"The Schwarzenegger administration has
launched an investigation of Blue Cross of California for allegedly letting financial concerns improperly influence medical decisions and for canceling patients' coverage after claims have been filed," Capitol Weekly reports.
"The probe, which began two weeks ago, followed complaints from doctors who said the HMO had asked for patients' confidential patient information in order to drop them from the health plan.
"The political environment in the world of health care, particularly over the issue of policy cancellations, is becoming increasingly charged as HMO practices come under closer scrutiny. In Los Angeles, city attorney
Rocky Delgadillo has launched a criminal investigation into the rescission practices of HealthNet. Meanwhile, legislators including Senate Health Committee chairwoman
Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, and
Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, have criticized the department for not being aggressive enough in levying fines against HMOs.
"
Some of these issues and complaints are expected to be aired in the Senate Rules Committee Wednesday when Dale Bonner, the secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing, comes before the committee for confirmation. The Department of Managed Health Care is part of Bonner's agency. And while he is expected to be confirmed, he is likely to face some tough questioning from the panel's three Democrats."
"Senate Democrats
mapped out a 10-week budget strategy on Tuesday that will emphasize the impact of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed cuts to health care and education," reports Judy Lin in the Bee.
"Republicans immediately called it a "scare tactic."
"Senate Democrats also announced a slight change in the budget process they said is intended to get more senators to participate in finding solutions to the state's fiscal crisis. Rather than breaking off into subcommittees, the full Senate Budget Committee will hold weekly hearings leading up to the governor's next budget update in May.
"Republican leader
Dick Ackerman welcomed the change but dismissed the severity of the governor's proposed cuts, calling [
Don] Perata's statement a "scare tactic." Under Schwarzenegger's $101 billion general fund spending plan, he said the state would still spend nearly $25 billion more than it did five years ago.
"'There's plenty of money in the budget to take care of things the state needs to take care of,' Ackerman said."
Lin also
looks at the debate over the "yacht tax," which also affects planes and RVs. "Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers support a tax change that would make it more difficult for wealthy Californians to dodge the state sales and use tax, which is 7.75 percent in Sacramento County."
"The proposal calls for boosting from 90 days to one year the time a large private vehicle, vessel or aircraft would have to be kept out of state in order for residents to claim a tax exemption. The 12-month requirement had expired June 30, and the governor proposed making the tax change permanent.
"Schwarzenegger has argued that owners of luxury items shouldn't be able to avoid sales tax when ordinary Californians must pay taxes on everything from clothing to furniture. The money, he said, could be spent on education.
"'The governor has said the yacht tax is an unfair, special treatment of a very limited, small group of people for reasons that aren't clear why we're doing it,' said his finance director,
Michael Genest."
"Struck by citizens' response to last year's disasters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
took action Tuesday to make it easier for California to harness what he sees as the state's growing impulse to volunteer," reports Andy Furillo in the Bee.
"In signing an executive order creating a new Cabinet-level secretary's position over service and volunteering, Schwarzenegger said the idea is to encourage people to step up for the big stuff, such as the San Diego fires and the San Francisco Bay oil spill, or maybe just help neighbor kids do their homework.
"'
By elevating the state's volunteer profile, we will make it easier for people to go and get involved with this whole thing,' Schwarzenegger told a raucous crowd at California State University, Northridge."
"
God is disgusted with California legislators – at least some of them,
according to an evangelical chaplain who ruffled feathers this week in the same Capitol where he leads Bible studies for lawmakers," reports the Bee's Jim Sanders.
"
Ralph Drollinger, who played basketball at UCLA in the 1970s and now heads Capitol Ministries, criticized lawmakers who participate in a separate fellowship group that embraces people of all faiths without insisting that they accept Jesus Christ as Messiah.
"'
Although they are pleasant men in their personal demeanor, their group is more than disgusting to our Lord and Savior,' Drollinger wrote on the Capitol Ministries' Web site.
"Drollinger, who has conducted Capitol Bible sessions for more than a decade, receives no compensation from the state. He is paid $120,000 annually by the nonprofit Capitol Ministries for evangelizing to politicians nationwide, records show.
"Sen.
Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat who will serve as Senate president pro tem next year, called Drollinger's statements "intolerant," "troubling" and "deplorable."
"'
I think it's important that those of us who find those comments offensive speak loud and clear about it," Steinberg said."
"In the year since a former state legislator took the reins of the state's political watchdog agency,
prosecutions and fines for violations have dropped significantly while more cases have been resolved with only warning letters, agency statistics show," writes Patrick McGreevy in the Times.
"That has some good-government activists worried about the shift at the state Fair Political Practices Commission since former state Sen.
Ross Johnson became chairman. The agency is facing a proposed 10% budget cut.
"'
It's a concern that there are fewer penalties for cheating or breaking the rules,' said
Trent Lange, president of the California Clean Money Campaign. 'If people are just get warning letters, that is a slap on the wrist, and of course people won't pay attention to it.'"
"But Johnson, who was appointed to lead the commission last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the numbers reflected his philosophy of setting priorities, not a retreat from enforcement.
"'I have directed the enforcement staff that I want them concentrating on the bigger cases that have more significance in terms of public harm, and by definition those cases require more time and effort,' Johnson said. '
I have also instructed the staff on matters that represent more technical violations, more inadvertent violations, where it's appropriate in the exercise of their discretion, to close a matter with a warning letter to the individual involved,' he added."
"An Environmental Protection Agency official warned her boss, EPA chief
Stephen Johnson, that
if he denied California's bid to enforce its own tailpipe emissions rules, the agency's credibility "will be irreparably damaged," and Johnson would have to think about resigning," reports the Merc's Frank Davies.
"
Margot Oge, the head of the EPA's office of transportation and air quality, also told Johnson in an Oct. 17 memo that "there is no legal or technical justification for denying this," despite "alternative interpretations that have been suggested by the automakers."
"These internal warnings were included in EPA documents released Tuesday by Sen.
Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the Environment Committee and had requested the records.
And if you're looking for something to do after lunch today, College Republican supporters of the
Draft McClintock for Congress movement will gather on the north steps of the Capitol at 1:30," according to a press release from pro-McClintock forces. "They will present Senator Tom McClintock with letters gathered by College Republicans at the California Republican Party Convention. The messages are from Republican volunteers encouraging Sen. McClintock to run for Congress in District 4."
As if he needs any encouragement, really...
We're pretty sure that no matter how bad your worst press conference was, it was not as bad as yesterday's was for Richard Alarcon's Chihuahuas.
Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday
signed one of the nation's toughest laws on pet sterilization, requiring most dogs and cats to be spayed or neutered by the time they are 4 months old.
"The ordinance is aimed at reducing and eventually eliminating the thousands of euthanizations conducted in Los Angeles' animal shelters every year.
"We will, sooner rather than later, become a no-kill city and this is the greatest step in that direction," Councilman
Tony Cardenas said
as he held a kitten at a City Hall news conference.
"Councilman
Richard Alarcon, who like Cardenas is a co-author of the bill,
brought his two pet Chihuahuas to the event to be neutered in a van operated by the city."
Thus turning the dogs off to politics forever.
