“I feel really angry, I feel exploited, almost like betrayed. ... And there wasn’t even a proper reason,” California State University, Long Beach freshman Miranda Ceja told U-T San Diego. Ceja described a four-stage competition for which she worked “two to four hours every day, working and working and working” only to be informed that her promised $14,000 scholarship had been reduced to $1,500. She told the Del Mar Times she broke down and cried when she got the letter.   read more

Nationally, delinquencies from debt incurred through credit cards, mortgages, auto loans and home equity revolving accounts have all plummeted in recent years, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. But student loan delinquencies continue to rise dramatically. Around 9% of the nation’s $11.5-trillion-dollar household debt is student loans; 70% are mortgages.   read more

Last September, when San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) accountant David Ramires told NBC Bay Area that the agency was inflating its expenses by millions of dollars to justify its budget requests, officials claimed honest mistakes over much smaller amounts. When NBC reported last week that Ramires had a second set of books that substantiated his claims, SamTrans officials changed their story—and blamed him.   read more

Bay Area transportation officials are asking why the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) didn’t tell them about reports of potentially corrosive leaks from the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge much before the news became public last week. It would be cynical to think Caltrans was too busy making the final $49 million bonus payment to the project’s prime contractor, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. But the timing might not sit well with some.   read more

Governor Jerry Brown, former GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, state Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom were among those notified by the FPPC that their lavish fundraisers held at Sloan’s home involved nonmonetary contributions—unbeknownst to them—from their host that were not permitted by the law.   read more

Natividad “Nate” Lara Cervantes admitted taking bribes, as early as 2008, from companies looking to do business on the Marine base near San Diego. He copped to accepting $25,000 that year and $95,000 between then and 2011 in exchange for steering a combined $10.5 million worth of service contracts to Hugo Alonso Inc. (HAI) and MBR Associates, Inc. (MBRA).   read more

Long Beach City College is going it alone in the first test of a new state law that lets community colleges charge students more money—a lot more money—for required classes that are much in demand. Supporters argue that the program adds classes that essentially pay for themselves without state funding, allowing more kids to graduate faster. Detractors see it as a backdoor effort to reduce government’s commitment to helping provide higher education to lower-income people.   read more

California, unlike most states, does not provide online access to its archives. So CIR decided to construct the database itself and began requesting copies of the public records that would make that possible. The CDSS estimated it would take two years, require 500 man hours and cost $20,500 to produce the documents. The department said it could only afford to devote four hours a week to the project.   read more

California could have picked up $246 million in 2012 if it had closed an offshore corporate tax loophole recently sealed by Montana and Oregon, according to the California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG). California lost $3.3 billion to offshore tax havens in 2011—not surprisingly, the most lost by any state. Estimates are that the federal government loses $90 billion annually.   read more

Last week, Minkow pleaded guilty to swindling members of his former congregation out of $3 million over a decade’s time. His case represents an auspicious beginning to a new year of scams, shams and sleight-of-hands that promises to be the equal of 2013.   read more

Lawsuits by employees seeking damages from the smallest of the group, Intuit and Pixar plus Lucasfilm, were settled last July for a total of $20 million. Last week, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for the hearing of a class-action suit against the other four companies, despite their protestations. That suit represents 100,000 workers who arguably lost $9 billion from 2005 to 2009 and builds on information gleaned during the DOJ investigation.   read more

“I’ve never seen a petition with as many flaws as this one,” City Clerk Shirley Concolino told the Sacramento Bee, explaining why she wouldn’t certify the measure. Proponents of the petition said the problem wasn’t flawed, nitpicked-to-death petitions. It was a political power structure bent on building a new arena after a high-stakes showdown with Seattle over keeping the Sacramento Kings basketball team in town.   read more

A federal complaint unveiled Tuesday charged three men with conspiring to steer $500,000 in illegal contributions from a Mexican tycoon to various San Diego political campaigns. Among them: the 2012 campaign for mayor, a 2012 congressional campaign and the 2014 mayoral runoff. The complaint said there was a promise that another “mill” in contributions would be forthcoming.   read more

American Future Fund and Small Business Action Committee took $15 million from two Arizona non-profit organizations and spent it in a convoluted plan that targeted Governor Jerry Brown's Proposition 30 tax hike for defeat and supported the anti-union Proposition 32. They were caught and ordered to pay penalties, which equaled the money the accepted.   read more

“The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge: Basic Reforms for the Future,” released days before a hearing on the project’s trials and travails, raises serious questions about the bridge’s structural integrity and the process that led to questionable construction decisions and huge cost overruns. The bridge’s final cost of $6.4 billion, which doesn’t include another $6.6 billion in finance charges, is four times the original sticker price.   read more

After looking at 110,000 cases in 2011 of women with private health insurance, they concluded that the “staggering difference” in prices, “even for an uncomplicated pregnancy,” was inexplicable. The cost of delivery ranged from $3,296 to $37,227 for a non-complicated vaginal birth.The study also found a wide disparity in costs for cesarean sections, with prices ranging from $8,312 to $70,908.   read more