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Nearly half of the state's community colleges and a handful of other higher education institutions now disburse student financial aid on debit cards through contracts with Higher One, a financial firm that has garnered increasing scrutiny for charging multiple fees, aggressive marketing tactics and privacy concerns.

...leaders from Common Cause California and League of Women Voters said that Proposition 32, dubbed "Stop Special Interest Money Now," is an age-old assault on union power dressed up as campaign finance reform.

Only about 12 percent of secondary students attend a private, for-profit school, but they represent nearly half of all student loan defaults. When they default on their federal student loan payments, taxpayers get stuck with the bill.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones says the health insurer's proposal violated state rules designed to protect consumers from large rate increases.

Nearly two years after the pipeline explosion that killed eight people and devastated a neighborhood in San Bruno, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. considers 239 of its natural-gas transmission lines to be at risk of a similar failure, according to a company assessment obtained by The Chronicle.

Fewer people were victims of identity theft last year than in 2010, but each person lost substantially more money, according to a new report by the California Public Interest Research Group.

One of the agencies that accredits San Francisco's California Culinary Academy is questioning the veracity of the college's reported job placement rates - ordering the school's parent company to provide audited placement data by September in order to maintain its accreditation status.

As the nation awaits the historic Supreme Court ruling on the Obama administration’s health care law, a new report released Wednesday says California leads the nation in the number of premature deaths caused primarily by lack of health insurance.

For years, the chemical industry has fought to stop statewide bans on certain toxic chemicals, arguing that such decisions are best left to federal authorities, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The banking industry is fighting a federal agency's proposal to put complaints that consumers make about their credit cards online for everyone to see.

When Blue Shield of California raised the rates for Robert Jeffrey Martin's family insurance policy by 23 percent, the health insurer offered him two options: Stay in his expensive old plan or switch to a policy that offered his family skimpier benefits with a higher deductible.

School accuses David Heimbach of violations after Tribune series debunking his claims.

Prepayment programs allow companies to sidestep critical consumer protections that have evolved over decades, according to the report by the National Consumer Law Center.

Even if Proposition 29 fails, the Legislature should seize the opportunity to raise desperately needed revenue and save crucial programs.

When services go out, whether a landline, cell phone or TV service, what do companies owe customers? Richard Holober of the Consumer Federation of California said people deserve to get a refund and should demand their bills be reduced.

State regulators intend to mete out swifter penalties and tighten oversight of dozens of private vocational schools that have been operating without state approval, in some cases for months.

After years of failed attempts to regulate flame-retardant chemicals linked to mounting evidence of harm, state legislators and consumer advocates are gearing up to take another look at the risks and benefits.

Philip Morris has given $31.3 million of the $44 million raised by the tobacco industry to defeat Proposition 29...At least 20 of the 40 sitting state senators, including 14 Republicans and six Democrats, have taken tobacco donations over the years. In the Assembly, 36 of 80 members, including 25 Republicans and 11 Democrats, have accepted tobacco money.

Health insurers are increasingly shifting more prescriptions for complex conditions to a new category requiring customers to shoulder a larger share of the medication's cost.

To make universal coverage work at the state level, you'd need to channel federal healthcare funds into the system. A bill being drafted by Rep. Jim McDermott would allow that to happen.

If you work for IBM, you can bring your iPhone to work, but forget about using the phone's voice-activated digital assistant. Siri isn't welcome on Big Blue's networks. The reason? Siri ships everything you say to her to a big data center in Maiden, North Carolina.

Peninsula Assemblyman Jerry Hill...has advanced AB 1861, which would prohibit the utility from charging bonuses to ratepayers and allow bonuses to be taken back from bosses of utilities later fined by regulators.

California has more diploma mills than any other state in the nation, but it is not doing enough to protect students from the unaccredited colleges and vocational schools that issue worthless degrees, state lawmakers said at hearing yesterday.

Anyone who has ever fought with a lender over a lost or misapplied house payment should be heartened by the latest news from the new federal mortgage industry watchdog.

Reports cast doubt on Google's assurances that it did not realize its street-mapping cars were snatching personal data from home Wi-Fi networks and that one lone engineer was to blame.

The flaws in PG&E's high-pressure gas lines that led to the catastrophic explosion in San Bruno in 2010 may lurk elsewhere, and regulators should therefore launch a comprehensive review of the company's pipeline maintenance, consumer advocates argued in regulatory filings Tuesday.

A bill to create a federally funded Basic Health Plan for about 720,000 low-income residents would go for naught if the Supreme Court tosses out the law.

The state Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved a pair of fines Thursday totaling nearly $20 million against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for failing to check for gas-line leaks in seven East Bay communities and for missing a deadline to turn over pipeline safety records.

Both types of fracking also inject chemicals with the water, raising concerns about the possible contamination of drinking water sources. The state already has identified many hotspots where groundwater has been tainted with agricultural chemicals, such as nitrates.

Legislation carried by Sen. Juan Vargas that seeks to alter a complex law governing vehicle history reports stalled in a Senate committee Tuesday after more than half of the members did not vote.

California's Department of Consumer Affairs says it's looking at changing controversial fire retardant rules. State Sen. Mark Leno has been trying for years to undo the regulation.

Car-title loans have triple-digit interest rates. In California, there is essentially no limit to the amount of interest a car-title lender can charge, though 1-800LoanMart stipulates that 180% APR is the maximum for their loans.

The cash crunch is the latest fallout from Proposition 26, which was bankrolled in 2010 by oil, tobacco and alcohol companies and the California Chamber of Commerce.

...a document signed by more than 200 scientists from 30 countries disputes that flame retardants have been proven effective. "Brominated and chlorinated flame retardants can increase fire toxicity, but their overall benefit in improving fire safety has not been proven."

The American Civil Liberties Union released a troubling report this past weekend demonstrating that law enforcement agencies around the nation routinely track personal cell phones, often without warrants. Conspicuously absent from the survey was information about the tactics of Northern California police departments.

Shahan is the founder and president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS), a driver of some of the most important advances in auto-related safety and financial protection regulation.

A state Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge has rejected Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s appeal of a $16.8 million fine for failing to check gas pipes for leaks in seven Contra Costa County communities, saying the danger the company created justified the penalty.

In California today, nearly 90 percent of health insurance policies sold on the individual market do not cover prenatal care or labor and delivery costs. That will change on July 1, when a new statewide maternity-care mandate kicks in, and nationwide in 2014, when the federal Affordable Care Act goes into full force.

A state lawmaker representing Silicon Valley wants to rein in a cutting-edge law enforcement technology that enables police to stockpile digital personal information on motorists and build a portrait of their whereabouts.

More than a year after the San Bruno tragedy, PG&E still doesn't have its house in order, the consultants said: "PG&E's current integrity management program itself presents a safety risk to PG&E's field and station employees and the public."

Eureka! The California legislature will this spring consider a bill to modernize the 12-second rule, the state's obscure furniture flammability standard that fails to protect us from fires even while it poisons homes across North America.

A billionaire insurance executive is spending $8 million on a November ballot measure to undermine a key consumer protection that has saved California drivers more than $62 billion since 1988.

California's doctors, hospitals and insurance companies launched their campaign Monday against a proposed ballot measure seeking tighter regulation of health insurance rates and proponents quickly returned fire.

The tax reform association notes that under the law, businesses can change hands but avoid paying higher property taxes by keeping property in trusts, partnerships and limited liability corporations to hold the land.

A California lawmaker is calling for the state's private vocational schools to be more transparent about their accreditation status and the quality of the degrees they offer.

But with every passing day, the shortcomings of this deal appear to proliferate. That is, as far as we know, because the specific terms of the settlement are still not public, nearly one month after it was unveiled in Washington with the sort of fanfare formerly associated with the splashdown of a space capsule.

The Department of Defense spent $65 million last year on its tuition benefit program for military spouses. About 40 percent of that amount -- $25.3 million -- was used at for-profit colleges that operate outside the regulatory reach of the U.S. Department of Education and do not qualify for other federal financial aid programs.

According to the CFPB, student loans have surged past credit cards as the leading source of unsecured household debt. Millions of students turn to private loans to pay for college to cover the costs that scholarships and federal student loans don't.

Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris says the proposed California Homeowner Bill of Rights would help homeowners facing foreclosure and fix serious flaws in the system.

Pacific Gas & Electric continued to insist Tuesday that ratepayers pick up the bulk of the tab for upgrading its aging gas pipelines, though it did make a small concession by agreeing to pay for tests on some of its pipelines.

Newquist's departure comes after The Bay Citizen revealed that the bureau had not fulfilled many of its fundamental oversight responsibilities, including aggressively investigating complaints, monitoring the quality of educational programs and rooting out unlicensed schools and diploma mills.

...tests by the furniture industry and then vetted by the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission show California's present regulation does not prevent small flames from igniting furniture.

State regulators and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. have revived a $3 million settlement over the utility's failure to produce gas-pipeline safety records after the San Bruno disaster - a fine that critics of the company denounced as too lenient.

Rosemary Shahan, president of the consumer group, says, "It's unprecedented for a major rental car company to actively support a new federal law that would require the industry to ground unsafe, recalled cars until they're fixed."

Google and several other advertising companies are bypassing the privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser, according to a report from a Stanford University researcher that set off a heated debate on Friday.

...for-profit colleges have the highest share of students who default on their student loans. The sector enrolls 1 in 10 college students in California, but receives more Cal Grant dollars from the state than all the community colleges combined.

An audit of hundreds of foreclosures in San Francisco uncovered "one or more irregularities" in 99 percent of the loans, according to a study released Wednesday by the city's assessor-recorder, Phil Ting.

Thousands of Californians have lost their homes during the housing crisis, wreaking havoc on families, as well as state and local government property tax revenue. But there is an inexpensive solution, according to a report released last week by the National Consumer Law Center.

Better Disclosures: With this rule, remittance transfer providers must generally disclose the exchange rate, any fees related to the remittance, the amount of money that will be delivered abroad, and the date the money will be available.

Kamala D. Harris, the attorney general of California, could have derailed a nationwide settlement with big banks over home foreclosure abuses when she walked out of talks last September.

...digital rights activists might now be turning their attention to a lesser-noticed bill aimed at requiring Internet companies to store identifying information about their customers.

A foreclosure settlement between five major banks guilty of "robo-signing" and the attorneys general of the 50 states is pending for Monday, February 6th; but it is still not clear if all the AGs will sign. California was to get over half of the $25 billion in settlement money, and California AG Kamala Harris has withstood pressure to settle.

A high-stakes ballot measure to give state regulators the power to approve health insurance rates in California has landed a heavyweight supporter: U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Natural-gas users shouldn't be stuck with higher rates to fund Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s $2.2 billion plan to upgrade pipelines in the aftermath of the deadly explosion in San Bruno, the state agency that advocates for utility customers said Wednesday.

Leno's legislation would replace private insurance companies with a newly created California Healthcare Agency. The new state agency would manage the $200 billion supporters say is already spent on healthcare by employers, individuals and the state each year.

Google's plan to integrate all the data it collects as it tracks users across email, video and nearly all its other services will undoubtedly be good for its bottom line. But it ought to give great pause to consumers – and should be a wake-up call for Washington to get more serious about protecting our privacy online.

Peevey's lax leadership and his cozy relationship with PG&E are thoroughly documented. He should have resigned as president this past summer after the National Transportation Safety Board exposed the extent of his incompetence.

Illinois-based Career Education - which owns several campuses in California, including the Brooks Institute, California Culinary Academy and chain of Le Cordon Bleu schools - submitted data in late 2011 showing that at least 36 of 49 health and art-and-design colleges had not met the minimum 65 percent job placement rate required by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools.

"You have a corporation and a chairman who have been found to ignore California law on several occasions, and now they're asking voters to say yes to a slickly advertised initiative campaign," Heller said.

Many analysts consider California's participation to be key to a strong deal. Harris walked away from talks with the banks last year, saying not enough was being offered by the financial institutions for California homeowners.

...Senate Bill 981 would prevent commissioners and high-ranking commission employees from taking a job with a regulated utility for two years after leaving the agency.

Most flame retardants, at least the halogenated compounds used in mass-produced foam furnishings, are toxic chemicals: they harm living things, including people. The Environmental Protection Agency has listed various flame retardants as likely carcinogens.

Under acting Director Edward DeMarco, the agency has "ignored" California's foreclosure crisis, "completely sabotaged" a promising solar power program and is "hindering California's economic recovery," Brown complained, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The average U.S. adult pays at least $942 each year in hidden fees, according to research conducted by the Ponemon Institute in 2006. Six years later, it's unlikely that this number has gone down.

In 2010, a year in which medical costs increased by about 9 percent, the five largest health insurers in the United States saw their profits soar by 16 percent while raking in nearly $12 billion. All told, since 2002, employer health insurance premiums have climbed 152 percent.

Senate Bill 810, introduced by San Francisco Democrat Sen. Mark Leno, would establish a California Healthcare Agency to run a single-payer health care system that would pool employer and employee payments. It would administer the money and negotiate rates with doctors, hospitals and other medical providers.

California regulators...continued lack of real power has consumers gearing up for a new battle with the insurance industry over rate regulation.

Capitalizing on one of the fastest-growing trends in law enforcement, a private California-based company has compiled a database bulging with more than 550 million license-plate records on both innocent and criminal drivers that can be searched by police.

A class-action lawsuit filed in December 2011 against the UC Board of Regents in response to the theft of personal information of UCLA Health System patients in early September 2011 has failed to move forward, according to the plaintiff's attorney.

A state lawmaker who represents the San Bruno neighborhood devastated by a natural-gas explosion in 2010 introduced a package of bills Monday designed to prevent a repeat of the disaster, including one that would tie Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s rates to its safety performance.

Auto title loans are a last resort. Borrowers, some of them illegal immigrants, give the titles to their cars in exchange for loans for the value of their cars, less the potential cost of repossession and profit for a lender.

According to the survey, premiums for employer health insurance plans have risen 153.5% since 2002, a rate that's more than five times the increase in California's inflation rate.

Of all the personal information that you might want to keep private, your medical records are the most important. That's why federal and state laws carry stiff penalties, up to and including jail time, for healthcare providers who let such data loose into the wild.

Pesticide use in California rose in 2010 after declining for four consecutive years...The data released by the Department of Pesticide Regulation shows an increase of nearly 10 percent in pounds of pesticide used from 2009 to 2010.

Funding for CalWorks, the welfare-to-work program that is the state's main welfare service, was cut by $1 billion this year...while also reducing monthly checks by at least 8 percent.

In a sign the 2012 insurance wars have begun, a consumer group that routinely seeks to block rate increases has accused auto insurance giant Mercury General of illegally passing onto consumers the cost of its 2010 ballot measure campaign.

...the California Public Utilities Commission, must hold PG&E accountable for its failures. An obvious and minimum step would be making the utility pay its fair share to make the gas pipelines under our homes and streets safe.

Pacific Gas & Electric said Tuesday that it is legally responsible for the explosion of a gas pipe in San Bruno last year that killed eight people and has been the source of more than 100 lawsuits from victims.

Natural gas companies that use hydraulic fracturing disclose the risks, such as leaks, spills and explosions, to shareholders, but property owners aren't privy, according to a report by the Environmental Working Group.

From 2003 to 2010, the combined average amount that California families and their employers paid for health coverage shot up 52 percent, reaching $13,819 annually, according to a recently released study by the Commonwealth Fund.

California and Nevada, which suffer the highest foreclosure rates in the country, will team up to investigate mortgage abuses by the nation's largest banks.

Data breaches at U.S. health-care providers are increasing as hospitals adopt electronic medical records and mobile technology without spending enough on security to ensure patient privacy, a research group said.

State Sen. Leland Yee...said...that his first action when the Legislature reconvenes...will be to introduce a bill to repeal a law barring the public release of most records at the commission without a vote of its five appointed members.

The latest salvo came last week from the retailers, who have alleged that bankers are continuing to gouge them - despite the new limits - by exploiting a provision that allows them to add the costs of updating equipment to the fees they charge merchants.

The big question is, why would a private insurance company spend millions of dollars to save driver's money? Out of the goodness of their hearts? No. It's a great example of horrible government. Because they have money, Mercury is able to buy politicians, lawyers, and deceptive ads that make their mislabeled laws appear to benefit consumers.

Californians concerned about dangerous pipelines running underneath their neighborhoods are barred from obtaining government records about them by a 60-year-old state law backed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and other utilities, a Chronicle investigation shows.

Facing growing concerns over the health risks of flame retardants in household products, the chemical industry spent at least $23.2 million over the past five years to lobby California officials and donate to campaigns in a successful effort to defeat legislation.

Sutter Health is being sued for negligence and other allegations in the mid-October theft of a computer from Sutter Medical Foundation headquarters that held information on more than 4 million of its patients.

Lobbyists have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. The powerful interests that employ lobbyists spent nearly quarter of a billion dollars - $217 million from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30 - to persuade government to meet their clients' needs. The amount is a record.

...significant increases in health insurance premiums over the past seven years will provide fodder for a recently launched campaign in California to let voters decide whether the state should have the authority to reject health insurance rate increases.