Top Stories
Senator Boxer Wants L.A. Oil Field that Sickened EPA Officers Shut Down
EPA regional administrator Jared Blumenfeld told the Los Angeles Times his group suffered “severe” reactions to their walking tour that lasted for hours. “I've been to oil and gas production facilities throughout the region, but I've never had an experience like that before,” Blumenfeld said. The property is owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and leased to operattor Allenco Energy Co. read more
PG&E Fined $8.1 Million for Contractor Skipping a Third of Gas Pipeline Inspections
California’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) fined Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) $8.1 million because a contractor performed “non-standard” tests on gas pipelines after the 2010 San Bruno pipeline blast killed eight people and leveled a neighborhood.
By “non-standard” testing, the PUC means a bunch of critical pipe welds were skipped during inspections. read more
S.F. Luxury Condo Project Cleared Every Hurdle but One—the Voters
Voters made what progressives were hoping was a political statement that would go beyond a single act of defiance by rejecting a luxury high-rise waterfront condominium development that the Board of Supervisors approved last year. Reporters for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, partying with the winners on election night, said “it felt like a blow against Mayor Ed Lee’s economic policies, the gentrification of the city, and the dominion that developers and power brokers have at City Hall.” read more
FBI Sting Nails Former Moreno Valley Councilman for Record $2.36 Million
The former councilman was videotaped accepting piles of cash in exchange for land he owned and a guarantee that he could get the council to make lucrative zoning changes to it. The FBI called the scheme “brazen” and said it was the largest bribe an undercover agent had ever received.
Co agreed to plead guilty to one count of bribery and one count of filing a false corporate tax return in an unrelated case, and could get 13 years in federal prison. read more
U.S. Threatens to Withhold Billions over California Student Testing
The state and the feds were in a war of words for months leading up to passage of Assembly Bill 484 by the Legislature and its signing by Governor Jerry Brown on October 2. That triggered a letter from U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Deborah S. Delisle, who wagged a finger at the state and threatened to gut a host of financial assistance that adds up to $3.52 billion, or about 10% of the state’s education funding. read more
EDD Found Something Else It Can Mess Up: Helping Veterans Find Employment
California is one of the worst states in the country at helping veterans find jobs, according to State Auditor Elaine Howle, and EDD played no small role in achieving that distinction. Howle wrote to the Legislature that the department files its data on time with the U.S. Department of Labor and meets grant requirements to get money. But EDD’s data is lousy and it doesn’t use it “to identify opportunities to improve services to veterans.” read more
State Senator Calderon Stung by Leaked FBI Affidavit about Corruption
A sealed 124-page FBI agent affidavit, filed in U.S. District Court, implicates Ron Calderon in bribery schemes, details bugged conversations and mentions other lawmakers, including Democratic Senate leader Darrell Steinberg. The affidavit lays out the sting and documents conversations between FBI undercover agents and Calderon. read more
Dire Warnings about Medical Marijuana in California Turned out to be Wrong
Drawing heavily on a wide range of studies, the researchers found that nothing worst-case occurred and concluded that legalizing marijuana is “likely to improve public health.” They found that the partial legalization of marijuana had not led to increased lawlessness, a surge in drug use or increased carnage on the roads.
Pot didn’t lead to more alcohol use. In fact, the researchers found the opposite. read more
No One Looking When Care Home, Closed by the State, Abandons Patients
Fourteen sick and elderly patients at the nursing home, some of them bedridden, were abandoned by the staff last week without any transition in place for the closed facility.
The staff left and on Saturday, three remaining workers who stayed without pay, including a cook and a janitor, called 911. Paramedics took most of the patients to other care centers but at least one man was hospitalized. read more
Nine Hospitals Fined $775,000 for 10 Medical Horror Stories
Fines ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 were meted out to medical centers in seven counties for incidents like the removal of the wrong kidney during an operation or a "leftover" surgical device left behind in a patient. read more
Evictions Soar as State’s Ellis Act Empowers San Francisco Gentrification
The Ellis Act allows landlords to evict tenants and sell the apartments as tenant-in-common units, on the way to becoming condos. It frees up a competitive marketplace at the expense of those who can’t compete.
There were 114 Ellis Act evictions between March 2012 and February 2011, compared to 64 during the previous 12 months. read more
Campus Cop Who Pepper-Sprayed UC Students Gets Bigger Compensation than Them
The ex-campus cop who was fired for casually pepper spraying a group of protesters at the University of California, Davis in November 2011 while they sat docilely on the ground has been awarded $38,059 in workers’ compensation for his ensuing ordeal.
The 21 students and alumni who got a faceful of abuse from John Pike each received a settlement of $30,000, $8,000 less than him. Another 15 claimants received an average of $6,666 apiece. read more
Stolen Hospital Laptops with Unencrypted Files Put 729,000 Patients at Risk
Lost data includes Social Security numbers, names, Medicare and insurance ID numbers, diagnoses and procedure codes, and insurance and payment records. The files were not encrypted. The California Attorney General’s office likes encryption and noted in a recent report (pdf) that more than half the 2.5 million victims of data breaches it surveyed in the state last year would have benefited from its presence. read more
Federal Jury Finds L.A. County Sheriff Personally Liable for Inmate Abuse
Last week, in an unusual, although not unheard of, decision, jurors in a federal civil rights lawsuit found Sheriff Lee Baca had personal responsibility for the jailhouse beating of a prisoner and assessed his penalty at $100,000.
It’s not clear if the county can, or will, pick up the tab, but the department has made it known the decision will be appealed. read more
2 San Bernardino Councilmen Share Court Date for Separate Crimes
San Bernardino Councilman Chas Kelley pleaded guilty to felony perjury and resigned his council seat last week. And now the city has a newly-minted felon as a mayoral candidate on its November 5 ballot. Kelley wasn’t the only councilman in court on Thursday. Councilman Robert Jenkins was charged with 30 felony and misdemeanor counts in an alleged Internet revenge attack on an ex-boyfriend and a second man using Craigslist. read more
Did NSA Eavesdropping on Californian Lead to Deadly Somali Strike?
The government relied upon national security claims to suppress evidence and convict Basaaly Moalin in February of funneling $8,500 to al-Shabaab. But after Eric Snowden revealed the extent of NSA phone surveillance, a cryptic government e-mail surfaced that seemed to indicate a desire to obtain “real time” coordinates of the man at the other end of a Moalin conversation—al-Shabaab leader Aden Hashi Ayrow, who was killed in a May 2008 U.S. missile strike. read more