The drug costs $1,000 a day, or $84,000 for a full regimen of treatment for a single patient. That works out to $1.43 billion if administered to all infected state prisoners. A study out of Stanford University says that might be a reasonable price to pay, considering the longterm cost of administering less effective drugs. But corrections officials, and probably a lot of taxpayers, say that's not going to happen   read more

The corridor, which parallels the I-5, the I-405 and the Pacific Ocean, has been plagued by awful revenue and ridership projections from the start. Last week, the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency agreed to refinance the debt for a second time, raising the total amount owed, and keep tolls around until 2050.   read more

In its day, the newspaper was the social conscience of San Francisco with a strong focus on local news and a hearty appetite for muckraking. It was fierce in its defense of the underclass and its criticism of moneyed interests that perpetuated social injustice. It was one of the great alternative weeklies in the '60s and '70s when every city seemed to have a good one, but they have all but vanished.   read more

AP reviewed contracting records obtained via the state Public Records Act which showed $4.2 million of the contracts went to the Tori Group, a consulting firm with strong ties to CC Director Peter Lee. Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group promoting health insurance reform measure Prop. 45 on the November ballot, fired off a letter to the attorney general demanding an investigation. “This isn't about speed,” Watchdog president Jamie Court told the Sacramento Bee, “this is about being opaque."   read more

After years of sticking charges on people’s wireless devices for services they never asked for and refusing to remove them, AT&T reached a settlement with 50 state attorneys general and the federal government not to do that anymore. Oh, and they coughed up $105 million, 0.32% of AT&T’s 2nd-quarter earnings of $32.6 billion.   read more

San Jose Transportation Director Hans Larsen, who had some skeptical words for the Mercury News after another TRIP report last week calculated that crappy roads cost Californians $44 billion a year. “It’s yet another wake-up call to get up and do something or to keep hitting the snooze button,” Larsen said. Californians enjoy their sleep.   read more

For the first time, a judge ruled that California state law requiring cities to make good on their pension obligations to CalPERS is superseded by U.S. bankruptcy law that says everyone can be dinged. “I've concluded the pension could be adjusted,” Judge Klein said, but did not say he would actually do that. He can leave the city's plan intact or make other adjustments.   read more

It is possible that a significant statewide decline in Superior Court case filings means Californians are becoming less litigious and crime is abating. But the 9.7% decline in case filings “coincides with two other trends that have occurred as result of budget cuts to the judicial branch: the increase in court filing fees to offset General Fund budget cuts and closure of courthouses and/or the reduction of hours at our courthouses.”   read more

Around 73% of students already borrow money to pay for their J-school education. “We estimate that worst case, their average debt repayment on a 10-year loan would rise by $152 per month,” Dean Ed Wasserman said. J-school students are obviously not the only kids being whipsawed by the skyrocketing price of education and diminishing returns in the job market. But few industries have been whacked as badly by changing technology as publishing, and newspapers in particular.   read more

CalPERS became one of the first to announce it was divesting itself of the controversial financial vehicles. The pension fund emphasized the move was made because of high hedge fund fees, not the crummy returns. But it also could have had as much to do with optics. Hedge fund managers got as much grief as bankers after the stock market crash in 2008-2009.   read more

The unusual reversal capped a showdown between supporters of a small, local green company that promised to be attentive to community needs, and an out-of-state corporate giant with a reputation for acting like an outsider. “We have set a precedent here tonight that when people don’t get their way and they have enough money, they just do whatever they want to, say whatever they want to and there are no ramifications for what they do,” Councilmember Desley Brooks said.   read more

An analysis by ProPublica found that 44% of the $100 billion paid out so far has ended up in the hands of bankers, who provided states with quick cash up front in exchange for securitized bonds sporting healthy interest rates. California, 24 counties and the city of San Diego securitized at least a portion of their winnings for cash now, which was then often spent on projects unrelated to smoking or health care.   read more

The for-profit parent company of Everest Institute, Everest College, WyoTech and Heald brands, with a couple dozen campuses in California, was accused of deceptively marketing $568 million in private loans to students who defaulted on 60% of them over three years. The lawsuit asks that the loans be wiped out. Corinthian sold all of the Genesis loan notes it owned―170,000 loans worth $505 million―to a third party on August 20 for $19 million.   read more

A Freedom of Information Act request by MuckRock has identified police departments at five California school districts that have gotten in on the giveaway. The Los Angeles School Police Department has 61 assault rifles, three grenade launchers and one mine-resistant vehicle. Documents from MuckRock also indicate more than 100 college police forces have received military surplus through the 1033 program, including the University of California, Berkeley.   read more

“The discouraging news is CalPERS’ lack of robust auditing, underutilization of advanced technology, and its generally passive approach to the problem invites abuse,” Controller John Chiang wrote. The report estimated that one particular pension enhancement, Employer Paid Member Contributions (EPMC), granted by 97 of the reporting entities, would cost CalPERS extra pension benefits worth $796 over 20 years.   read more

The package of incentives amounts to $1.25 billion over 20 years, compared to the roughly $500 million California was prepared to offer. Governor Jerry Brown and some lawmakers were also willing to fast track legislation allowing the factory to bypass critical elements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which requires a detailed environmental impact report.   read more