The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), following about nine months behind California, has banned the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles, but will continue to allow its use in plastic bottles used by adults. The FDA’s decision was less dramatic than it may appear, since manufacturers of baby bottles and sippy cups had already stopped using the controversial industrial chemical.   read more

The approval by the federal government of seven more waivers from the Bush era “No Child Left Behind” education standards pushed the national total to 33 but still doesn’t include California. It has been apparent for years that states could not legitimately comply with the lofty standards established by Congress, which refused to rework the 2002 law, so the Obama administration has allowed them exemptions from key provisions if they could come up with a plan of their own that passes muster.   read more

A last-minute amendment to national farm legislation approved by the U.S. House Agriculture Committee Friday would block a California law that requires more humane treatment of egg-laying hens. But the proposal has implications beyond its application to California. It will prevent any state from setting its own standards for how crops and livestock can be produced. The House bill would have to be reconciled with an already-approved Senate version.   read more

Whistle-blowers at the San Onofre Nuclear Plant, shut down in January after tubes that carry radioactive steam were found to be decaying, are more vulnerable than other state workers because the facility sits on land leased from the federal government.   read more

Before it nearly imploded and was bought out by Bank of America during the 2008 financial crisis, Countrywide Financial used a VIP program to loan money to members of Congress as a way to influence their decision-making. At least seven current and former lawmakers, three from California, accepted loans from the mortgage company, according to a report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.   read more

Add 20-year-old Ali Ahmed of San Diego to the growing list of U.S. citizens from California zapped by the U.S. government’s anti-terrorist no-fly list. Ahmed was traveling to Kenya last week—his first return visit to the country most of his family emigrated from in 1999—to see his father and meet his fiancée for an arranged marriage.   read more

Members of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association will have to abide by California’s 3-year-old vessel fuel rules and stop burning some of the dirtiest, unhealthy motor fuel as they approach the state’s shore after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear its appeal of an adverse lower court ruling.   read more

It may be dishonorable to lie about your military service, but the Constitution protects your right to do so, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday in the case of a former member of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District in Los Angeles County. In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the court struck down the Stolen Valor Act.   read more

Just days after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a Los Angeles County appeal of a decision requiring it to clean up polluted runoff that flows to the ocean, a beach report card from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) finds the state registered more beach closures and advisories in 2011 than the year before.   read more

Three dozen Californians lost their lives in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that included destruction of the World Trade Center in New York. After the attacks the state set up the “California Memorial Scholarship Fund” for family of those who lost their lives, and identified 42 people who were eligible for assistance. Only four of the 16 people who signed up before the 2005 deadline have taken advantage of it.   read more

When Sgt. Nicholas C. Fredsti of San Diego was killed in Afghanistan on Friday, he joined more than 700 fellow Californians who have lost their lives in that country and Iraq since 2001.   read more

The U.S. Catholic Church, which has paid out an estimated $3 billion in settlements and monetary awards, has received the most publicity among religious institutions accused of abetting the sexual abuse of children, and deservedly so. But the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Fremont, California, last week were ordered to pay nearly half of an unprecedented $28 million judgment for allowing an adult member of the church to molest a child in the mid-‘90s.   read more

Although California has the highest concentration of immigrant small-business owners in the nation, a company called Blueseed has floated a plan to house more offshore where immigration laws can be legally skirted.   read more

As California slashes away at its public support for higher education, its four-year colleges continue to dominate the nation in tuition increases. A database unveiled by the U.S. Department of Education reveals a list of schools boasting the largest tuition increases littered with California institutions. Seven University of California campuses led by campuses at Berkeley and Los Angeles, are among the list’s top 5%, with tuition increases averaging 40 to 43% between 2009 and 2011.   read more