Yet another round in the abuse of campaign cash, this time in the case of former state Sen. Dean Florez, who was hit with a $60,000 fine for using campaign money for personal use. According to the FPPC, the level of the fine is a record.
From the LAT's Patrick McGreevy: "Former California Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez faces record fines for campaign violations that include using $26,541 in political funds for his personal benefit to buy furniture, concert tickets, fireworks, satellite radio, travel, expensive dinners and gasoline."
"Florez, a Democrat who represented a San Joaquin Valley district until 2010, has agreed to pay $60,000 in fines, according to documents released Monday by the state Fair Political Practices Commission."
"The ethics agency found that Florez made 168 personal purchases from campaign committees he set up for an abandoned 2010 run for lieutenant governor and a 2014 candidacy for state controller."
Oil industry interests and their allies were the top lobbying spenders during the third quarter this year, although a key bill they opposed was signed any way.
From the Bee's Laurel Rosenhall: "As negotiations heated up at the end of the legislative session over a bill to regulate hydraulic fracturing in California, oil companies poured millions into lobbying the Legislature, quarterly reports released last week show."
"The three interest groups that spent the most money lobbying in California between July 1 and Sept. 30 were oil and gas companies: Chevron($1,696,477), the Western States Petroleum Association ($1,269,478) and Aera Energy LLC ($1,015,534), according to filings with the secretary of state."
"Nearly $13,000 of the Western States Petroleum Association's spending went toward hosting a dinner for 12 lawmakers and two staff members at one of Sacramento's poshest venues: The Kitchen, known for its interactive dining experience where guests sit in the kitchen as cooks share details of the five-course meal. Moderate Democrats seemed to be the target audience for the treat: Assembly members Adam Gray, Henry Perea and Cheryl Brown attended, as did Sens. Norma Torres, Ron Calderon and Lou Correa."
Evictions are up dramatically in San Francisco, as housing values surge and property owners hope to get the biggest bang for their buck.
From the Chronicle's Marisa Lagos: "The popular assumption that rising rents are squeezing longtime residents out of San Francisco appears to be true: A new city report finds that evictions, particularly those related to taking units off the rental market, have skyrocketed in recent years."
"The report by the city's budget and legislative analyst was requested by Supervisor David Campos and shows that Ellis Act evictions, often used when a landlord wants to eject tenants in order to sell the units, jumped by 170 percent from the year ending February 2010 to the year ending February 2013. During the same period, there was a 38 percent increase in all evictions, while home prices in San Francisco rose by 22 percent over the three-year period."
"In all, there were 1,716 evictions between March 2012 and February 2013; 116 of them were Ellis Act evictions."
Obamacare goes Hollywood? The California Endowment, a nonprofit that provides funding for an array of health-related efforts, wants producers and writers to know about the Affordable Care Act.
From the AP's Michael Blood: "The California Endowment, a nonprofit foundation spending millions to promote President Barack Obama’s signature law, recently provided a $500,000 grant to ensure TV writers and producers have information about the Affordable Care Act that can be stitched into plot lines watched by millions."
"The aim is to produce compelling prime-time narratives that encourage Americans to enroll — especially the young and healthy, Hispanics and other key demographic groups needed to make the overhaul a success."
“We know from research that when people watch entertainment television, even if they know it’s fiction, they tend to believe that the factual stuff is actually factual,” said Martin Kaplan of USC’s Norman Lear Center, which received the grant."
Speaking of health, the battle to implement the Affordable Care Act is revving up a campaign-style ground game of major proportions. There's a lot more going on than glitchy web sites.
From Tracy Seipel in the Mercury-News: "Although media attention on the implementation of the health law has focused primarily on buggy websites that debuted on Oct. 1, a large part of the effort to enroll tens of millions of uninsured people is on display on neighborhood stoops and at health fairs, town hall meetings and cultural centers."
"The stakes are enormous because the success of the new health care law, officially the Affordable Care Act, depends greatly on its success in the nation's most populous state.
Covered California, the state's new health insurance exchange, has launched an $80 million, multilingual marketing campaign to push, pull and prod the state's 5.8 million uninsured legal residents to sign up for insurance no later than March 31, or pay a minimum $95 fine."
"The campaign includes not only television, radio, Internet and print ads to tout the new program. Covered California has also handed out $40 million to 50 nonprofit groups, unions, churches and hospitals."