In a hearing before the California Supreme Court, Justices appeared unconvinced that the state Medical Board should be barred from consulting the state’s prescription drug database in order to discipline drug-dealing and over-prescribing doctors.
 
At issue is the unusual claim that doctors can assert their patients’ privacy rights in order to insulate themselves from disciplinary procedures which are designed to protect patients from substandard care.
 

This Thursday morning, the California Public Utilities Commission begins a day-long public hearing during which it will vote on a staff recommendation to withhold amd redact vital records on a $4.7 billion settlement that stuck ratepayers with most of the tab to shutter a defective nuclear power station called San Onofre. It may seem perfunctory. It's anything but. What is at stake is nothing less than government transparency so that Californians can judge whether government officials are doing their jobs by representing their interests.

The current California regulations covering testing autonomous vehicles have set the standard for the nation by promoting innovation while protecting the safety of our highways.   Unfortunately, the Department of Motor Vehicles has proposed new rules covering testing of robot cars without steering wheels as well as the deployment of autonomous vehicles for public use.

The rules covering testing could be enacted with amendments, but the deployment rules are premature and should be withdrawn.