina school board and advises the National Right to Life Committee, also sees Republican resistance to tax increases as attractive to many Californians.

But those glimmers of hope don't easily translate into electoral victory."

The LA Times throws another log on the fire that is the ego of Willie Brown.

"Da Mayor, as he is affectionately known in these parts, "seems to have been on a personal crusade since leaving office to -- in his own view -- educate the public about how politics works, at least as it works according to Willie Brown," said James Richardson, a Brown biographer.

Keep in mind," he wrote on Dec. 14, "politics is a crazy business. . . . If someone tells you, 'I bring the gay community to the table with me, and they will be supportive of your reelection if you appoint me,' and then you appoint him, is that a quid pro quo?"

So what if the public hates "that kind of this-for-that talk." That's how politics works, and that's how it has always worked.

"The reality is, I'm not going to look among my enemies to find the best-qualified people," Brown continued. "I'm going to look among my friends, my previous supporters -- or people I want to turn into supporters. That's all part of the democratic system."

"The difference, though, between the much-investigated-but-never-indicted Brown and Blagojevich, who is fighting felony charges and an impeachment effort, has to do with both style and substance.

"Willie Brown was one of the smartest, if not the smartest person, I ever served with," says Jim Brulte, former Senate Republican leader. "He could find a weakness in a person and exploit it. He had a wicked sense of humor that was disarming. And he had a cold streak that would even make a great white shark envious." 

And finally, we report that Snowzilla has risen again.

"A giant snowman named Snowzilla has mysteriously appeared again this year — despite the city's cease-and-desist order.

Someone again built the giant snowman in Billy Powers' front yard in an east Anchorage neighborhood. Snowzilla reappeared before dawn Tuesday.

Powers is not taking credit. When questioned Tuesday afternoon, he insisted Snowzilla just somehow happened, again.

For the last three years, Snowzilla — to the delight of some and the chagrin of others — has been a very large feature in Powers' yard.

In 2005, Snowzilla rose 16 feet. He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and two eyes made out of beer bottles.

This year, Snowzilla is estimated to be 25 feet tall. He's wearing a black stovepipe hat and scarf.

"Have you seen him?" Powers asked when reached by telephone at his home, the sound of excited children in the background. "He's handsome."

City officials this year deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard. A cease-and-desist order was issued. The city tacked a public notice on Powers' door.

City officials said the structure increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe.

The mayor's office on Tuesday issued a statement defending its move against Snowzilla.