First Take: Boxer opens small lead. Brown hits Whitman’s environmental stance. Inside the budget framework.

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California has paid for felons to work as caregivers for the elderly and disabled in the state’s in-home care program.

A new poll shows Barbara Boxer with a six-point lead over her Repulbican challenger, Carly Fiorina.

Jerry Brown continued to call out Meg Whitman for what he says is her wishy-washy stand on the state’s global warming law.

More details are expected Friday in what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling a ‘framework’ of a budget deal.

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