The judges, whose decision could be appealed to the five-member California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), found that PG&E committed 3,708 violations of federal regulations, engineering standards and state rules, many of them over a number of years. When added up, PG&E was in violation 18,447,805 days. That works out to a $76-penalty-per-fine-per-day.   read more

The EPA wrote that building a couple of giant tunnels to divert freshwater from the Sacramento River around the Delta will probably threaten the habitat by increasing its content of salt, chloride, pesticides and other bad stuff. Local farmers and urban areas relying on water directly from the Delta stand a good chance of being harmed. The EPA also warned of harm to several endangered fish in the Delta   read more

California has lost a lot of film and TV business in recent years, as production companies look for cheaper venues and government incentives. Most states and a lot of countries offer grants and tax credits. California, which still dominates film and TV production nationally, leapfrogs from fifth place to second among states in financial incentives, behind New York ($420 million annually) but ahead of Louisiana ($236 million), Georgia ($140 million) and Florida ($131 million).   read more

The complexity of the law and competing judicial applications of it have facilitated a decades-long move to reclassify employees as independent contractors to avoid legal and social obligations. It’s a great corporate cost-cutter whose popularity continues to grow as the labor force is redefined.   read more

The Texans claim in the suit that the city shared details of its bid with the competition and rejected the staff recommendation in accepting a lousier deal. The lawsuit alleges, “The City Council’s actions appeared heavily swayed by long-term personal and political connections with” CWS. Both companies said they would raise rates for consumers, but CWS promised a smaller bump. Concerns were also expressed about the Texans outsourcing jobs in billing, dispatch, call centers and customer service.   read more

California State Auditor Elaine Howle’s report, which covered five and a half years between July 2008 and December 2013, found 323 instances of money being reimbursed to providers of services “purportedly rendered to deceased beneficiaries.” The auditor accused Medi-Cal administrators of shoddy practices that may have steered $93.7 million to alcohol and drug and rehabilitation clinics under fraudulent circumstances during a four-year period.   read more

Although university officials tout the benefits of increased diversity, the prime motivation is money. The students will bring an extra $400 million with them to the schools. The university told the Times that no in-state student is denied admission to the UC system because of the change in admission policy the past few years. Even if that were true, being admitted to UC Merced might not placate the California student who in the recent past might have earned a spot at UCLA.   read more

Los Angeles renters spend 47% of their income on housing, the highest in the nation. The city leads the nation in both moderate (30-50%) and severe rent burden (more than 50%). They have the most people rent burdened and the highest burdens. The problem is particularly acute in L.A., where rentership is the highest in the nation at around 52%.   read more

The charges reflected hospital rates before pre-payments or contractual adjustments, so insurance negotiations and payments probably reduced most costs. So why the outlandish charges? Kevin Drum at Mother Jones suggests, “No insurance company will pay $10,000 for a lipid panel, of course, so the only point of pricing it this high is to exploit the occasional poor sap with no health insurance who happens to need his cholesterol checked.”   read more

In a 5-1 decision, the California justices effectively removed Proposition 49 from the November ballot, ruling that the courts needed to decide first whether purely advisory measures belong there. The majority opinion, a scant two paragraphs long, expressed no final view on the matter, but worried that some voters would be confused and others would be frustrated to find the measure on their ballots.   read more

An agreement hammered out in April between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and leading Silicon Valley companies, which paid 64,600 employees a pittance for being victims of salary collusion, was tossed out last week by U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh, who said the corporations conducted an “overarching conspiracy” and should really pay for it or argue their case in court.   read more

The city council approved a schedule of increases in the municipal minimum wage on July 28 that would take it 50 cents higher than the state’s $10 level by January 2016. It would go up another $1 an hour a year later and be indexed to the local Consumer Price Index starting in 2019. The state minimum wage rose from $8 to $9 on July 1. The ordinance also included a provision requiring that employees receive five days of sick leave annually.   read more

Charity Navigator, a respected charity evaluator, calculated that Move America Forward spent a large percentage of its money, 38.9%, on administrative costs in fiscal year 2012 and another 7.7% on fundraising. ProPublica calculated that $2.3 million, or 30%, of the charity’s expenses went to Russo or his consulting firm for advertising and management, and found evidence that money may have been used to support their other activities.   read more

A Bee analysis of data from the past five years found that Altria and R.J. Reynolds quadrupled their contributions to Democrats and seem to have been rewarded for the effort. Consequently, “legislation to ban smoking on public school campuses, in apartment buildings, and at state parks and beaches withered in committee. Proposals to raise taxes on cigarettes went nowhere. One bill to limit Internet sales of electronic cigarettes was shelved."   read more

The announcement last week was greeted with relief by some, enthusiasm by others and skepticism by those who think insurance companies are just laying low until after November’s election, when California voters will have a chance to tip the balance of power in the health insurance market. Lawmakers put a measure on the ballot, Proposition 45, which will let the insurance commissioner reject rates found to be unreasonable.   read more

The L.A. Bureau of Street Services audit, released Thursday, said the worst streets in the city, which make up 40% of 6,500 miles of public roadway, have been left to deteriorate while the 18% of roads with fewer problems have received attention. The report said that auditors had trouble reaching those conclusions because “a great deal of information about the Bureau’s activities is incomplete or simply missing.”   read more