Lockyer Goes To Dark Side, Big Oil

Submitted by Jamie Court on Thu, 12/17/2015 - 11:37
Heading to Sacramento Wednesday to testify on California’s outrageous gasoline price spikes, I was looking for context to explain the $10 billion extra California drivers paid for their gasoline in 2015 compared to US drivers. Then I read the Star Wars series made $4.4 billion worldwide. 
 
An oil oligopoly, anchored by four California oil refiners, that control 78% of the gasoline market, raked in more extra dollars at the pump in one year than one of the most successful movie franchises in history.
 

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As Covered California Enrollment Continues, Don't Get Scrooged

Submitted by Eddie Barrera on Wed, 12/16/2015 - 15:40
Consumers are currently in the process of enrolling in new health coverage or switching plans for 2016, so Consumer Watchdog has offered tips to help avoid pitfalls and urged them to report any problems to Consumer Watchdog on the group’s consumer complaint page by clicking on this link.
 
Top challenges to look out for: 
 

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Kaiser Permanente, Example of California's Mental Health Crisis

Submitted by Eddie Barrera on Wed, 12/16/2015 - 12:13

Kaiser Permanente won't be using testimony from this week's state Senate hearing on mental health services in any of its $50 million advertising plans next year. If it did, it would have to change its "Thrive" campaign to a "Withering" campaign. 

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Supreme Preemption

Submitted by Jamie Court on Mon, 12/14/2015 - 09:57

I woke up this morning to a US Supreme Court decision that rewrote the traditional balance of power between California courts and federal power.  

Until today, California courts had been the final word on the “laws of your state,”  in other words what California law said on matters of contracts and contract interpretation specifically citing California law.

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Shining Light Into A Big Black Hole (Or The Undisclosed Millions Big Industry Spends Lobbying)

Submitted by Carmen Balber on Mon, 12/14/2015 - 08:25
The Fair Political Practices Commission is promoting new lobbyist disclosure rules after massive spending by the oil industry at the end of the last legislative session killed a law that would have reduced petroleum use in California by 50%. 
 

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Vive La Corporation

Submitted by Liza Tucker on Mon, 12/14/2015 - 06:19
During Governor Jerry Brown’s days in Paris attending climate negotiations, he called for nothing less than a revolutionary shift away from “this heavy commodification of our entire existence.” What drives that commodification, he said, is individualism and oil. What’s needed is “a life not based on oil, and a life not based on so much emphasis on the individual as opposed to the common good.”
 

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