TR’s State Newswire

Congress needs to clarify the FCC’s authority to enforce network neutrality requirements and the FCC needs to strengthen those requirements for wireless Internet access, or “millions of low-income Americans and communities of color” could be stuck in “online slow lanes” in a form of “Internet apartheid,” according to the Greenlining Institute.
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The Bay Citizen
By: Aaron Glantz

New America Media
by: Viji Sundaram

When the breadwinner of a Hmong family in Merced, Calif., lost his employer-sponsored health insurance coverage when he got laid off from his job last year, he didn’t think to find a public insurance program for his 5-year-old son.

So when his son got sick a few months later and had to be taken to hospital, the family had to turn to the boy’s grandparents to pick up the treatment costs.
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Bay View News Service

Spanish and Chinese speakers will now be able to get their PG&E bills in those respective languages now.

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Sacramento Business Journal
by: Melanie Turner

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. will for the first time make bills available in Spanish or Chinese for customers who request them under a settlement approved by the California Public Utilities Commission.

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CBS San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – Pacific Gas and Electric will soon start sending out bills printed in Spanish or Chinese to customers who request it as part of a settlement reached with several consumer advocacy groups.

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Contra Costa Times
By Mike Taugher

PG&E customers who speak limited English will be able to get their bills in Spanish or Chinese after regulators on Thursday approved an agreement that apparently marks the first time in the nation an energy utility has agreed to provide bills in foreign languages.

State regulators approved those and other revisions, which PG&E customers should see in 2013.

The changes, which will cost about $19 million, also include large format bills for the vision-impaired and charts that will make it easier for customers to see how much they are paying for each “tier” of energy they use. Regulators hope that encourages customers to use less.

In general the bill will use less technical language and more plain English, said PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian.

“In the future, we’re going to organize the information so it’s clearer to a broader group of customers,” she said.

But the most novel revision might be the option for PG&E customers to request their bills in a language other than English. Several observers said they knew of no other place in the country where that is an option.

“Some people really have a hard time understanding their bill, and if you’re barred because of a simple language barrier, it’s even harder,” said Stephanie Chen, senior legal counsel at the Greenlining Institute, a Berkeley organization that advocates for racial and economic justice.

“As far as I know, they are the first in the nation,” Chen said.

A spokeswoman for the California Public Utilities Commission, which approved the changes Thursday, said the commission is unaware of anywhere else in the country where utility bills can be received in foreign languages, as did a spokesman for a national organization of utility commissions.

Insure.com
By Susan Ladika, Insure.com

If your health insurance company spends too much money on costs like executive salaries and marketing, it may wind up paying you.

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Los Angeles Times
by: Steve Lopez

The California Assembly is making another attempt to require disclosure of donations to political campaigns, and it deserves support.

You and I have been here before, with me recommending something you don’t want to hear about, even though it’ll be good for you.

No, I didn’t get another colonoscopy. I’m talking about those three dreaded words:

Campaign finance reform.

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San Francisco Chronicle
by: John Wildermuth

More than 80 percent of the residential mortgage loans that have gone into foreclosure in San Francisco contain one or more clear violations of the law, Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting said Wednesday.

While the errors, many of them technical paperwork violations, don’t necessarily indicate criminal conduct by lenders and others in the mortgage industry, they do show that changes must be made in California’s century-old real estate regulations, he added.

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