he stock market may be the deciding factor in whether the U.S. economy tips into a consumer-driven recession this year...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "post-partisan" strategy for two years has relied on merging support from majority Democrats with his personal brand of moderate Republican beliefs, almost entirely without support from other GOP members in the Capitol...

He has prided himself on thinking big, and used his larger-than-life persona to advocate grand visions for California's future...

Future historians will look back on the current decade as a turning point comparable with that of the Seventies...