California taxpayers awaiting refunds could receive IOUs rather than checks this year if state lawmakers are unable to balance the budget soon. The state is projected to run out of cash sometime in February if no agreement can be reached regardinghowbest to balance the budget,say finance experts.

In order to support patients newly-diagnosed with breast cancer,the Safeway Foundation recently gave the UC Davis Cancer Center$128,000to launch the WeCARE Community-Based Breast Cancer Peer Navigator Project. WeCARE will provide the recently diagnosed patients with peer navigators,also called “cancer coaches,” in order to help patients through those first months after their diagnosis.The project creator,UC Davis assistant adjunct professor Dr.Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater,was inspired by her own life experiences.

Coming off a disappointing loss at No. 13Oklahoma State,the Aggies got back on track at Stanford,beating Drexel,Columbia and then host Stanford at Burnham Pavilion on Saturday. The long day for UC Davis was a concern for head coach Lennie Zalesky before the duals

After a 56-52 loss at UC Riverside, a team picked by both the coaches and media to win the Big West Conference, head coach Sandy Simpson stressed a couple of things to his team before its matchup with Long Beach State on Saturday night.

Junior Heidi Kucera won three events to lead UC Davis to a split with San Jose State and Fresno State during a collegiate double-dual women’s swimming and diving meet at Schaal Aquatics Center Saturday afternoon.San Jose State won10of the16events to sweep both opponents while the Aggies defeated Fresno State.

Teams:UC Davis vs.San Jose State; Fresno State Where:Schaal Aquatics Center When:Saturday at1p.m.

Teams:UC Davis at Long Beach State Records:Aggies,5-7 (1-0); 49ers,3-10 (0-2) Where:Walter Pyramid – Long Beach,Calif. When:Saturday at5p.m.

Thousands of swans and geese migrating from the frozen far north have touched down and chosen to winter at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area,and local birding experts will host a guided tour of the area tomorrow morning.

2009 will mark Mark Yudof’s first full year as president of the University of California system. There will be no shortage of challenges, as UC grapples with severe budget cuts while trying to increase accessibility and maintain affordability. In a video posted on the UC president’s web site, Yudof acknowledged that 2009 “will be a traumatic year.” Still, he urged Californians to consider the impact UC has on the state, from cutting-edge medical research to solving global warming.

Sparks, an energy drink made by MillerCoors, is an alcoholic energy drink that combines beer and caffeine into a drink with 6 percent alcohol by volume. MillerCoors recently came under fire by several state attorneys general because of what they say are the adverse health effects caused by drinking alcohol together with caffeine. The attorneys also expressed concerns about MillerCoors’ marketing of the product, claiming it was targeted towards a young and potentially underage crowd.

UC Davis is expanding its language program with the Spanish department’s recent introduction of Portuguese language classes. UC Davis will join other UC schools such as UCLA and Berkeley who already offer similar programs. “Most leading university Spanish departments, in the UC and elsewhere in the United States, offer some level of Portuguese,” said Robert Newcomb, assistant professor of Luso-Brazilian Studies, who joined the Spanish department in the fall. “Our goal in introducing Portuguese into our curriculum was to make our department more compatible with this model and to make us more competitive in attracting undergraduate and graduate students.”

Event:Stanford Duals Teams:UC Davis vs.Drexel; Columbia; Stanford Where:Burnham Pavilion – Palo Alto,Calif. When:Saturday at noon; 2p.m.; 4p.m.