The nation’s state officials say they’re hurting.  As California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency, calling legislators into a new special session that won’t end until they agree on a way to trim the state’s $11.2 billion budget deficit, New Jersey’s governor says he’ll press President-elect Obama for a $600 billion stimulus package for states. Gov. Jon S. Corzine says he’ll make the case for the federal government to spend $600 billion-plus to stimulate growth in states across the country when he and other governors meet with President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday, reports Newsday. Corzine is among a group of governors set to meet with Obama in Philadelphia on Tuesday to discuss their financial woes. “Without immediate action, our state is headed for a fiscal disaster,” in which California could run out of money to pay its bills by late February, Schwarzenegger said in a news conference in Los Angeles on Monday. Meanwhile, the federal government has problems of its own. There’s talk that the U.S. Postal Service may soon lay off 5,000 workers.

Obama plans to meet with U.S. governors.  President-elect Barack Obama plans to sit down with the nation’s governors next week to hear about their financial woes. As the national economic crisis is ravaging state budgets, Obama, Vice President-elect Joe Biden and the governors will meet in Philadelphia Tuesday during a conference at Independence Hall sponsored by the National Governors Association. Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas told The Philadelphia Inquirer that 40 governors and governors-elect planned to attend. Many states are facing budget crunches because of the sluggish economy and are calling on the federal government to develop an economic stimulus package that would support road, bridges and energy projects and protect states from rising Medicaid costs, the Inquirer said. Economists have said they think aid to state and local governments should play a key role in any stimulus package because the states have less borrowing authority than the federal government and are more adversely affected by an economic downturn. Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell said Obama reached out to the governors association for opinions on the stimulus package. “Revitalizing infrastructure is the best economic stimulus you can get,” he said. “Unlike the bailout, it creates hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of good-paying jobs that can’t be outsourced.”

Tech jobs are still out there. Despite our nation’s struggling economy, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that more than 300,000 technology-related jobs remain unfilled for lack of qualified workers. Only 5 percent of American college undergraduates today are pursing degrees in science or engineering, compared with 42 percent of university students in other countries like China and India, federal statistics show. As a response to these statistics, Microsoft, in conjunction with the Oscar de la Hoya Foundation, created a technology competition to inspire teens and young adults to get excited about technology-related careers. They also will build online communities through non-profit technology training programs. The winning teams belong to the Brotherhood Crusade, the Oscar de la Hoya Foundation, and the Boys and Girls Club of East LA They will participate with Oscar de la Hoya in a special lunch and award ceremony that will take place at the Boys and Girls Club in Venice, Calif., on Monday, Dec. 1.