Blythe Hotel

 Federal regulators shut 2 California thrifts (Washington Post)
WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators on Friday shut down two big thrifts based in Southern California, saying they fell victim to the acute distress in the housing market in that state.
 City bankruptcies may signal trouble for California (The Sacramento Bee)
Are they signs of difficulties yet to come for municipal governments? Or, is the revelation that two small cities in Northern California are considering bankruptcy protection merely news of isolated financial trouble that's unlikely to spread around the region? Government leaders and experts on municipal finance are quick to say Rio Vista and Isleton face unique difficulties that ...
 BRIAN DICKERSON: California schemin': Is left coast plotting Michigan's ruin? (Detroit Free Press)
That's right: It's Michigan vs. California -- Us vs. Them -- in the cultural grudge match of the century! Or at least this week's grudge match of the century.
 REVOLVING DOORS: The crisis in California's parole system (North County Times)
Each year, nearly 2,000 men and women walk out of California's overcrowded prisons and back into the North County communities where they lived.