Blade Runner author's family sue over Google phone

By Kevin Rawlinson

It was supposed to be the long-awaited launch of Google’s rival to Apple’s iphone. But instead, the unveiling of the company’s Nexus One mobile has landed it in legal hot water after the family of author Philip K. Dick, on whose novel the film Blade Runner was based, threatened to sue for infringement of intellectual property rights.

Isa Dick Hackett, daughter of the American writer, says that many of the names of the phone’s features are lifted directly from her father’s book Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep? and the 1982 film based upon it. The Nexus One’s operating system is called Android and the rogue cyborgs in the book are called the Nexus 6.

She sent a letter to Google yesterday, the day after the phone’s launch, demanding that the corporation change the name. “Google takes first and then deals with the fallout later. In my mind, there is a very obvious connection to my father’s novel. People don’t get it. It’s the principle of it. It would be nice to have a dialogue. We are open to it. That’s a way to start,” said Ms Dick Hackett.

Google’s new product is based on its Android technology, launched two years ago. The company hopes that the phone – a direct competitor to the Apple iphone – will gain it a share in the mobile phone market. It claimed at the phone’s launch on Tuesday that the Nexus name is used in the word’s original sense – as a place where things converge.

In Dick’s book, set in 2019, the main protagonist Rick Deckard – played by actor Harrison Ford in the film Blade Runner – is a San Francisco bounty hunter, searching for renegade androids who have escaped their human masters and are trying to lead lives as humans. After some people left Earth to escape the fallout from a nuclear war which had ravaged the planet, the cyborgs were supposed to act as slaves.

In the past, the Dick family, along with the Steinbeck family and musician Arlo Guthrie, son of US musician Woody Guthrie, has also attacked Google’s Book section, on which users can search the text of books the company has scanned and uploaded. Google uses optical character recognition technology to convert the books into searchable text and stores them on its digital database.

They said that the system was overly complicated and that copyright holders were being asked to make binding decisions. In 2008, Google agreed to pay around £78m to copyright holders after the American Author’s Guild sued. The company also agreed to set up Book Rights Registry to distribute revenue to copyright holders.

Another mobile phone company, Motorola agreed to pay director of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films George Lucas for the use the name Droid in their Android OS-powered smartphone.

A spokesman for Google refused to comment today.

The Independent

Dolphins unveil designs for stadium makeover

With a square roof and an open center, a new Miami Dolphins stadium could help lure more Super Bowls to South Florida. Should the public pay for the construction effort? The team would like an answer

BY DOUGLAS HANKS

DHANKS@MIAMIHERALD.COM

The Miami Dolphins proposed an extensive retrofit of the team's stadium on Thursday -- including a partial roof -- and invited a debate on whether the public should pay for the renovation.

Without the new 621,000-square-foot roof and other modifications, the Super Bowl may not return to South Florida after its played at the stadium Feb. 7, Dolphins CEO Mike Dee said at a press event. He declined to estimate how much the retrofit would cost or commit the team to paying for any of it. Two local Super Bowl organizers earlier put the price at between $200 million and $250 million.

The presentation set the stage for the stadium to pursue public dollars as local and state leaders grapple with grim budget shortfalls. But even after Thursday's presentation, it was unknown what exactly the Dolphins wanted in terms of public financing.

Dee said the Dolphins do not need the stadium improvements for regular season games, and that it was up to local Super Bowl organizers to decide if the renovations are worth pursuing. Rodney Barreto, chairman of South Florida's Super Bowl Host Committee, declined to say which public funds he might pursue.

Dee and Barreto tied the renovation with the economic windfalls that come with Super Bowls and other large stadium events, including Orange Bowl and World Cup soccer.

``This is Corporate America at its best. They're going to be here wining and dining,'' Barreto said of Super Bowl's deep-pocketed visitors. ``The worst thing we can do as a community is to say -- and I hear this often -- `Don't worry. It's coming again'''.

Dee said the team has not calculated how much the construction would cost. He also said he had no suggestion for where to find public dollars for the renovation, saying the team ``would leave no rock unturned'' in searching for a way to get the work done.

Asked if the Dolphins would invest in the effort, Dee said it was too early to say. But he noted previous owner Wayne Huizenga had spent about $250 million in recent years on renovations to the privately owned stadium -- work that current owner Stephen Ross paid for in buying the team.

``We're talking about Phase Two'' of the renovation Huizenga began, Dee said.

Tourism officials oppose using hotel taxes to fund stadium improvements at the expense of local convention centers. Miami-Dade commissioners last year pledged hotel taxes to more than $300 million in debt for a new Florida Marlins baseball stadium.

The plans Dee unveiled would bring the biggest change to the Dolphins home field since it opened as Joe Robbie Stadium in 1987. Four spar-like pylons would jut from the stadium corners to support the square roof, resembling bridge spans from the highway as spectators approached Dolphin Stadium.

The roof itself would allow natural light and rain in through the open center, but would cover all 75,000 seats. That would prevent the sort debacle that still makes organizers wince: the 2007 deluge that soaked spectators at the 2007 Super Bowl championship at the stadium.

Along with new stadium lights, the Dolphins would add about 3,000 seats in the lower bowl -- filling up the space by the sidelines needed to accommodate a baseball field when the Marlins moved in 17 years ago.

The Miami Herald

Ballmer kicks off CES with Microsoft keynote

Microsoft team introduces software, hardware partnerships, slate PCs and give sneak peaks at Halo Reach and Project Natal

Omar El Akkad Technology Reporter

Las Vegas — Globe and Mail Update

The unofficial kickoff to the Consumer Electronics Show began late Wednesday night, as the President and CEO of Microsoft took to the stage in Las Vegas.

Steve Ballmer gave the first keynote talk at CES, using the occasion to present a bullish view of the industry's outlook in the coming decade, pinning that view on the global middle class, which he sees expanding from 1 billion to 4 billion people in coming decades.

“2009 was a year of unprecedented economic turbulence,” he told a crowd of thousands. But he added that the technology industry had nonetheless made “an ongoing impact on the lives of people around the world”.

Thousands of industry representatives, reporters and Microsoft staff members crowded the Hilton Centre conference room for the event.

Mr. Ballmer's speech was among the most anticipated at CES this year, partly because his reputation for showmanship, but also because of Microsoft's importance in the tech industry.

Anticipation was heightened shortly before the keynote thanks to rumours that Mr. Ballmer would unveil a new Microsoft tablet.

But there was no such device in store. Instead, Mr. Ballmer showed off a number of third-party touchscreen and tablet-like “slate computers” running Windows operating systems.

Much of the Microsoft talk centred on home entertainment. Presenters showed off everything from streaming movies on Windows Mobile-based smartphones to TV on the PC – while displaying the latter, Microsoft executives said Windows software would allow users to record four high-definition channels simultaneously.

Microsoft also showcased a number of upcoming games for its Xbox360 system, and closed the keynote with a video about Project Natal, a hardware and software system that recognizes the body's movements without any device touching the body, making for fully controller-less gaming. The company says Natal will be available in late 2010.

But the Microsoft keynote contained no iconic product unveilings – Natal had been shown off before, though without a release date. Instead of a big announcement to try to steal the spotlight from Google's Nexus smart phone or Apple's much-hyped tablet, Microsoft chose to further promote its Windows 7 operating system, which is just starting its product cycle.

Microsoft also said it forged a new search distribution deal with HP that will make the company's Bing search site and MSN.com content portal the default search engine and Web home page on new HP computers sold in 42 countries.

The software maker has signed similar deals in the past, including one with HP in 2008 that made Live Search, Bing's predecessor technology, the default on computers sold in the U.S. and Canada. People who buy such computers can still change their preferred search engine to something else.

Ballmer announced a new version of Mediaroom, its technology that delivers TV over the Internet on such services as AT&T Inc.'s U-verse system. The newest version of Mediaroom will let subscribers watch live and recorded TV and video-on-demand on Windows computers and phones and through Xbox 360 consoles, in addition to a set-top box. It will work over regular broadband, not just special fibre connections.

CES officially kicks off tomorrow, as about 110,000 people descend on Las Vegas to look at some 20,000 new products.

With files from The Associated Press

The Globe and Mail

Burnt remains of Playboy model found in rubbish bin

The charred remains found in a rubbish bin in Florida have been identified as those of 26-year-old model Paula Sladewski, who was formerly a Playboy model

She appeared in a 2003 video called Playboy: The Ultimate Playmate Search. Her body had been so badly burned that she had to be identified by her dental records.

Sladewski had been on holiday in Florida from LA with her boyfriend Kevin Klym, who reported her missing on Tuesday.

He told police they had a fight at bar and got separated from one another.

Klym said he left the bar alone at 7am local time on Sunday after security forced him to leave because he was ‘too drunk’.

Sladewski’s remains were found that night. The cause of death is unknown. 

Metro.UK

‘Yemen doesn’t need US troops’

SANAA: Yemen’s foreign minister said Wednesday that his country opposes any direct intervention by US or other foreign troops in the fight against Al-Qaeda. Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi told The Associated Press in an interview that “there is a lot of sensitivity about foreign troops coming to Yemeni territory.” The United States has ramped up its counterterrorism aid to Yemen in an intensified campaign to uproot Al-Qaeda’s offshoot here, which Washington warns has become a “global” threat. US military personnel have already been on the ground training Yemeni security forces in the fight, and intelligence cooperation has increased. Al-Qirbi said Yemen’s government would welcome more military trainers, “but not in any other capacity.” “There is a lot of debate among them about how far they should get involved in Yemen,” Al-Qirbi said, referring to the United States and its allies. “I’m sure that their experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be very useful to learn from — that direct intervention complicates things.” So far the US has indicated it is not aiming to deploy ground forces in Yemen. President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, said earlier in the week, “We’re not talking about that at this point at all.” But Al-Qirbi’s comments underscored how Washington must tread carefully as it strengthens its partnership with Yemen’s government. Earlier this week, Al-Qirbi insisted there is no agreement between Yemen and the United States allowing the American military to use cruise missiles, drones or warplanes in strikes on Yemeni territory. “And there is no proposal for such an agreement,” he added. The issue is highly sensitive for the Yemenis. In 2002, the government was infuriated when US officials made public that US cruise missiles were used in a strike that killed a top Al-Qaeda figure, Abu Ali Al-Harithi — believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen. In another development, Yemeni security forces on Wednesday captured a key Al-Qaeda leader and two other militants believed behind threats against Western interests in Sanaa which prompted embassies to bolt their doors, police said. The arrest of Mohammed Al-Hanq and the two other suspected extremists at a hospital in Raydah, north of capital, came as Yemen’s authorities said Al-Qaeda militants were being choked countrywide and forced into “holes.” Al-Hanq had evaded arrest on Monday during a security force raid in Arhab, 40 kilometers north of Sanaa, in which two of his relatives were killed and three other people wounded. A security official told AFP security forces had Wednesday morning swooped on a hospital in Raydah, 80 km north of Sanaa in Amran province, where the suspects were receiving treatment. “Mohammed Al-Hanq and two others who were wounded were captured in a hospital in Amran,” the official said. Four men who had transported the wounded to the hospital and hid them from police were also taken into custody, the Defense Ministry-linked news website 26Sep.net said. Two other Al-Qaeda suspects meanwhile turned themselves in to the authorities in the region of Marib, east of Sanaa, on Wednesday, and a third surrendered in Arhab, a security official said. Arab News

CAFTA bonanza for consumers

By Azlan Othman

An economic bonanza awaits consumers in Brunei following the Chinese-Asean Free Trade Area (CAFTA) Agreement that came into effect yesterday.

Foremost among the beneficiaries will be motorcar owners in this country where vehicle ownership is relatively high.

For instance, the tariff for tyres and vehicle accessories that earlier stood at 20 per cent will now be a mere 5 per cent under the new FTA.

That aside, the agreement provides for a number of consumer products from China to be imported here on a zero-tariff basis.

At the same time Brunei could reap the advantage of CAFTA by enhancing its exports of seafood and halal products as well as other commodities to China.

These are some of the salient points highlighted during an interview the Weekend Bulletin had with the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China Madam Tong Xiaoling on CAFTA and how it would impact the people in general.

The CAFTA which came into force on January 1, 2010 marks a significant progress of the economic integration between China and Asean countries.

Asked how she sees China-Brunei relations under the larger context of CAFTA, the Ambassador said Brunei Darussalam is blessed with good social order, ever-growing business and consumers with high purchasing power.

His Majesty's government has managed to diversify Brunei's economy to relieve its heavy dependence on oil and gas. Under the CAFTA, the free flow of capitals, technologies, products, services and labour resources will provide Brunei with unprecedented opportunities.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, China-Brunei relations have seen fast, smooth and healthy development. Besides traditional cooperation in oil and gas, new achievements have been registered in agriculture, fisheries, Halal products, infrastructure construction, touris, etc.

The CAFTA Forum will be held in early January 2010 in Nanning, China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Dato Paduka Lim Jock Hoi, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Brunei Darussalam, will lead a delegation to attend the Forum.

"We firmly believe with the introduction of the CAFTA and with the concerted efforts of all parties, China-Asean cooperation will reap more tangible fruits while China-Brunei relations will be further enriched and elevated".

She said that CAFTA covers a population of 1.9 billion and a combined gross domestic product of US$6 trillion. It is the world's largest trading bloc in terms of population and the third largest in terms of trading volume.

Trade between China and Asean countries has picked up rapidly in the past decade, expanding from US$19.5 billion in 1995 to a total worth of US$231 billion in 2008. More notably in the past four years, trade has doubled between China and Asean. It is predictable that the CAFTA will exert great influences upon China-Asean economic and trade cooperation in the following aspects.

First, as emerging economies, China and Asean have been attracting global attention for their commendable economic achievements and have been considered as the locomotive of the world's economic growth. The CAFTA's establishment will bring tangible benefits to the region and the whole world, and will also contribute to global efforts to combat the international financial crisis.

Second, starting from January 1, 2010, the tariff of about 90 per cent of the commodities traded in China and Asean's six founding countries, namely Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, will be reduced to zero, while for Asean's other four countries, the zero-tariff provision will be effectuated as of 2015.

Generally speaking, the trades of China and Asean complement each other despite some similar products between them. Under the zero-tariff arrangement, China and Asean will enjoy different economic benefits. The intra-regional trade volume will soar up even further.

Third, China and Asean remain the world's major manufacturing bases, and this advantage hasn't changed although the global economy is in a process of readjustment due to the international financial crisis.

The CAFTA will help major economies to upgrade their economic and trade structure, by way of which to develop a new competitive advantage for the whole region.

Last, not only will more Chinese and Asean companies prefer to invest within the integrated market, since market risk and uncertainty are lowered, but also US, European and Japanese companies, which are interested in making inroads into Asia, will also be attracted to invest in this huge market.

China has been relatively successful in this regard as it has in place the essential determinants to attract investments. As such, the integration of Asean with China can attract more foreign corporations, which each single market cannot attract otherwise.

Borneo Bulletin

Gunmen kill 7 at Egypt church after Christmas Mass

Cairo: Three men in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in southern Egypt as they left a midnight Mass for Coptic Christmas, killing at least seven people in a drive-by shooting, the church bishop and security officials said.

Egypt's Interior Ministry said the attack on Wednesday just before midnight was suspected as retaliation for the November rape of a Muslim girl by a Christian man in the same town. The statement said witnesses have identified the lead attacker. 

The attack took place in the town of Nag Hamadi in Qena province, about 40 miles (64 kilometres) from the famous ancient ruins of Luxor. A local security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed that seven were dead and three seriously wounded. 

Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hamadi Diocese said six male churchgoers and one security guard were killed. He said he had left St John's church just minutes before the attack. 

"A driving car swerved near me, so I took the back door. By the time I shook hands with someone at the gate, I heard the mayhem, lots of machine gun shots," he said in a telephone interview. He said he saw five bodies lying on the ground when he first looked at the site of the shooting, about 600 yards from where he was. 

The bishop said he was concerned about violence on the eve of Coptic Christmas, which falls on Thursday, because of previous threats following the rape of the 12-year-old girl in November. 

He got a message on his mobile phone saying: "It is your turn".

"I did nothing with it. My faithful were also receiving threats in the streets, some shouting at them: 'We will not let you have festivities,'" he said. 

Because of the threats, he said he ended his Christmas Mass one hour early. 

He said Muslim residents of Nag Hamadi and neighbouring villages rioted for five days in November and torched and damaged Christian properties in the area after the rape. 

"For days, I had expected something to happen on Christmas day," he said. The bishop said police have now asked him to stay at home for fear of further violence. 

Qena is one of the Egypt's poorest and most conservative areas. 

Christians, mostly Coptic, account for about 10 percent of Egypt's predominantly Muslim population. As Islamic conservatism gains ground, Christians have increasingly complained about discrimination by the Muslim majority. 

Clashes between Muslims and Christians are not uncommon in southern Egypt and in recent years have begun seeping into the capital. An Amnesty International report said sectarian attacks on the Coptic Christian community, comprising between 6 million and 8 million people in Egypt, increased in the year 2008. Sporadic clashes between Coptic Christians and Muslims left eight people dead. 

Vendetta killing is also common among southern Egyptians, and is usually over land or family disputes. 

The bishop said he had an idea of who the attackers were, calling them ‘Muslim radicals’. 

"It is all religious now. This is a religious war about how they can finish off the Christians in Egypt," he said. 

Bureau Report

Zeenews

Nepal child soldiers leave UN camps

Thousands of former child soldiers who fought for the Maoists in Nepal's decade-long civil war have begun leaving UN-monitored camps where they have spent the past three years.

Around 250 young men and women are to swap their blue People's Liberation Army (PLA) uniforms for civilian clothes on Thursday and begin their journey home after an official ceremony at the Sindhuli camp in central Nepal.

They are the first of almost 24,000 former Maoist fighters living in camps around the country to be officially discharged as part of the 2006 agreement.

"After a lot of delays we are finally ready to discharge the disqualified Maoist combatants from the UN-monitored camps. It is a milestone for the country's peace process," a spokesman from the peace ministry told AFP news agency.

"We hope it will pave the way for the crucial step of rehabilitating and reintegrating Maoist combatants".

The former fighters were confined to UN-supervised camps as part of the 2006 accord that followed the end of the conflict between Maoist fighters and the state.

In 2007, the United Nations Mission in Nepal (Unmin) completed a verification process and found that 2,973 were minors when the war ended and another 1,035 were not genuine combatants.

'Committed to peace'

The minors had been due for release soon afterwards, but the process was repeatedly delayed by disagreements between the Maoist party, now in opposition, and its political rivals.

Over the next month, all 4,008 will leave the camps, a move Chandra Prasad Khanal, the PLA spokesman, said would "send a message to the world that we are committed to peace".

"For us this is a sad moment because we are sending away our fellow fighters in the decade-long people's war. But we are taking this step in order to bring the peace process to a logical conclusion," Khanal said.

Media access to the camps is restricted, but in a briefing organised by the PLA, one former child soldier expressed his regret at leaving the camp.

The discharge of the former child soldiers will allow the Maoists to be removed from a UN list of organisations that use children in conflict.

Al Jazeera

Terrorists were in touch with Pak handlers: Home Ministry sources

NEW DELHI: The Lashker-e-Taiba terrorists, who were killed by security forces during the siege at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, were in constant touch with their handlers in Pakistan when they were holed up inside a hotel there. 

According to highly placed sources in the Union Home Ministry, nearly 700 terrorists, half of them foreign mercenaries, are active in Jammu and Kashmir. 

They said some more attacks were expected to take place as the holed up militants at the hotel in Lal Chowk area had communicated the same to their handlers in Pakistan, the sources said. 

According to the official data available with the Home Ministry, 413 infiltration attempts were made from across the border during which 93 terrorists were killed while 110 managed to sneak in. 

Out of the 110 who had infiltrated, 70% were foreign militants while the remaining locals. 

The attacks in Srinagar was a result of shifting of focus of the police forces towards Jammu, which is the winter capital of the state, a senior official of the Home Ministry said.

The Times of India

Gazprom confirms December payment for Ukraine gas supplies

Russia's Gazprom confirmed on Thursday that it had received payment in full for December's gas deliveries to Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan pledged the former Soviet republic would pay on schedule $892 million for Russian gas supplied in December.

However, President Viktor Yushchenko had earlier said Ukrainian national energy company Naftogaz lacked the funds to pay and ordered Vladimir Stelmakh, head of Ukraine's National Bank, to resolve the problem.

On December 31, the IMF permitted the Ukrainian government to spend $2 billion from the National Bank's gold and foreign exchange reserves to pay for Russian gas deliveries.

Russia, which supplies around one quarter of Europe's gas, briefly shut down supplies via Ukraine's pipeline system at the start of 2009 amid a dispute over unpaid bills and new prices.

The conflict was resolved in January, when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko reached a deal on imports and transit for 2009.

Ukraine transits around 80% of Russia's Europe-bound gas.

MOSCOW, January 7

RIA Novosti

Governor's call for giving colleges priority over prisons faces hard political tests

Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to save money by privatizing prisons and the wisdom of linking the funding of universities and corrections facilities present formidable obstacles in Sacramento

By Shane Goldmacher and Larry Gordon

Reporting from Los Angeles and Sacramento - At the center of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's State of the State speech Wednesday was a proposal that outside of Sacramento might seem like common sense: Mandate that the state invest more dollars each year in its public universities than in locking people up in prison.

But to many inside the Capitol, that idea appears all but unattainable.

The plan -- and the reaction to it -- highlights the disconnect between the priorities of voters and the reality of the state's shattered finances and a policymaking process that often seems byzantine.

"In concept, it absolutely makes sense to everyone," said Thad Kousser, visiting professor of political science at Stanford University. But "when you look at the trade-offs that the state might face to get there, it gets a lot harder".

The proposal for a constitutional change that would require more spending on higher education than prisons was the key headline as Schwarzenegger delivered his final State of the State speech, in which he also asked legislators to approve a jobs creation program and urged them to join him in pushing for increased funding from Washington.

The governor's plan aims to bring back the days when the state funneled more money into University of California and California State University classrooms than into its prisons. It has been at least five years since that has been the case. It comes at a time when tuitions are soaring and course offerings are being cut.

The state's public universities, long considered an economic engine and a source of pride for California, have proved to be an easier target for budget cuts than other major programs, which are protected by politically powerful unions, deep pocketed corporate interests or federal laws limiting the state's ability to cut.

"What does it say about a state that focuses more on prison uniforms than caps and gowns?" Schwarzenegger said. "The priorities have become out of whack. . . Thirty years ago, 10% of the general fund went to higher education and 3% went to prisons. Today, almost 11% goes to prisons and only 7.5% goes to higher education".

The governor called for a constitutional amendment that would prohibit corrections spending from outstripping funds for higher education by 2014-2015. The plan would require approval from lawmakers and voters.

University leaders said they were delighted that the governor was championing the proposed amendment, which UC President Mark G. Yudof called "a visionary way to address the issues".

Charles B. Reed, chancellor of the 23-campus Cal State system, acknowledged that gaining approval for the measure would require "heavy lifting," but said he thought it ultimately could win favor with the Legislature and voters.

"It's a step to begin to change the culture of California back to investing in California's future rather than just paying expenses for California's failures," Reed said.

But lawmakers have been unable to trim the corrections budget for years. Voters and politicians alike have approved years of stiffer sentences and stricter rules for parolees -- driving up the prison population. The result has been a prison network bursting at the seams, with federal judges taking control of prisoners' healthcare and ordering the state to either release tens of thousands of inmates or boost prison spending by billions. Lawmakers so far have chosen to keep spending.

Although some legislators applauded the governor's goal, they were immediately skeptical of his plan for reaching it.

It calls for cutting spending through privatization -- either having private companies run prisons or hiring private firms to supply state-run facilities with guards, doctors, teachers and other employees. Most current prison workers are part of a powerful union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn.

"I don't think privatizing prisons is the answer," said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles). "I think we need to look at why California incarcerates more people than any other state. We need to look at ways to reduce recidivism and we certainly need to look at sentencing reform".

Republicans tend to support privatization, but they have other concerns. Many of the state's financial problems have been exacerbated by conflicting constitutional mandates already on the books that dictate increased spending for various programs each year. The new proposal would be another of those. And GOP lawmakers are not eager to impose the prison cuts that would be required to free up money for universities.

"The most essential of government functions is public safety," said Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks), "and we have to make sure that's our top priority".

In the current budget, UC, Cal State and the state's Cal Grant financial aid program combined to receive about $6 billion, not including revenues from student fees. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation received $8.12 billion, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Under the governor's plan, spending on UC, Cal State and Cal Grants would have to account for at least 10% of the state's general fund by 2014-15; prisons could receive no more than 7%. The guarantee could be suspended by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

Changing that ratio would require the type of deep cuts in prison spending that Sacramento has long balked at making. Federal courts also would have to give their blessing. Short of deep cuts in the prison budget, the only other way to meet the mandate would be to find billions of new dollars for universities elsewhere in the budget at a time when the state is facing enormous deficits.

In the 1970s, the share of the state budget set aside for UC, Cal State and state financial aid was about 13%, nearly four times as large as the percentage for corrections, according to the California Postsecondary Education Commission. Funding for the two sectors drew close in the early 1990s and prisons then pulled ahead consistently starting in 2004-05, the commission reported.

Steve Boilard, director of higher education issues in the Legislative Analyst's Office, questioned the proposed link between higher education and prisons, even if it might appeal to voters.

"It's apples and oranges," he said of universities and prisons. "Why should state spending on higher education be determined on how much we save on prison reform?"

Yudof, president of the 10-campus UC system, said he did not know whether it was politically wise to link university and prison funding. But he hailed the governor's plan as "a very useful opening salvo" to restore higher education funding.

"I don't have any particular argument with corrections or the need to lock up bad guys," Yudof said. "But having the best prison system in the world is not going to create jobs the way having the best university system will".

Times staff writer Patrick McGreevy contributed to this report

Los Angeles Times