Los Angeles Times

Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina battle hard in first Senate debate
Candidates discuss hot topics from the economy to climate change to abortion. Boxer gives scathing critiques of Fiorina's record as Hewlett-Packard CEO and Fiorina calls Boxer 'bitterly partisan.'
By Maeve Reston and Seema Mehta
Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and her Republican opponent Carly Fiorina met in a contentious first debate Wednesday that seethed with disputes over their records and covered a broad range of issues from the economy to climate change to abortion rights.

Environmentalists stunned by failures of key measures in Legislature
Activists expected big gains, but a ban on plastic grocery bags, another on a chemical used in baby bottles and a bid to boost alternative energy fell short in the face of heavy industry opposition.
By Evan Halper, Marc Lifsher and Patrick McGreevy
Environmentalists were counting on big gains in Sacramento this summer, with a governor eager to burnish his green credentials in his final months in office. But by the time the legislative session ended at midnight Tuesday, those hopes had fizzled.

Skelton: Someone needs to call the shots
Californians are paying the price as the Legislature dickers over a final budget agreement.
By George Skelton Capitol Journal
California badly needs someone, some party, to just make a decision about a state budget and be held accountable for the consequences.

Bell residents applaud state's reform bills
Legislation spurred by Bell salary scandal is headed to the governor's desk. The bills include restrictions on automatic pay raises, an end to pension spiking and refunds for high property taxes.
By Ruben Vives
A day after California lawmakers passed wide-ranging public compensation reforms inspired by the Bell salary scandal, Hilda Villalpando felt hopeful for the first time in months.

PolitiCal
Jerry Brown buys TV airtime
Schwarzenegger unwavering in budget demands
Labor group fades as Brown campaign prepares to ramp up
Pay disclosure bills sink in final moments of legislative session
Whitman says she would bring 'more teeth' to the legislative process
Schwarzenegger alludes to special legislative sessions in closing months of governorship
Lawmakers move back kindergarten start date

The Sacramento Bee

Senate foes Boxer, Fiorina trade personal attacks in debate
By Jack Chang
In a bitter debate filled with personal attacks Wednesday night, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer repeatedly slammed Republican rival Carly Fiorina's record as the CEO of tech giant Hewlett-Packard while Fiorina called the veteran Democrat an out-of-touch career politician indifferent to the suffering of ordinary Californians.

The State Worker: Schwarzenegger, union argue furlough case next week
By Jon Ortiz
If the bitter furlough battle between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state employee unions happened to be a heavyweight fight, Wednesday would be the final round.

Big-money lobbyists ruled at legislative session's end
By Jim Sanders
They crammed Capitol hallways, hailed lawmakers, worked phones, sweated, counted votes – and when the Legislature's session ended at midnight Tuesday, powerful interests left happy.

Whitman wants to dock legislators' pay for late budget
By David Siders
Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman is not alone in believing the current state budget standoff is "unacceptable," as she said Wednesday at a campaign stop in Folsom.

Supporters pressure Brown, Schwarzenegger to defend Prop. 8 in court
By Susan Ferriss
Proposition 8 supporters are ramping up political – and legal – pressure on Attorney General Jerry Brown and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to defend California's same-sex marriage ban in federal appeals court.

Union-backed committee to take 'less visible' role in Whitman-Brown race
Leaders of the union-backed independent expenditure committee California Working Families said Wednesday they will take a "less visible" role in the governor's race after spending $8.7 million running TV, radio and online ads attacking Republican candidate Meg Whitman.

Low, middle incomes hit by governor's tax plan
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest tax reform idea would probably result in higher costs for low- and middle-class taxpayers based on an initial review, the nonpartisan legislative analyst said Wednesday.

The Buzz: California lawmakers do the Humpty Dance with 'legislative bingo'
Oh, the games people play – as lawmakers. In what has become an end-of-session tradition, various Assembly members participated in a Capitol floor game Tuesday night in which they receive an oddball word or phrase and must try to slip it into debate on a bill.

Capitol Alert
Boxer finishes stronger in debate
Boxer, Fiorina clash sharply on global warming
As expected, Senate debate full of attacks
Fiorina issues factoid barrage during debate
Fiorina's height advantage vanishes
U.S. Senate rivals Boxer, Fiorina ready for debate showdown
California Democratic Party files IRS complaint against SBAC
LAO: Schwarzenegger's tax idea likely to hit middle class
Schwarzenegger targets pensions in budget press conference

Dan Morain: Session ends with pork and petty politics
Legislators haven't passed a budget. They didn't overhaul the troubled pension or taxation systems. They didn't approve bills aimed at increasing green electricity.

The San Francisco Chronicle

Barbara Boxer, Carly Fiorina debate taxes, jobs
By Joe Garofoli
Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina agreed on one thing Wednesday during their hourlong televised debate at St. Mary's College in Moraga: California voters have a clear choice between the two very different candidates from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Fact-checking what they said at the debate
By Drew Joseph
Here's what U.S. Senate candidates Carly Fiorina and Barbara Boxer said on key issues at Wednesday's debate, along with the bottom line on those arguments, in a special debate edition of The Chronicle's Lies, Half-Truths and Contradictions:

Legislature votes down plastic bag ban
By Wyatt Buchanan
Plastic bags will remain in grocery stores and unloaded handguns can still be brought into Starbucks, but from now on shoppers might know what kind of animal fur was used in their new coat.

Politics Blog
Why is Carly Fiorina hiding her resume?
End of legislative session drama! Senators shout! Bills die!

Editorial: California Legislature: Wasted days, wasted nights
California's Legislature adjourned in shame early Wednesday, bickering and jockeying to the end, and leaving far too much of the people's business unfinished as a result of timidity or incompetence.

The Mercury News

Boxer, Fiorina clash in hard-hitting debate
By Mike Zapler
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina clashed Wednesday night in a hard-hitting debate that highlighted their sharp ideological differences over a range of fiscal and social issues -- from jobs and the environment to abortion and gun rights.

Meg Whitman to find out today whether she'll spend next month in jury box
Ken McLaughlin
The plot thickens. Will eBay billionaire Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor, spend the next month full-time on the campaign trail? Or will she spend much of September in a Redwood City jury box deciding whether to convict an accused child molester.

Sacramento picks up the pieces the day after marathon lawmaking session
By Dana Hull and Josh Richman
Two major environmental bills went down in flames Tuesday as California's legislative session came to a frantic halt at midnight.

Mercury News editorial: California legislature fails
Nice going, Legislature. California's reputation is in tatters. It has no budget in place. Its schools are rated among the lowest in the nation, its unemployment is among the highest, its prisons are bursting at the seams and its infrastructure is crumbling.

Contra Costa Times

Bans on 'open carry' and plastic bags die in Legislature
By Josh Richman
Bills to prohibit the "open carry" of unloaded handguns, to ban plastic shopping bags, to set a stringent new renewable energy standard and to change how teachers are laid off died in the acrimonious final minutes of this year's Legislative session.

Brown poised to raise profile in governor's race
By Steven Harmon
With Labor Day approaching -- and Election Day two months away -- Jerry Brown is finally poised to up his game and raise his profile for the gubernatorial campaign.

The Orange County Register

Total Buzz Blog
Boxer-Fiorina: Wrap up
Boxer-Fiorina: Fact checking
Viewer’s guide to Boxer-Fiorina
Efforts launched to get state to defend Prop. 8

Editorial: Slight progress on pensions in Sacramento
Outrage and controversy over frankly outrageous compensation of city officials in Bell prompted state legislators to act on reforms that they say would curb such future compensation abuses and narrow loopholes for public employee pensions. The reforms are watered-down versions of what they should be but at least are a step in the right direction.

The San Diego Union-Tribune

'Open Carry' ban falls short in a surprise
By Michael Gardner
Time ran out for legislation to ban the public display of unloaded handguns, a stunning development in the Assembly as the midnight deadline for passing most bills arrived before a vote could be taken Tuesday.

Economy tops 1st Boxer, Fiorina Senate debate
After a summer of firing campaign shots from afar, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina met on the same stage for the first time Wednesday over who best represents California's economic interests for the next six years.

Editorial: Slippery state lawmakers risk backlash
In case state lawmakers have somehow missed all the evidence, Californians are genuinely and increasingly incensed about public employee compensation. This is playing out on many fronts. There’s fury over the looting of the small town of Bell in Los Angeles County by a handful of city executives and City Council members, anger over excessive benefits routinely provided to government executives and disbelief over the size and cost of cushy pensions given to rank-and-file government workers.

Ventura County Star

Employed, but still stressed by joblessness
By Stephanie Hoops
As we head into Labor Day weekend, a new survey of Californians indicates the lousy labor market isn’t just straining the lives of the jobless — the employed say they’re being stretched thin.

Governor says it takes more courage, not more time, to pass budget
By Timm Herdt
As the state reached its 63rd day of the fiscal year without a budget on Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asserted that “there’s still plenty of time” to reach an agreement that includes the policy changes on public employee pensions, the budget process and the state’s tax structure that he says must be part of any deal.

The San Bernardino County Sun

Bill goes to governor
Jim Steinberg
Doctors, business groups and health associations are pushing for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign Senate Bill 220, which requires all health plans and health insurance policies in the state to provide coverage of treatments to help patients quit smoking.

Editorial: Reforms have little chance
After Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a Democratic budget proposal to be dead on arrival last month, it was only a matter of time until he delivered a fiscal corpse of his own. Then he declared he would hold the budget hostage until the Legislature breathed some life into it.

The Press-Enterprise

Southern California panel to consider greenhouse gas targets
By JIM MILLER
Officials with the planning agency that covers Riverside and San Bernardino counties projected earlier this year that the region could cut heat-trapping emissions from passenger vehicle travel by up to 6 percent by 2035.