A long-developing criminal case against two top former officials of CalPERS reached a critical mass with the release of indictments by a federal grand jury.
From the LAT's Marc Lifsher: "Three years after a major influence-peddling scandal rocked California and the nation's largest public pension fund, a federal grand jury indicted two former top officials on fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges."
"The indictment, unsealed Monday in San Francisco, names as defendants Federico Buenrostro Jr. of Sacramento, a former chief executive of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, and Alfred J.R. Villalobos of Reno, Nev., a former CalPERS board member and one-time deputy Los Angeles mayor."
"The charges are the culmination of a far-reaching investigation into the way the agency invested its money and how the former insider, Villalobos, collected tens of millions of dollars from Wall Street firms for steering CalPERS business their way."
The CalPERS indictments, a long time coming, represent the most signifcant scandal ever to hit the huge public pension fund.
From the Bee's Dale Kasler: 'It was the biggest scandal in CalPERS' history, with allegations of top officials trading pension fund investments for junkets, jobs and other favors."
"What made it a criminal case, prosecutors say, was a handful of phony letters..."
"It's certainly been a long time coming," saidCalPERS board President Rob Feckner, who oversaw a series of reforms instituted in the wake of the scandal. "A lot of people were wondering if this was really going to happen."
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer wants to know if laws were broken in cases where school officials hired banks and political consultants to push bond issues needing voter approval. He asked the state attorney general to investigate.
From the OC Register's Melody Peterson: "Lockyer did not name the schools or banks involved in these deals. But some of the examples he describes in a letter to Attorney General Kamala Harris are the same as the Register found in place at Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified in a recent investigation..."
"Placentia-Yorba Linda hired a bank named George K. Baum & Co. before a bond election in 2008. Voters agreed in the election that the district could issue $200 million in bonds to continue an ambitious building spree. School officials denied they had hired the bank for political work on the bond campaign, but public documents and interviews showed that the firm's strategists were extensively involved in getting the measure passed."
"Under state law, it is illegal for school officials to use public money to hire political consultants to pass bond measures. But school districts across California continue to have political strategists who are being paid by their banks or outside financial advisors manage their bond election campaigns."
A porn studio has been hit with a formal complaint for filming performers who don't use condoms -- a violation of a new law.
From the LA Daily News' Mariecar Mendoza: "In what could be the first test of the new Los Angeles County law requiring the use of condoms in adult film shoots, an AIDS advocacy group has filed a complaint against a Los Angeles porn company for allegedly filming actors having unprotected sex."
"The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which was the driving force behind last year's Measure B, claims it received an anonymous letter alleging that Immoral Productions was producing adult content in which actors were performing in various types of sex acts without the use of condoms."
"Business activities occurring at Immoral Productions pose a substantial risk of bodily harm and life long disability," wrote Mark Roy McGrath, an analyst with AHF, in his complaint letter to the county health department."
It isn't easy tracking the elusive bluefin tuna, but the Japanese nuclear disaster at Fukushima may offer some help.
From the Mercury News' Ryder Diaz: "Scientists report in a new study that they can use trace amounts of radiation in bluefin tuna to sketch the crisscrossing passage of the fish through the world's largest ocean. Understanding how many fish move back and forth may help with the conservation of bluefin tuna."
"During the Fukushima nuclear disaster, two years ago, radioactive particles flooded into the Pacific Ocean. Bluefin tuna swimming through these waters began to store certain radioisotopes, called cesium 134 and cesium 137, in their muscle tissue."
"The low levels of these particles don't pose a health danger to either the fish or sushi eaters, said Daniel Madigan, a Stanford University graduate student and an author on the study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. But scientists can track the chemical mark of Fukushima to recreate a timeline of when bluefin tuna traveled from their spawning grounds, in waters around Japan, to the coast of North America."
