A law that scraps junk insurance
by Timm Herdt, Ventura County Star
In California today, nearly 90 percent of health insurance policies sold on the individual market do not cover prenatal care or labor and delivery costs. That will change on July 1, when a new statewide maternity-care mandate kicks in, and nationwide in 2014, when the federal Affordable Care Act goes into full force. Read More ›
State bill would restrict data from license-plate scanners
by G.W. Schulz, California Watch
A state lawmaker representing Silicon Valley wants to rein in a cutting-edge law enforcement technology that enables police to stockpile digital personal information on motorists and build a portrait of their whereabouts. Read More ›
Mercury News editorial: PUC needs to hold PG&E accountable
by Editorial, San Jose Mercury News
More than a year after the San Bruno tragedy, PG&E still doesn’t have its house in order, the consultants said: “PG&E’s current integrity management program itself presents a safety risk to PG&E’s field and station employees and the public.” Read More ›
California Tells Debt Buyers to “Prove It”
by Bill Bartmann, Huffington Post
Debt buyers will be prohibited from getting a legal judgment against consumers — or sending any written material to consumers — unless they can document that they’ve matched the right person to the debt. Read More ›
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 ›