Virginia budget negotiators make little progress

Virginia budget negotiators make little progress: "They came. They sat. They yakked. For 1 hour and 26 minutes yesterday, the 13 senior lawmakers responsible for cobbling a compromise budget-balancing plan haggled over their differences - and different ways to resolve them. Some negotiators multitasked, plotting possible solutions while puttering with their BlackBerrys. In a first sit-down that was polite but fruitless, six delegates and seven senators outlined some of the obstacles to erasing Virginia’s $4.2 billion shortfall: how deeply to reach into the public-employee retirement fund for cash and whether to embrace more than $200 million in fees that foes say are disguised tax increases."