Have Toxic Couches Finally Met Their Match?

by Valerie Pacino, Sightline, California Progress Report

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 ›

Ballot initiative’s real aim: consumer pocketbooks

by BRIAN STEDGE-STROUD, Consumer Watchdog, North County Times

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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Battle escalates over ballot measure on health premiums

by Chad Terhune, Los Angeles Times

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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Editorial: Prop. 13 must be part of the tax reform debate

by Editorial, Sacramento Bee

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 ›

CFC Opposes AB 1537 – Problematic Broad Restriction on New Regulations

AB 1537 provides greater legislative oversight of the California Code of Regulations; however, in reality the bill accomplishes very little other than to establish a problematic, broad restriction on new regulations. Read More ›

Lawmaker Proposes New Rules for Vocational Schools

by Jennifer Gollan, Bay Citizen

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 ›

Lowering our expectations for foreclosure settlement

by Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times

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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Fact Sheet: Electronic Health Records and Privacy

Such a transition also poses significant privacy threats due to so much private data stored in a national network and shared across the country – because in order for the records to be readily available and accessible they would have to be linkable and searchable. Read More ›

Consumer Bureau targets student loan abuses

by Joseph Williams, Politico

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 ›

Unregulated for-profits receive big chunk of military spouse tuition aid

by Paul Fain , Inside Higher Ed

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 ›

Katcho Achadjian lays out a game plan

by Bob Cuddy , San Luis Obispo Tribune

Like other interest groups – such as gun owners, property rights advocates and environmentalists – the Consumer Federation of California tracks legislation that affects its particular concerns. Read More ›

Protecting Consumers from Abusive Debt Collectors

by State Senator Mark Leno, California Progress Report

SB 890 is supported by the AFSCME (American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees), Consumer Federation of California, Consumers Union, Housing and Economic Rights Advocates, and various community legal, labor and civil rights organizations. It will be heard in the Assembly this spring. Read More ›

California attorney general seeks more mortgage protections

by Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times

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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