Eureka! The California legislature will this spring consider a bill to modernize the 12-second rule, the state’s obscure furniture flammability standard that fails to protect us from fires even while it poisons homes across North America. Read More ›

A billionaire insurance executive is spending $8 million on a November ballot measure to undermine a key consumer protection that has saved California drivers more than $62 billion since 1988.
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California’s doctors, hospitals and insurance companies launched their campaign Monday against a proposed ballot measure seeking tighter regulation of health insurance rates and proponents quickly returned fire.
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The tax reform association notes that under the law, businesses can change hands but avoid paying higher property taxes by keeping property in trusts, partnerships and limited liability corporations to hold the land. Read More ›

A California lawmaker is calling for the state’s private vocational schools to be more transparent about their accreditation status and the quality of the degrees they offer. Read More ›

But with every passing day, the shortcomings of this deal appear to proliferate. That is, as far as we know, because the specific terms of the settlement are still not public, nearly one month after it was unveiled in Washington with the sort of fanfare formerly associated with the splashdown of a space capsule.
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According to the CFPB, student loans have surged past credit cards as the leading source of unsecured household debt. Millions of students turn to private loans to pay for college to cover the costs that scholarships and federal student loans don’t. Read More ›

The Department of Defense spent $65 million last year on its tuition benefit program for military spouses. About 40 percent of that amount — $25.3 million — was used at for-profit colleges that operate outside the regulatory reach of the U.S. Department of Education and do not qualify for other federal financial aid programs. Read More ›

Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris says the proposed California Homeowner Bill of Rights would help homeowners facing foreclosure and fix serious flaws in the system.
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Pacific Gas & Electric continued to insist Tuesday that ratepayers pick up the bulk of the tab for upgrading its aging gas pipelines, though it did make a small concession by agreeing to pay for tests on some of its pipelines. Read More ›

Newquist’s departure comes after The Bay Citizen revealed that the bureau had not fulfilled many of its fundamental oversight responsibilities, including aggressively investigating complaints, monitoring the quality of educational programs and rooting out unlicensed schools and diploma mills. Read More ›

…tests by the furniture industry and then vetted by the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission show California’s present regulation does not prevent small flames from igniting furniture. Read More ›