Friday:

Michael Jackson: Josh dickey and Frank Baker are off, but monitoring and on cell. Jesse Washington is your first contact; he and John Antczak are running the desk from Los Angeles. Backing them up in New York are Dolores Barclay and Dave Bauder. Particulars of funeral arrangements are only anticipated developments.

Saturday: Regular LA staff monitors and will alert of developments; on-call staffers used for writing/reporting. We'll need WER to file to the aaa.; Same deal on Sunday.

Saturday:

ASIAN FISH POLLUTION (CA)

WESTMINSTER, Calif. - Health inspectors and community activists are cracking down on the sale of polluted fish in Vietnamese and Chinese markets in Southern California. The issue is of particular concern due to the custom of eating the whole fish, including the skin and fat where toxins are stored. The EPA started outreach in these communities in the last year, hoping to change age-old traditions that don't mix well with California's polluted waters. Community groups are holding workshops at local churches and beauty schools, where they can target Vietnamese women of childbearing age. By Amy Taxin. Editor: Raghu Vadarevu. Saved as jhfish. AP Photos.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA:

Budget every day. They likely will file for state wires first, and we can consult with nat on whether we or they need to file to the a-wire

Friday:

HIGH-SPEED RAIL (DSA, CA, NV, IL)

MENLO PARK, Calif. - Last November, more than 60 percent of voters on the San Francisco peninsula supported a $9.9 billion bond measure that will help pay for a high-speed rail line between San Francisco and the Los Angeles area. Now, some of those voters are objecting to the system running through their communities, creating a hurdle for raising the prospect that the bullet train line may not reach San Francisco, one of its key destinations. It's a hurdle that high-speed rail planners could face in other heavily populated areas as they embark on the nation's most ambitious intrastate rail project and try to offer Californians an alternative to congested freeways and air travel. By Steve Lawrence.

Saturday:

MARIJUANA-CANCER (ca, dsa)

SAN FRANCISCO - California regulators' recent decision to list marijuana smoke as a carcinogen has led to an irony a stoner could love: The same drug that state law says doctors can recommend pot to treat cancer must now come with a warning saying it can also cause the disease. By Marcus Wohlsen.

CALIFORNIA BUDGET-SCHWARZENEGGER (ca, dsa)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Arnold Schwarzenegger was a man on a blockbuster-sized mission when he stormed into California's capital in 2003 promising to make dramatic structural reforms to the state's chaotic budget system. Since then, he's offered a smorgasbord of policy options, from budget reform to universal health care, most of which failed to materialize. Now, six months before he enters lame duck status as governor, California is in its most precarious financial condition in decades and Schwarzenegger is running out of time to make good on his promised reforms. By Juliet Williams.

Sunday

CALIFORNIA DROUGHT-CANAL PERIL (CA)

FRESNO, Calif. - Fearing the main canal carrying drinking water to millions of Southern Californians is sinking again, water officials are monitoring the effects of incessant agricultural pumping from the aquifer that runs under the aquaduct. Their concern is that the canal, which has sunk six feet in places during California dry spells, will buckle enough to slow delivery of water to parched points south and force costly repairs. By Tracie Cone.

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ARIZONA:

Friday:

NAVAJO BALLOT INITIATIVE (nm, az, ut)

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Navajo voters have never had much of a say in how their modern government was shaped. But that could soon change, after a tribal judge cleared the way for a special election on a restructuring that could change the balance of power on the sprawling reservation. By Felicia Fonseca.

Saturday:

ARMED ROBBERIES-MOTHER (AZ, MO, DSA)

PHOENIX - Cynthia Mary Roberson is an unemployed mother who police say led her 12- and 14-year-old sons and their friends to commit at least 20 armed robberies and assaults, including the beating of a teenage boy who had nothing more than an orange lollipop. Her motivation was purely financial - police said she needed money to pay rent and the loan on her gold Chevrolet. In every case, the mother drove the getaway car and once coached a kid during a robbery because he was having trouble stealing a cell phone from a victim, police said. The case has outraged authorities and the public and drawn comparisons to "Ma Barker," the infamous mother who led her four young sons on a robbery spree in the early 1900s. By Amanda Lee Myers. AP Photos.