Here are a few links for you.

• It’s two days until the kickoff of Netroots Nation, and among the many luminaries attending will be Gavin Newsom, who is introducing green jobs expert Van Jones at the Sunday morning keynote.  The fact that he’s running for Governor has nothing to do with this, I’m sure… UPDATE: LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo will also be on a panel on health care, talking about his many investigations into insurance industry pratices.  That should be an interesting panel for health care activists, as it features nyceve and Ezra Klein, as well as the mother of Nataline Sarkysian, who died while waiting for her insurer to approve an operation.

• The final numbers on the June election were miserable, with a record low (for a regular election) 28.2% turnout.  A ridiculous amount of voters cast ballots by mail – 58.7%, also a record.  VBM is far stronger in Northern California than in the Los Angeles area, and not surprisingly turnout is higher up there as well.  This is really changing how elections ought to be conducted, as we move to a VBM state.  Campaign operatives need to understand this quickly.

• Hey, we had a bank run at IndyMac yesterday.  Fun!  The FDIC insures up to $100,000, so consumers should be fine for the most part, but what you’re going to see is eroding confidence in regional banks as the financial crisis widens.

• Another leader at the LA Times is out, this time publisher David Hiller.  I’m sure Sam Zell and his team can make loads of money on the paper if they just fire everybody and go to robot reporters.

• AB 97 cleared the legislature yesterday, which would ban trans fats at California restaurants and bakeries.  It now goes to the governor.  He did sign a ban on trans fats in school cafeterias last year.

A few tidbits:

• Pasadena-based IndyMac becomes the second-largest bank to fail in US history.  Smells like 1929.  But don’t worry, it’s all in your head.

• Calitics friend Jackie Speier is forwarding her first piece of legislation, to set a national speed limit at 60 mph in urban areas and 65 mph on rural highways.  Slowing down to 60 mph or less significantly improves fuel efficiency.  Then again, so does not driving – as SoCal’s newest transit riders are learning.  But this is a tiny fix that could have an immediate impact on reducing gasoline use.

• Hey look, it’s Dianne Feinstein promoting a Republican-supported water bond that would build more dams (it’s a compromise measure, because some of the money earmarked for dams could go to groundwater storage and other water projects)!  Telling that Dave Cogdill immediately endorsed it while Da Don was cool.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, had a tepid response, calling on the governor to first authorize $872 million in unspent water funds and reach agreement on a $15.2 billion budget shortfall before seeking a water bond in the Capitol.

“I am open to doing a water bond,” Perata said in a statement. “First, however, the state should spend the bond money voters approved in 2006, and then, we must pass a responsible budget that can pay for the debt service on a new bond.”

Use this as an open thread.