Across the nation, Republicans have been working hard to crack down on illusionary voter fraud, passing laws that make it more difficult for citizens, particularly minorities, to register and vote. Which makes this Sacramento Bee investigative piece http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/13/4486043/public-eye-bounty-hunting-at-heart.html about a Republican voter registration program in Sacramento County that appeared on Sunday all that more intriguing possibly quite troublesome for Congressman Dan Lungren.
 
In the article, the Bee's investigative reporter discovered that the owner and an employee of a company accused of fraudulent voter registration drives in Sacramento County were convicted felons, convicted of crimes involving deception. "The owner of Momentum Political Services, Monica Harris, has an extensive criminal history, including a prison sentence for stealing from a family she befriended and buying a van with funds stolen from a youth agency, court records show," the Bee reported. "Two of her victims called Harris a "professional con artist." Harris' employee, Remy Heng, recently pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Sacramento to his role in a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme in Northern California."

The company was paid $5 per registration. An earlier article noted than the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters had 3,100 fishy voter registration forms from the company it was wading through. And if that wasn't bad enough, now comes the news that the Republicans actually hired a company run by convicted felons for their voter registration work.

What does this have to do with Lungren? Simple: the Republican Party targeted Sacramento County because it's in Lungren's district, and he is in trouble in his rematch against Democrat Ami Bera. Pumping up the registration numbers for Lungren gives donors the illusion that the ratio between Democrats and Republicans is closer than it actually is.

So far, the Republicans have been mum on the issue. Perhaps an investigation by the Attorney General or U.S. Attorney might change that.

State Senator Juan Vargas (D-San Diego) today called on the California Department of Insurance to take action on a state program that allows consumer groups to intervene in insurance rate cases and announced his intention to ask for a hearing on the program.

According to the Department of Insurance, just one group has dominated the Insurance Department’s “intervenor” program since Prop 103 was passed.  It has been the only group to participate since 2007 and has charged more than $6.2 million in fees.

“The Department should broaden its outreach to all Californians that have a legitimate interest in their insurance rates,” said Senator Vargas. “We must get the facts about why more consumers are being excluded from the process."

Proposition 103 established an intervenor program to enhance consumer participation in insurance regulatory matters.

“The voice of more California consumers must be heard!” punctuates Vargas. “Simply appointing one person from within the same Department, that has allowed this problem to go on, is not enough. The Legislature needs to have a hearing to determine why there are not more consumer groups participating in the Department of Insurance’s rate intervening program.”

Insurance Code section 1861.10 outlines the program:
(a)   Any person may initiate or intervene in any proceeding permitted or established pursuant to this chapter, challenge any action of the commissioner under this article, and enforce any provision of this article.
(b)   The commissioner or a court shall award reasonable advocacy and witness fees and expenses to any person who demonstrates that (1) the person represents the interests of consumers, and, (2) that he or she has made a substantial contribution to the adoption of any order, regulation or decision by the commissioner or a court. Where such advocacy occurs in response to a rate application, the award shall be paid by the applicant.

The California Department of Insurance intervenor fee payment schedule can be found at the following website: http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0250-insurers/0300-insurers/0200-bulletins/prop-103-recoup/report-on-intervenor-program.cfm

Vargas represents the 40th California State Senate District which includes the southern portion of San Diego County, portions of Riverside County, all of Imperial County and California’s entire US/Mexico border.  Vargas represented the 79th California State Assembly District from 2000 – 2006 and served on the San Diego City Council from 1993 – 2000.

Cross posted from Fox & Hounds.

In an extraordinary move, the California Public Utilities Commission's legal counsel has issued an apology to Senator Alex Padilla (D-Los Angeles) for the fiscal analysis that the commission had submitted for Senate Bill 1161, legislation that would prevent the agency from regulating the Internet without legislative action.

At Thursday's PUC meeting in Fresno, PUC Legal Counsel Frank Lindh told the PUC that he had not seen the fiscal analysis submitted and "was not aware of its existence" and "cannot vouch for it in any way."

"There are fiscal impacts, but they need to be studied and the communications section of the legal division of the Commission can contribute to that kind of analysis, but it is not really the best source of a fiscal analysis," Lindh testified. "So I owe an apology to Senator Padilla and I just want to say it publicly today that I apologize that this fiscal analysis should not have been issued by staff and sent to the committee."

After Lindh's remarks, PUC Commissioner Michael Peevey also said his agency's analysis should not be used when discussing the bill.

Lindh and Peevey's remarks came after Senator Padilla sent a letter to the PUC questioning the claims made in the analysis in which the agency claimed the costs of the legislation could be nearly $1 billion.

"We are concerned about the credibility of these cost estimates from the Legal Division, which strongly opposes the bill," wrote Padilla to Peevey. "The CPUC's assertions that it will cost millions of dollars to not regulate Internet-based services underscores the need for SB 1161. The CPUC's exorbitant estimates of the costs of its operations, as laid bare in the CPUC memorandum, indicate a willingness -- or even a desire -- to undertake additional regulatory without regard to the costs and benefits to California consumers."

Senate Bill 1161 will be heard before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday.

It is strongly supported by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, TechAmerica, TechNet, the Congress of California Seniors, and a variety of consumer and business groups.

Steven Maviglio is a spokesperson for TechNet and TechAmerica

SACRAMENTO - The California Alliance for Jobs today praised votes by the Los Angeles City Council and the Fresno Board ofSupervisors this week strongly supporting California's high-speed rail project.

 "The High Speed Rail Authority listened to concerns, made critical changes in the new business plan, and the result is a better, faster, and less expensive project that clearly has regained momentum," says California Alliance for Jobs Executive Director Jim Earp. "These votes from two key population hubs that will be served by high speed rail send a strong signal to the Legislature that Californians are solidly behind this necessary job-creating project."

Earp's comments come on the heels of a vote earlier today in Los Angeles, when the City Council unanimously approved a resolution by Councilmember Tom LaBonge, requesting state lawmakers to release Proposition 1A funds to begin construction on the statewide high-speed railway. The resolution was approved after a presentation by CHSRA Board Chair Dan Richard.

On Tuesday, the Fresno Board of Supervisors also unanimously reiterated its support for the project. Fresno County has been one of the longest supporters of high-speed rail having backed the high-speed rail project for more than 10 years.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/05/08/2829863/fresno-county-supervisors-reiterate.html#storylink=cpy

Last Thursday, the California High-Speed Rail Authority took a key step toward developing project, certifying environmental reports and formally approving the first portion of the line between Merced and Fresno.

The Golden State could lose its lead as the world's technology leader if the state's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) tries to extend its turf and make California the first to regulate the internet, the leaders of the technology industry's top two trade groups, TechNet and TechAmerica write in an op-ed that appears in today's Sacramento Bee.

The blast comes as the PUC decides today at a meeting in Fresno whether to oppose legislation sponsored by Senator Alex Padilla, SB 1161, that would keep the Public Utilities from extending its regulatory authority to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, such as FaceTime and Skype. 

"The tech sector is concerned by the threat of regulation of this thriving, innovative market for Internet-based communications that is totally unlike the monopoly of copper wires the Bell system created a century ago," write Technet CEO and President Rey Ramsey and TechAmerica CEO and president Shawn Osborne.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/10/4479351/keep-internet-phone-service-free.html#sto

"Today, dozens of VoIP providers and hundreds of Internet-based communications offerings give consumers a multitude of choices. Monopoly-era regulation on this dynamic sector by the PUC - which took seven years to approve caller ID - could chill investment and put California's leadership at risk.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/10/4479351/keep-internet-phone-service-free.html#storylink=cpy

The entire op-ed can be read here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/10/4479351/keep-internet-phone-service-free.html

The Sacramento Bee

 

Letter to the Editor:

On Friday, May 4, 2012, the Sacramento Bee published an editorial by former Assembly Member Fred Keeley regarding net energy metering.  This article incorrectly referenced my bill, AB 2514, which is a net energy metering study bill.  Mr. Keeley said that the bill changes the current net metering cap.  AB 2514 does nothing to change the cap.  California has experienced tremendous growth in Net Energy Metering (NEM) because of a combination of state and federal financial incentives, new financing mechanisms, customer acceptance of new energy technologies, and declining costs.  AB 2514 only requires the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to quantify the costs and benefits of net energy metering so that, going forward, the Legislature will have this information as it considers future net energy metering legislation.  If enacted, that report will be provided to the Legislature by June 2013.

   

Sincerely,

Steven C. Bradford, Chair

Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce

In an op-ed that appears in today's Sacramento Bee, the author of the law that has helped California become the nation's leader in solar energy says utilities are trying to crush the fast-growing industry by misinterpreting the legislation he wrote.

Former Assemblyman Fred Keeley, now treasurer of Santa Cruz County, says utilities are quietly pushing an amendment to legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Steven Bradford that would change the law and limit solar's growth. 

"The utilities are now trying to short-circuit the PUC action, seeking to slip their own self-serving language into legislation and subvert the agency carefully selected to regulate the state's energy policy and protect California consumers and business," wrote Keeley. 

"Make no mistake, this utility-backed legislation will stymie job growth and threaten our state's clean energy leadership position. As author of our net metering law, I implore lawmakers to resist this special interest maneuver to change the law.

Read the entire op-ed here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/04/4464816/dont-let-utilities-undermine-solar.html#storylink=cpy

Sacramento television reporter John Myers has unearthed serious voter registration fraud in Sacramento County that the Attorney General might want to shut down. It's that bad.

According to the News10 investigation http://www.news10.net/news/article/192033/2/Sacramento-elections-officials-GOP-voter-drive-suspicious, Sacramento-based Momentum Political Services was paid $49,000 by the Sacramento Republican Party to sign up voters. Apparently they were a wee bit too zealous. The report features a Democrat who was signed up as a Republican and the county clerk pouring through a file cabinet full of 3,100 "suspicious" voter registration forms. On some, there are different ink colors between the signature of the voter and the box checked for party affiliation. On others, it's clear the voter had no clue they were being signed up as a Republican.

Of course, the California Republican Party refuses to say how many Republicans the firm was paid to register. Nor will it say how much of the $49,000 the company was paid up front that it would lose. 

Since disclosure and transparency apparently isn't something the California Republican Party believes in, perhaps the Attorney General should get to the bottom of this.

It hasn't drawn too many headlines, but there were several signs this week that California's high speed rail project may quietly be overcoming much of the criticism that has been leveled against it by critics.

On Monday, Orange County Transportation Authority chief Will Kempton, who heads the Peer Review Group required to review the project's business plan, "sounded a positive note" about the project, according to the Sacramento Bee http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/04/california-bullet-train-plan-gets-positive-response.html. Kempton told the Assembly Transportation Committee that the revised business plan -- crafted by Governor Brown's train gurus Dan Richard and Mike Rossi -- answered much of the Peer Review Group's harsh criticism.

Rossi, a former Bank of America executive and Marine, also took great exception to criticisms about the project's costs. According to a report by California Watch http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/expert-warnings-rail-costs-flawed-wrong-numbers-official-says-16015
Rossi told the Assembly Transportation Committee that a study that said the project would be a money loser "forever" used the wrong data and was fundamentally flawed.
“The problem is, they picked up the wrong numbers,” Rossi told members of the Assembly Transportation Committee, according to California Watch. “The numbers they are showing for operating expenses are actually capital acquisition costs, so the data ... just isn’t right.”

Oops.

Also this week in Fresno, the High Speed Rail Authority's meeting drew a large crowd of supporters, notes the Fresno Bee, including Madera County Supervisor Max Rodriguez.  "A lot of people have stated, 'Don't change my lifestyle.' Well, the lifestyle has to change because we have a large number of people who are not making it. We talk about jobs, it's the most important thing we should think about," said Rodriguez http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/05/03/2331825/high-speed-rail-plans-draw-crowd.html

Amen.