Montgomery, AL, USA. Alabama Governor Bob Riley is slashing funding for K-12 education, but he says the wobbly economy isn't to blame. Instead, Riley is pointing the finger at Attorney General Troy King, a fellow Republican.

The unusual scenario is the result of a lawsuit King has filed against BP seeking damages related to April's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Riley contends that the lawsuit, which was filed over his objections, is complicating his own negotiations with the firm over how to get back $148 million in lost tax revenues stemming from the spill.

Riley submitted a claim to the firm last month and believes that King's method of being reimbursed — a court battle — will take too long. As reported in the Mobile Press-Register, the negotiations between Riley and BP appear to have fallen apart because of King's lawsuit. The oil giant last week refused to pay the governor's $148 million claim, citing the attorney general's legal action.

Sacramento, CA, USA. Arnold Schwarzenegger barely had time to unpack the boxes in his California gubernatorial office before he began promising to destroy the bureaucratic baggage of state government.

Chosen in a 2003 special election, Schwarzenegger used the occasion of his 2004 State of the State address to introduce a sweeping initiative to overhaul the state’s sprawling administrative structure. “Every governor proposes moving boxes around to reorganize government,” Schwarzenegger said.

“I don't want to move the boxes around; I want to blow them up.”

As the governor acknowledged in the address, his proposed California Performance Review wasn’t quite as unusual as it may have sounded. Comprehensive reviews of California state government are fairly standard among incoming administrations and rarely amount to much. Still, the political climate that had swept Schwarzenegger into office through a recall and the dramatic unveiling of the proposal provided hope to some observers that this effort would have some muscle behind it.