Asking government to feel the pain

Staff at the Union Rescue Mission downtown and Hope Gardens near Sylmar had a tough choice to make recently: Cut services to the poor and homeless, or take a salary cut and end their 401k matches. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

They chose the latter, and President Andy Bales is urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California's other elected officials to make the same choice.

"I would look everywhere else before I'd look to put the cuts on the backs of those struggling with poverty," said Bales, who oversees the downtown mission and Hope Gardens, a transitional living facility that cares for 130 homeless women and children.