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* The Chamber of Commerce endorsed Meg Whitman. Not surprising really, other than it was done on the Friday before Labor Day, and that they don’t normally officially endorse.  But, they’re letting their freak flag fly this year, not without controversy of course, as Jack Scott, the chancellor of the Community College System and Mark Yudof, the president of UC quit the chamber.

* More strangeness in the Bell story: the former city administrator had his email subpoenaed as he was conducting city business on his personal account and personal on his city account.

* The California Conservation Corps got a bit of love from Govs. Davis, Brown and Deukmejian.

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* The “Big 5” met again today with still no resolution. Are you holding your breath?

* Meg Whitman finished 2nd behind Al Checchi in $/vote in the primary for all time in California.  In the top 6, there is nary a winner in the group…

* Debra Saunders, in her own way, praises the President’s record on Iraq

* California Watch has a breakdown of the 98 bills passed in the closing hours of the legislative session.

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* Why not have some fun in the legislature?

* After spending nearly $9 million attacking Meg Whitman, California Working Families, a labor-backed IE, will be gearing down as Jerry Brown prepares to gear up.

* Illegal immigration is on the down swing. No big shock when you consider the economy in the United States right now.

* A bill that would change the cutoff date for kindergarten passed.

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* Senator Boxer laid out some thoughts on the economy at a speech in San Francisco.

* Rep. John Campbell is getting investigated by the House Ethics Committee for taking a bunch of money from the banking industry right before he voted against the financial regulation measure.  Stay classy Campbell.  Beth Krom is running against Campbell.

* A bill regulating papparazzi passed out of the Legislature and will land on the Governor’s desk. The Governor had been strongly pushing for the measure.  

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* How do we set the rates for insurance? Well, under the federal legislation, we weren’t supposed to be authorizing rates state by state.  A recent law (SB1163) would allow insurance companies to require a “acuarily sound” rate.

* John Myers looks at Dan Schnur’s efforts to expand disclosure.

* Carly Fiorina brought something of a do whatever it takes to make a buck philosophy to HP that seems to have persisted there.  They got fined $55 million for defrauding the federal goverment, but hey, they picked up a $800 million deal.  Cost of doing business, right?

* A little tiff in the OC DA’s office between former Asm. Todd Spitzer and current DA Tony Rackauckas.

* Capitol Weekly takes a look at some various last minute legislative pushes.

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* The Democrats in the Legislature are scheduling votes on both the Democratic budget and the Schwarzenegger budget for Tuesday. As of right now, neither has enough to pass.

* Whitman is merging her field campaign into the Republican Party’s operations. Not totally sure what this means, but I guess the CRP is hitching their star to ol’ Moneybags.

* The CDP, meanwhile, is filing a complaint against Joel Fox’s astroturf organization for violation of 501(c)4 non-profit organization rules.

* The Governor is going to Asia with or without a budget for a September trade mission.

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* Looks like sunshine wins over CSU’s secrecy. They had to release Sarah Palin’s contract.  The CSU-Stanislaus foundation paid her $75,000, plus expenses.  Her demands included first-class airfare (or a Lear jet), prescreened questions, and “bendable straws.”

* The Congressional campaign of Mike Berryhill isn’t doing too well.  The challenger for Dennis Cardoza also got slammed by a former staffer.

* SFWeekly has a profile of Nancy Pelosi. It’s a bit of a journalistic mishmash.

* The “big 5” had a meeting today, their first in a while.

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* More on the Kochs, the big Oil/big anti-environmentalists on MSNBC last night.

* Some controversy at the Horse Racing Board.

* Dan Weintraub on the progress made in setting up the exchanges in the health care reform package.

* Karl Rove is up to something, and as dirty tricks are his stock in trade, expect something along those lines.  Specifically, his Crossroads organization is spending $1mil on anti-Boxer ad, but no details about the ad are available yet.

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* The Center for American Progress has a piece about the Koch family and Prop 23.  The family has been very involved in the Tea Party movement…because apparently the superwealthy family can’t afford another penny!  Oh, and the family has tried this move before…see the John Birch Society.

* CalBuzz: I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore is a good start, but that won’t carry Whitman and Fiorina alone.

* You like to wash your windows while filling up? Well, sorry about that, as a large group of gas stations are going to have to remove the latches as people were sprayed with gasoline.

* PG&E’s smart meter conversions have not gone very well.

* The Governor wants to put a rainy-day fund on the ballot as part of the budget deal. Only trouble (?!) is that we are nearing the deadline to get a measure on the ballot.  Of course, there is always the fact that we don’t have enough money for today, let alone tomorrow.

* Good News/Bad News for Jerry Brown. He got an email from President Obama telling OFA folks to go to his website and sign up.  Bad news: the website crashed. The site is back live now; it appears to only have been down for a few minutes.

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* Some Republicans in San Francisco are trying to unseat Democrats in the City.  That will be the day…

* Sam Blakeslee was inaugurated into the Senate. Grrrrrrr…..

* Lots of reports from the San Diego Republican Party Convention.