The Bond Legislation
The Democrats in the Assembly and Sentate have agreed to language to create a Dedicated Rate Component to repay the budget and de-link the bonds from the DWR contracts. 
But the Republicans have still not agreed to go along.  
The bill would require a 2/3's vote to keep the bond issuance on schedule, so Republican votes are necessary. 
The Republicans are trying to meet tonite or tomorrow to determine whether to go along.

The Conference Committee
Senator Burton does not like the idea of a conference committee and at this point prefers to use the existing committee structure to hear the core/noncore proposal.
Using the existing committee structure could take longer to produce a bill than using the conference committee structure, but how much longer is uncertain.
No sense yet of when hearings on the core/noncore proposal---in conference committee or otherwise--will take place, though Burton continues to say that he wants to "give it a chance."

The Core/Noncore Legislative Language
The negotiating group continues to work on the language.
The language was supposed to be delivered to Hertzberg by COB today, but more work needs to be done and it is now scheduled to be delivered first thing tomorrow morning.

Senator Dunn's Investigative Committee Hearing
The hearing's been moved from tomorrow to Wednesday.

Best,
Jeff