Government

Death Rattle for Corporate Collaborator? SEIU's Corporate Collusion With Hospitals May Collapse

Submitted by Jamie Court on Fri, 10/16/2015 - 10:24
Word on the street is that union President Dave Regan's Faustian bargain with the California hospital industry -- cuddle up with hospitals' management to keep patient problems quiet and receive more than 60,000 new hospital workers -- is now teetering on the brink of collapse. Apparently Regan shut up, but the hospitals didn't put up the new workers. Good riddance. 
 

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State Regulators Defenseless In the Face of Aetna Premium Hikes

Submitted by Eddie Barrera on Thu, 10/15/2015 - 15:00
Aetna is ending the year just like it started, with state regulators saying the insurance company has hiked premiums excessively, and there is nothing they can do about it. 
 

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Why Does It Take KCBS To Do Top Toxics Regulator's Job?

Submitted by Liza Tucker on Thu, 10/15/2015 - 12:11
Last night, CBS TV Los Angeles ran an astonishing story. 
 
Reporter Randy Paige visited homes within two miles of the now-shuttered lead battery recycler Exide. Using an EPA-certified device to instantly measure lead levels in soil or dust, he found children were playing in hazardous waste levels of lead ten times higher or more than the acceptable residential standard. 

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Will CA Attorney General Stand With Healthcare Workers And Patients Or a Hedge Fund?

Submitted by Carmen Balber on Tue, 10/13/2015 - 16:20
California Attorney General Kamala Harris will soon have to decide if she is on the side of patients and healthcare workers or a New York hedge fund looking to make easy money with little risk by buying six financially-struggling Catholic hospitals. 
 

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Brown Ends 2015 With a Whimper: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Submitted by Eddie Barrera on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 18:56

Landmark bills protecting digital privacy, greening energy use in the state, reining in health insurance abuses and expanding voter registration were among the good proposals signed by Gov. Jerry Brown as the 2015 legislative year drew to a close. Yet, in a year Californians called for bold, progressive action on gas prices, toxics regulation and ratepayer protection against back room dealings with regulated utilities, centrist saddling and tepid reforms dull the shine of those wins for the public. 

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Big Oil Gives CA Energy Commission and Californians The Finger

Submitted by Jamie Court on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:15
Governor Brown appointed the California Energy Commission (CEC) Petroleum Market Advisory (PMAC) to look into potential market manipulation by oil refiners in the state.
 
That's going to be hard to do now that the trade association for oil refiners, the Western States Petroleum Association, is telling the CEC and PMAC it won't participate in any discussions about supply disruptions or gas price spikes. In other words, FU.
 

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