Top Stories
Insurer Suspends Mail-Order Drug Plan after HIV/AIDS Patient Lawsuit
With a March 1 signup deadline looming and California HIV/AIDS patients girding for the worst, health insurer Anthem Blue Cross backed off and suspended a program that would have forced them to purchase their medications through the mail.
Many of the drugs need refrigeration, and delivery to a house, apartment or office could be problematic for more than just safety reasons. read more
EPA Strikes Final Deal at Superfund Site after Three Decades of Wrangling
After decades of controversy and $600 million worth of cleaning up, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) closed the books on one of the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites—10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
More than a thousand users of the landfill paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and cleanup for problems that included toxic gas emissions, contaminated surface water runoff and groundwater pollution.
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DMV Fires Hewlett-Packard in, Yet, Another State Technology Project Failure
After seven years of trying to modernize its vehicle registration system, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) found that “minimal work” had been done and now would be “a natural breaking point for the project.”
So, on January 31, they fired the contractor, Hewlett-Packard’s HP Enterprise Services. read more
Critics Queasy over Report that Plastic Bag Ban Makes People Sick
A six-month-old study making the rounds of media outlets lately is turning stomachs and generating an unhealthy amount of head scratching. Can it be true that plastic bag bans, passed by more than 40 cities and counties since 2007, are responsible for significant increases in E. coli?
That’s the conclusion of “Grocery Bag Bans and Foodborne Illness,” a report that has received less-than-glowing reviews from environmentalists and plastic bag ban advocates. read more
City Sues Shell Oil for Letting Developers Build on Top of Carcinogenic Tanks
Residents in 285 homes in the Los Angeles County County city of Carson would like someone to do something about the deep layer of crude-oil-soaked soil oozing benzene and methane and other toxic chemicals just a few feet beneath their houses.
A bunch of them filed a class-action suit against Shell Oil Co. and others in 2010, and were joined in the legal fray last week by Carson, itself. read more
California Ponzi Schemers: Class of 2012
Ponzi schemes are characterized by their recruitment of investors, whose money is then used to pay off previous “investors,” rather that placed in profitable, income-generating enterprises. They are named after Charles Ponzi, a legendary scam artist of the early 20th century. read more
San Jose Schools Overstated Graduation Success of Widely-Emulated Model
The San Jose Unified School District has been a shining example for 11 years of how setting lofty goals—and strict requirements—for high school graduation can boost student performance.
The incredible results that San Jose reported for six years, widely cited by the model’s supporters and emulators, were wildly inaccurate and misleading. read more
State Sued over Fracking as Time for Public Comments on Proposed Rules Nears End
The public has one more week to comment on proposed state rules governing hydraulic fracturing, the controversial oil and gas drilling process known as fracking, but the Center for Biological Diversity isn’t waiting to see the finished product, expected in the fall.
The environmental group filed a lawsuit alleging that the state is not providing legally required oversight of the growing practice that may be about to dramatically expand.
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Cardinal Who Shielded Pedophile Priests Is Sorry He Didn’t Know Kids Really Hate to be Molested
Cardinal Roger Mahony, former archbishop of Los Angeles, is “sorry.”
It is possible that he is sorry that hundreds of children were sexually assaulted by priests on his watch, or that he knew about it, facilitated it and covered it up.
But what Mahony actually expressed sorrow and regret for on Monday when publicly released files showed his complicity in all of the above was this: He was sorry that he didn’t realize that children really, really don’t like being molested. read more
California Firm Accused of Helping Dictatorships Spy on and Censor Internet
A human-rights focused technology group accused Blue Coat Systems of Sunnyvale of producing products that repressive regimes around the world are using to monitor and suppress internet activities.
Hacktivists and researchers found that Syria used the appliances to crack down on the political opposition through monitoring and censorship. read more
Edison Destroyed Downed Poles after Windstorm, Curtailing Investigation
Southern California Edison (SCE) destroyed downed utility poles immediately after a ferocious windstorm at the end of 2011, making it impossible to conclusively assess claims by critics that the company’s improper maintenance contributed to the devastation.
The California Public Utilities Commission expressed frustration at not having access to most of the 248 poles that blew down during a storm that cut power to 440,168 customers in the San Gabriel Valley. read more
SoCal Hospitals Skipped FEMA Survey on Quake Preparedness
This is probably not the best way to plan for an earthquake.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the questions being asked, around half of 200 Southern California hospitals surveyed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about their ability to handle a catastrophic earthquake failed to respond, according to Deborah Schoch at the CHCF Center for Health Reporting. read more
Scouts and Church Leaders Lose Court Fights to Obscure Abuse Files
California courts have not been very accommodating to the Roman Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America this past week, refusing to let them shield their files on child abusers in their midst from public scrutiny. read more
State Sues Two Oil Companies over Underground Tank Violations at 560 Gas Stations
ConocoPhillips and a company it spun off, Phillips 66, were sued Wednesday by California Attorney General Kamala Harris for alleged improper inspection and maintenance of 560 underground gasoline storage tanks across the state.
The civil lawsuit, alleged that the two companies “tampered with or disabled leak detection devices,” didn’t “maintain operational alarm systems” and “improperly handled and disposed of hazardous wastes and materials” associated with the tanks since 2006. read more
Army Corps Clears Treasured Nature Preserve to Root out Homeless People and Lewd Behavior
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers giveth, and the Army Corps taketh away.
A lush 43-acre area in Southern California’s Sepulveda Basin, cultivated by the corps in the mid-1980s as a wildlife preserve in the Los Angeles Flood Plain, was decimated by the same corps seeking to rid the site of homeless people and lewd behavior. The Army Corps clearcut cottonwood and willow groves, home to mammals, reptiles and 250 species of local and migratory birds. read more
PG&E Gets Rate Boost to Pay for Safety Work It Should Have Done Before San Bruno Blast
The state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) voted 5-0 to let PG&E raise $299 million through rate increases over the next two years, in addition to nearly another $1 billion stretched over decades, to pay for tests, repairs and upgrades, some of which were erroneously reported as already done.
The utility had asked for significantly more. read more