Controversies
L.A. Cemetery Sued Again over Crushed Caskets and Tossed Remains
More than 60 people have filed a new civil lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court making essentially the same grotesque claims as a lawsuit settled last year for $80.5 million, but covering a different time frame and people who didn’t participate in the first suit. The suits allege that owners systematically smashed concrete casings protecting coffins with backhoes and despoiled graves while reconfiguring the grounds to accommodate more paying customers. read more
Audit Documents Cheating and Nepotism at L.A. County Fire Department
A report (pdf) from County Auditor-Controller John Naimo found that “numerous” department personnel, particularly captains, were sharing questions and answers for the training exam and other civil service tests. The report did not assign a motive to the generous sharing of materials and information, but noted that 15% of the department’s 701 trainee hires between 2007 and 2014 had a relative working there. read more
State Supreme Court Says Housing Limit for Sex Offenders Is Unconstitutional
The California Supreme Court unanimously invalidated the portion of the 2006 Jessica’s Law that applied a 2,000-foot restriction on sex offenders living near any school or children’s park. The law “bears no rational relationship to advancing the state’s legitimate goal of protecting children from sexual predators and has violated their basic constitutional right to be free of unreasonable, arbitrary, and oppressive action,” Justice Marvin R. Baxter wrote for the court. read more
Hermosa Beach Votes to Kill Drilling Deal and Pay Oil Company Millions
Measure O would have allowed Bakersfield-based E&B Natural Resources Management to drill 34 oil wells on 1.3 acres in the city’s maintenance yard, which is surrounded by businesses, residences and a greenbelt, and is just blocks from the beach. Now, the city, which has an operating budget of $40 million, has to pay the oil company $17.5 million to go away. read more
Berkeley City Council Declares No-Drone Zone for One Year
A report from the Peace and Justice Commission to the city council in April 2014 warned that drones weren’t safe, their usability was limited, their surveillance capability presented a “slippery slope” toward “mission creep” that would threaten civil liberties, and they imperiled the constitutional right of privacy. The 7-1 vote, with one abstention, still allows the fire department to use drones for disaster response. read more
Despite $4-Million Fine, Kaiser Still Mucking Up Mental Health Treatment
This month’s report from California’s Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) reiterated findings in previous reports that Kaiser has not resolved the “significant and serious concerns” that resulted in a $4 million fine by the state in 2013. Patients are forced to wait too long for appointments with therapists and psychiatrists, and they are given incorrect information about services available to them. read more
No, SoCal Gas Does Not Endorse that Insurance Mailer Despite the Logo
Many SoCal Gas customers received a packet of information from HEIS under the letterhead of The Gas Company’s parent, Sempra Energy, warning of dire things that could happen to their home and the danger of being underinsured. Four dollars and ninety-five cents a month buys $3,000 worth of protection and billing is included on the gas bill. So, is this an endorsement of HEIS by The Gas Company. No. But a lot of people won’t know that by just reading the sales pitch. read more
Harris OKs Sale of 6 Troubled Hospitals to Cost-Cutting Prime Healthcare—with Conditions
Attorney General Harris responded to concerns of the Service International Employees Union (SEIU)/United Healthcare Workers West, pleas at public meetings and 14,000 written comments that Prime had a history of eviscerating services for low-income patients while whacking employees’ pay and benefits. Prime registered its objections to the conditions put on the sale by Harris and said it had to think over the deal. read more
8 State Lawmakers Ask S.F. Archbishop to Rethink Teacher Morality Clauses
A handbook containing the restrictions, which take effect August 1, “effectively removes civil rights protections guaranteed to all Californians,” the legislators wrote. The church would require around 500 administrators, teachers and other staff to formally agree that “adultery, masturbation, fornication, the viewing of pornography and homosexual relations” are “gravely evil.” read more
Bill Would Ban Organ Transplant Bias Against Legal Pot Smokers
Norman B. Smith died in 2012 because he smoked marijuana. But it wasn’t the drug that killed him. Smith was taken off the organ transplant list at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles just weeks before he was to get a new liver because he used medical marijuana. He died within a year. read more
California Reanimates Vagrancy Laws to Criminalize Homelessness
There have been an explosion of local laws that are meant to harass and punish homeless people, rather than restrict anti-social behavior, according to a new study out of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Ninety percent ban begging and panhandling and 20% ban food sharing. That last one is problematic for anyone arguing that the laws are aimed at preventing unsocial behavior like urinating in public. read more
Cal Grants Suspended for Thousands of Students at Troubled Heald College
The grants range from $2,000 to $11,000. Heald’s parent company, Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges, has been under siege by state and federal officials for more than a year and was forced to sell a big chunk of its 100-plus schools to others in December. The $1 million is small compared to what lies ahead. Another $13 million in award money reserved for payment by the end of June is in jeopardy. read more
Audit Rips Another State Computer Project
Consurmer Affairs' new computer system, BreEZe, was designed to eventually provide a common online interface that would allow all the department’s entities to perform numerous tasks. But the State Auditor reported this week that the system, designed by Accenture and budgeted at $28 million, has cost $96 million, so far, serves less than half the boards, etc. it should by now and doesn’t work very well. read more
Southern California Edison Joins PG&E in Expanding PUC Scandal
Earlier this week, Southern California Edison (SCE) disclosed that former PUC President Michael Peevey met with then-Edison executive Stephen Pickett in Warsaw, Poland, in March 2013 to talk about the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant that has since been permanently shuttered. State law requires that contacts made between utility officials and government regulators outside normal business channels be immediately reported. read more
Activists Sue to Find Out Where the “Roving” Border Patrol Goes
The lawsuit, filed in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), is a follow-up to an ignored Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request last July for information about the border agency’s “roving patrol” operations “during which agents stop and detain Southern Californians as far as 100 miles north of the Mexico border.” read more
Federal Judge Blocks U.S. Attorney from Seizing Berkeley Pot Dispensary
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar put a hold on a forfeiture action sought by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag against Berkeley Patients Group (BPG) until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hears an appeal by the city of Berkeley that it be included in the case. That might take awhile. read more