Because it feels like a briefs kind of day.

• Departing eBay chief Meg Whitman is talking to Republicans about her running for Governor in 2010. LAT
• Small pet turtles are to blame for an outbreak of salmonella in California and 32 other states. L.A. County public health chief Jonathan Fielding has this advice on buying a baby turtle: "Don't." LAT
• Fox News' John Gibson sort-of apologized for communicating how he feels about Heath Ledger playing a gay cowboy then dying. Out in Hollywood
• Bunch o' blogs are posting nice pics of a rainbow spotted over Burbank's media gulch today. LALoft
• CityWatch, down part of the day due apparently to a domain issue, is back up and has Diane Middleton's resignation letter from the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners railing to deputy Mayor Larry Frank about the lack of civility and meaningful participation in neighborhood councils. CityWatch
• Jim Clarke, recently a deputy in Washington to Rep. Brad Sherman and, previously, Rep. Diane Watson, has joined Mayor Villaraigosa's office here as the federal legislative deputy. Clarke was chairman of the L.A. Democratic Party a while back.
• Former Her-Exian Rip Rense says the "grim-faced" Times staffers don't know from instability and newsroom angst. The Rip Post
• Barry Sanders, who led the push to get the Olympics back in L.A., and Scott Olin Schmidt, political blogger and transportation commissioner for the city of West Hollywood, are debating who should have rights to the Coliseum at the LAT Opinion blog.
• Reports from the USC Annenberg conference on justice and the media at Witness LA, the Institute for Journalism and Justice blog, KPCC and here at LA Observed from participant Bill Boyarsky.