Sonoma County and Marin County residents don't live in the only region voting on a transit measure this fall. Seattle will be voting on a $17.6 billion plan to support light rail and bus service.

And the campaign is being managed by a former Santa Rosan, Andrew Glass Hastings, 27. (Full disclosure: I've known Andrew since he and my son were friends and classmates at the then-Santa Rosa Junior High.) To manage the campaign for Mass Transit Now, Glass Hastings took a leave from his job as an advisor to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickles. Glass Hastings is a graduate of Santa Rosa High and Santa Rosa Junior College (where he was the student representative on the college board of trustees).

Crosscut, the Web-based news site for the Northwest, posted this profile of Glass Hasting and the grass roots campaign he is organizing.

California lawmakers are expected to vote later today on a budget proposal, though neither Democrats nor Republicans expect the measure to pass.

State government is now 48 days past the start of the new budget year- but still no budget. If it occurs, today's session will mark the first time either house has even voted on a 2008-2009 budget bill.

Democrats oppose spending cuts and Republicans oppose new taxes - which is why California is neck-deep in debt. For this fiscal year, the shortfall between revenue and spending is estimated at $15.2 billion.

This is, in equal parts, frustrating, embarrassing, disheartening and costly. California can't begin to solve its problems so long as state government can't get out of its own way. For today's column on the state Legislature as comic relief, click here.

It's curtains for the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The New York Times reports this morning that the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude will give the museum a collection of artwork associated with the "Running Fence."

The 1976 art installation, a curtain of white nylon panels 18-feet high, stretched across 24.5 miles of Sonoma County and Marin County countryside - all the way from Cotati to the Pacific Ocean.

As with all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's projects, the "Running Fence" was not without critics - some focused on art and some on politics. As someone who was there, I can only say that I thought it was beautiful. Imagine a curtain of translucent white snaking across the shimmering gold hillsides of late summer. The politics was entertaining, too - months and months of hearings before a host of county, regional, state and federal agencies.

To read the New York Times report, click here.

On New Year's Day in Ames, Iowa, we watched as John Edwards urged a cheering crowd to join his campaign for the presidency.

On that day, I mentioned: "His wife, Elizabeth, who is being treated for incurable breast cancer, also spoke and sat on the dais behind her husband. She was surrounded by admirers when the program concluded."

Seven months later, we now know that Edwards was living with a lie. While his wife was dealing with cancer, he had an affair with a videographer hired to record the candidate's private moments.

When public figures embarrass themselves, there is always the rhetorical question: What was he thinking? Insert your own answer here. In a TV interview, Edwards told the public what it already knew: His selfishness was to blame.

Meanwhile, people may also ask: What was he thinking when he was barnstorming around the country, urging voters to volunteer their time, money and ideals on his behalf? What did he think would happen to his campaign when his infidelity was disclosed? Imagine the political firestorm that would be playing out this week if the disclosure came as Edwards was on his way to claiming the nomination at the Democratic convention in Denver.

Most country roads are an accident of history. As people settled here and there, the roads that connected these settlements became part of the public road system. In Sonoma County, an area about the size of Rhode Island and almost twice as large as neighboring Marin County, that means a lot of public roads - 1,387 miles of roads, many of them in remote areas.

Unfortunately, the total number of road miles is only one factor in determining how much money the county will receive for maintaining those roads. The formula also takes into account population and the total number of registered vehicles - important advantages for Bay Area counties with more people and smaller land areas.

If you live in a sparsely populated area, this means you may be disappointed if you expect the county to make regular repairs to your favorite country road. My Sunday column - here - focuses on how government's failure to respond to the big issues of our time can lead to potholes on a country lane with an unlikely name: Joy Road.

For the first time, a majority of Californians now favor additional offshore oil drilling, according to a new opinion poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The margin is small, 51 to 45 percent, but the result stands as the latest confirmation that Republicans may have an issue that can help them in the fall campaign. Voters in such swing states as Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia are not likely to be more concerned than Californians about impacts on the California shore. When gasoline passed $4 a gallon, there was climate change of a different kind. The political climate changed.

In a related story, the oil giant Exxon Mobil today reported profits of $11.68 billion in the second quarter.