CPUC Head Michael Peevey to Step Down
by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle
On Monday, PG&E released a 2010 e-mail from a former utility vice president to his boss, recounting a dinner the executive had with Peevey. The former vice president, Brian Cherry, wrote that Peevey appeared to be leaning on PG&E to contribute at least $1 million to fight a ballot measure that would have put a hold on a California law limiting greenhouse gas emissions. … PG&E eventually spent $500,000 against the measure, which state voters defeated in November 2010. In the same e-mail, Cherry wrote that Peevey wanted PG&E to contribute $100,000 to help fund a 100th anniversary celebration for the commission. Read More ›
AT&T to Pay $105 Million over Unlawful Billing
by Edward Wyatt, The New York Times
AT&T Mobility, one of the country’s largest mobile phone companies, agreed to pay $80 million to the Federal Trade Commission to provide refunds to customers who were billed “hundreds of millions of dollars” in unauthorized charges for items including ringtones and text messages with love tips and horoscopes. In addition, AT&T will pay $20 million in penalties and fees to 50 states and the District of Columbia and a $5 million penalty to the Federal Communications Commission for the practices, known as mobile cramming. Read More ›
Federal Prosecutors Probing PG&E-CPUC E-mails
by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle
Among the documents was a 2010 e-mail in which one utility executive told his boss that Michael Peevey, president of the state commission, expected PG&E to spend “a lot more” than $1 million opposing a ballot measure that would have put on hold California’s law capping greenhouse gas emissions. PG&E announced its opposition to the measure, Proposition 23, less than two months later. It contributed at least $500,000 to the campaign against the initiative, according to the nonprofit campaign-money watchdog Maplight. Voters overwhelmingly defeated the measure in November 2010. Read More ›
Ways to Protect Yourself After the JPMorgan Hacking
by Tara Siegel Bernard, The New York Times
Personal information from 76 million households may have been compromised as part of the cyberattack. The biggest risk is that the thieves will try to extract more sensitive information from affected consumers. “I would be very conscious of the email you get in the next year, which could be related to this hack,” Pam Dixon, executive director at the World Privacy Forum, said. Those who want to add a layer of security to their financial life should consider a “security freeze,” which prevents someone from trying to open a new account in a consumer’s name. Read More ›
JPMorgan Chase Hacking Affects 76 Million Households
by Jessica Silver-Greenburg, Matthew Goldstein and Nicole Perlroth, The New York Times
A cyberattack this summer on JPMorgan Chase compromised the accounts of 76 million households and seven million small businesses, a tally that dwarfs previous estimates by the bank and puts the intrusion among the largest ever. Unlike retailers, JPMorgan, as the largest bank in the nation, has financial information in its computer systems that goes beyond customers’ credit card details and potentially includes more sensitive data. Even if no customer financial information was taken, the apparent breadth and depth of the JPMorgan attack shows how vulnerable Wall Street institutions are to cybercrime. Read More ›
Online Payday Lenders Are Often ‘Fraudulent and Abusive,’ Study Finds
by Herb Weisbaum, Today
Consumer advocates have long advised against payday loans because of the steep fees and the lump-sum repayment requirement. Pew’s research shows that the average person who takes out one of these two-week loans is actually in debt for five months of the year. This new report makes it clear that the potential for problems is much greater when the transaction takes place online rather than at a store. And if something does go wrong, it’s often a lot harder to deal with it. If you have a problem with an online payday lender, file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Read More ›
Brown Signs Package of Assisted-Living Reform Bills
by Deborah Schoch, The CHCF Center for Health Reporting / The California Report
Brown’s signature is a major victory for assisted living residents, “We look at it as a good start,” said Patricia McGinnis, executive director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. “But we’re not finished by any stretch of the imagination. And I don’t think the legislators are, either. I think they like the fact that they’re going to be changing people’s lives on an immediate basis.” The governor has approved all 13 assisted living bills passed by the Legislature. Read More ›
2014 Legislative Summary
Aug. 15 was the deadline for fiscal committees to meet and report bills to the floor, according to legislative rules. Beginning Aug. 18, only floor sessions were allowed – no committees other than conference and rules committees may meet for any purpose. Aug. 22 was the last day … Read More ›
SB 1019: Governor Signs Toxic Furniture Right-to-know Bill
Californians can breathe easier since a new, non-toxic flammability test for upholstered furniture took effect January 1, 2014. However, the new regulation does not ban the use of dangerous halogenated chemicals as fire retardants, and the chemical industry is trying to persuade manufacturers to continue loading them into furniture sold in California. Senate Bill 1019 (Leno) would give consumers the right to know whether the furniture they buy is loaded with harmful chemicals. Read More ›
California Enacts Strict Student Privacy Law
by the Associated Press, in the San Francisco Chronicle
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed the nation’s toughest student privacy rights protections into law. SB 1177 (Steinberg) makes companies responsible for protecting any personal information that they gather from K-12 students through websites, online applications and other services. The data can be used only for school purposes, and students’ personal information cannot be sold. Consumer Federation of California Executive Director Richard Holober called the law “the vanguard for consumer rights in the digital era. Until this point, protecting students’ online information has been a Wild West.” Read More ›
What We’re Learning About Drug Company Payments to Doctors
by Charles Ornstein, Ryann Grochowski Jones and Eric Sagara (ProPublica), The New York Times
The federal government Tuesday is to release details of payments to doctors by every pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturer in the country, as mandated by the Affordable Care Act, including payments to doctors, dentists, chiropractors, podiatrists and optometrists for things like promotional speaking, consulting, meals, educational items and research. ProPublica has been detailing relationships between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry for four years as part of our Dollars for Docs project, and today, in cooperation with the website Pharmashine, we’ve added data for 2013. (You can look up your doctor using our easy search tool.) Read More ›
Gov. Brown Toughens Rules on Senior Residential Care Facilities
by Patrick McGreevey, Los Angeles Times
Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday approved sweeping new rules for residential care facilities aimed at protecting senior citizens from substandard conditions. The governor approved nine bills that his office said in a statement are meant to “protect the health and safety of seniors residing in assisted living facilities across the state.” Read More ›
Some Assisted-Care Safeguards For Seniors Advance
An ambitious drive to protect seniors living in residential care facilities for the elderly continues to progress through the committee process as the Legislature works toward its summer recess, scheduled to begin July 4. The action is in Sacramento, but the impetus comes from families around the state. Read More ›