Posts Tagged: shopping

Opinion

Greater broadband access is critical to closing the digital divide

Illustration of a highspeed connections at a data center: >i>(Image: Anucha Cheechang, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: During the past year, as the pandemic inflicted incalculable heartbreak and loss, internet connectivity helped Californians get through the worst public health crisis in over 100 years. But while reliable, high-speed internet access became a lifeline to so many of us during the pandemic, this lifeline was not equally available to all of us.

News

Michael Peevey’s tale of turmoil

Michael Peevey at a December meeting of the state Public Utilities Commission. (Photo: Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)

It’s almost impossible these days to see the name Michael Peevey without the word “embattled” attached to it. Peevey stepped down last December after serving two six-year terms on the California Public Utilities Commission, almost all of them as PUC president. He has been subjected to withering public criticism up and down the state for fostering a too-cozy relationship between the PUC and the utility firms he was charged with regulating, most recently Pacific Gas & Electric. “Don’t shoot, I surrender,” Peevey wryly told the commission at its December meeting, a comment that drew laughs.

News

A ghost of Prop. 46 eyed in the Capitol

A jumble of prescription drugs. (Photo illustration via Shutterstock)

California voters, confronted by a multimillion-dollar advertising blitz, overwhelmingly rejected Proposition 46, which would have raised the cap on pain-and-suffering damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. But new legislation in the Capitol targets a slice of Proposition 46 dealing with the state’s prescription drug database. And rival forces that clashed over Proposition 46 are poised to do battle again.

Opinion

Prop. 46 foes finance misleading campaign

OPINION: Health care industry-funded ads sounding the Prop 46 privacy alarm flunk the straight face test. The ads allege Prop 46 sets up a secret medical record database that will be vulnerable to hacking. Not only is this absolutely false, it’s galling when you consider that the hospitals and insurance companies funding the ads have exposed millions of their own patient records through their negligence.

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