taking a closer look

JACKSON, Miss. — The State Department put a freeze Monday on expansion of a program that lines up summer jobs in the U.S. for foreign college students, citing persistent complaints about young people getting ripped off and exploited.

At issue is the J-1 visa program, which began in 1963 as a way to encourage cultural understanding by allowing young adults from other countries to spend their summers living, working and traveling in the U.S.

As California lawmakers begin to read the fine print on a $25 billion dollar solution to the state's budget deficit, powerful political groups are also taking a closer look — and in many cases, they're not happy.

Some of those groups, armed with legions of supporters and millions in campaign dollars, hope they can twist enough arms to scrap parts of the deal they don't like.

As John Myers of member station KQED reports, that could put the entire budget agreement in jeopardy.