Liza Tucker is a consumer advocate for Consumer Watchdog, following everything from oil and gas to the regulation of toxic substances in the state of California. She comes to us from Marketplace, the largest U.S. broadcast show on business and economics heard by ten million listeners each week on 400 radio stations. Liza worked at this public radio show for a decade, first as Commentary Editor and then as Senior Editor for both Washington and Sustainability News. At Marketplace, Liza produced and edited several special feature series from who funds Washington think tanks to the BP oil spill. Liza has worked as a journalist, consultant, teacher, and translator.
Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Liza spent a few years in Bologna, Italy. She covered business at The Washington Post and later free-lanced her way through the Soviet Union, covering its collapse for Time, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal. Liza is fluent in Russian and speaks Italian. She taught journalism at Allegheny College. She also served as a consultant to the MacArthur Foundation awarding individual grants in the areas of independent media, women’s rights, and legal reform, and to US AID on how to support independent media in Ukraine. She translated Alexandra’s letters to Nicholas for The Fall of the Romanovs, published by Yale University Press. She traveled through Europe in 2009 as a German Marshall Fund Fellow studying German, French, Danish, and British approaches to sustainability. She holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and an M.F.A. in poetry from Columbia University’s School of the Arts.
Consumer Watchdog Campaign: Insurance Companies Spend More Than $100 Million Against Prop 45 and 46 Consumer Protections; Public Warned Of Deceptive Mailers and Advertising
Santa Monica, CA – Consumer Watchdog today warned voters that insurance companies had spent more than $100 million on deceptive advertising opposing pro-consumer Propositions 45 and 46.
Yes On 45: La Opinion Adds Endorsement Of Prop 45 To Long List Of Small Newspapers Standing Up For The Little Guy
SANTA MONICA—Spanish language newspaper La Opinion endorsed Prop 45 over the weekend joining more than a dozen other newspapers supporting Yes on 45 on behalf of six million individuals and small businesses that health insurance companies are price gouging on premiums.
YES on 45: HealthNet Contributes $5 Million to Deceptive and Misleading No on 45 Campaign Using Actor as Phony Hardware Store Owner in TV...
SANTA MONICA, CA – Health Insurer HealthNet has chipped in nearly $5 million to defeat Prop 45 in a sign that the health insurance industry fears rate regulation that a yes vote on the proposition would bring, Consumer Watchdog said today. The insurance pot against Prop 45 now totals $43 million to pay for misleading and deceptive TV ads, radio spots, and “independent” opinion pieces.
Advocates Call on Governor Brown to Side with Communities on Key Legislation Reforming Hazardous Waste Permitting
SANTA MONICA, CA –Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice today asked Governor Jerry Brown and California EPA Secretary Matt Rodriquez to reject an attack by the state’s top toxics regulator—the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)—on key reform legislation authored by Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles).
Consumer Watchdog Calls on Governor Brown to Fix Top Toxics Regulator in Wake of Scathing State Audit
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today said that the state audit uncovering $194 million that the Department Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) failed to bill or collect from polluters could be the tip of the iceberg, and called on Governor Brown to appoint a new director committed to protecting Californians from toxic—and fiscal—harm.
Top Toxics Regulator Resigns in Sign of Possible Reform
SANTA MONICA, CA –Today’s resignation of Debbie Raphael, Director of the Department of Toxic Substances Control, is a hopeful sign that the Brown Administration will finally clean up a deeply troubled department, Consumer Watchdog said today.
“We hope that this is just the start of a thorough housecleaning at the DTSC by Governor Brown,” said advocate Liza Tucker.
Toxics Regulators Doctor Results of Investigation To Avoid Admitting Wildomar Residents Poisoned
Santa Monica, CA— A new report released today by leading environmental advocate Penny Newman and residents of the poisoned Wildomar community shows that state toxics regulators doctored data in a preliminary investigation of the Autumnwood housing complex to avoid pinpointing what has poisoned the Riverside County residents and skip any cleanup, Consumer Watchdog said today.
Toxics Regulators Reject Proven Technology to Link Exide Battery Recycler to Lead Contamination at 39 Homes
Santa Monica, CA—Regulators at the Department of Toxic Substances Control folded under industry pressure and ignored proven particulate sampling technology that could have shown Exide Technologies is the source of lead and arsenic contamination in East LA communities, Consumer Watchdog said today. Without proof of the connection, the DTSC cannot fine Exide or force it to clean up.
Concern Mounts That NASA Is On Verge Of Breaking Out Of Santa Susana Field Lab Cleanup Agreement
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog and four other environmental groups today said that NASA could be about to break the commitments it made in a 2010 agreement to clean up all the detectible contamination at its former Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL) rocket testing site in the Simi Hills.
Consumer Watchdog Calls on Governor to Spearhead Toxic Cleanups After Regulators Reveal Exide Contamination
SANTA MONICA, CA — Consumer Watchdog today called on Governor Brown to direct the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to order Exide Technologies, a lead battery recycler in Vernon, to clean up its lead contamination of soil at 39 homes and a pre-school in the area.
California Governor Jerry Brown Intervenes in Case of Exide Technologies
SANTA MONICA, CA--Governor Jerry Brown today intervened in the case of Vernon lead battery recycler Exide Technologies that has threatened public health with hazardous emissions of lead. The governor discussed the case with regulators at the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), which revealed that testing of soil at 39 area homes showed unacceptably high levels of lead.
Department of Public Health Radiological Branch Launches Investigation as Toxics Regulators Allow Large Quantities of Possibly Contaminated Soil to Leave Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard
Santa Monica, CA—Consumer Watchdog has confirmed that the Department of Public Health’s Radiological Health Branch is investigating allegations that large amounts of soil dug up in a potentially radioactively contaminated parcel at Hunters Point may not have been checked for radiation before shipping to facilities not licensed to take low level radioactive waste.
Consumer Watchdog Requests Radiological Inspection at Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard As Possibly Contaminated Soil Heads to Landfills Unlicensed for Radioactive Waste
Santa Monica, CA—Consumer Watchdog has called for a state investigation of the cleanup of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco for large amounts of soil that may have been dug up in a radioactively impacted parcel without being checked for contamination and then sent off site for possible disposal in landfills unlicensed to take low-level radioactive waste.
Consumer Groups Win Preliminary Injunction Against Toxics Regulator Over Illegal Disposal of Boeing Radioactive Debris
SANTA MONICA, CA –The Sacramento Superior Court granted a motion for preliminary injunction against the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) pending final outcome of a lawsuit filed by Consumer Watchdog counsel and Strumwasser & Woocher on behalf of Consumer Watchdog and three other groups over the illegal demolition and disposal of radioactive debris from Boeing's Santa Susana nuclear reactor an
The Cartel Of Contamination: Regulators Just Won’t Shut Down Exide
The Resurrection Church in Boyle Heights was a fitting venue last night for a town hall meeting about resurrecting justice. Senators Kevin De Leon of Los Angeles, Ricardo Lara of Bell Gardens, and Assembly Speaker John Perez were the heroes grilling a panel of environmental regulators that included the state’s top toxics regulator Debbie Raphael, and a top air regulator, Barry Wallerstein, Executive O
Fair Political Practices Commission Should Postpone Settlement Agreement with California Strategies and Winston Hickox for Undisclosed Lobbying Until Boeing is Added
SANTA MONICA, CA –Consumer Watchdog today asked the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) to postpone a proposed settlement agreement between staff attorneys and three well-connected partners in the public affairs company California Strategies until one of the partners, Winston Hickox, fully discloses his lobbying activities on behalf of Boeing in its efforts to get out of its cleanup obligations at a S
Will Regulators Get Extra Power To Leave Hazardous and Radioactive Waste In Place On Last Day Of Session?
SANTA MONICA, CA—In the fine print of “environmental justice” legislation, AB 1330 (Speaker John Perez) is a huge to gift to polluters that allows the state’s toxics regulator to make a plan for “reducing the disposal of hazardous waste that may post a significant threat to human health or the environment to the maximum extent practicable.”
Take Action Now — Stop Sacramento’s 11th Hour Assault on Environmental Protection
We need your help! In the last week of the legislative session, polluters may be getting a big gift if last minute legislation is not amended.
Eleventh Hour Bill Helps Keep Toxic Waste “In Place†In Your Backyard
SANTA MONICA, CA – Californians can look forward to hazardous waste being “left in place” instead of removed and sent to specially constructed and licensed facilities if lawmakers vote through a gut-and-amended Assembly Bill 1330 without new amendments this week, said Consumer Watchdog.
Consumer Watchdog Files Preliminary Injunction Motion To Stop Illegal State Approval of Boeing Radioactive Waste Demolition and Disposal
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog and Strumwasser & Woocher have filed a motion in Sacramento Superior Court for a preliminary injunction freezing all of Boeing’s demolition of structures and disposal of radioactive waste at the Santa Susana Field Lab in Simi Valley—including a plutonium fuel fabrication building.
California Superior Court Lifts Top Toxic Regulator’s Suspension of Exide Technologies in Move Endangering Californians
SANTA MONICA, CA –Exide Technologies has won a temporary reprieve that prevents the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) from enforcing its shutdown of the company’s Vernon plant. That means the lead battery recycler can restart its operations, threatening Californians with renewed pollution of their air and water, Consumer Watchdog said today.
Exide Technologies Files for Bankruptcy and Threatens Californians with Bill for Cleanup that Top Toxics Regulator Botched
SANTA MONICA, CA – Now that lead battery recycler Exide Technologies has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has potentially stuck California taxpayers with the tab for multi-millions in cleanup costs in the city of Vernon, Consumer Watchdog said today. The DTSC suspended operations at the plant on April 24 because of imminent danger to the public health.
Consumer Watchdog Requests Financial Audit After Toxics Regulator Reveals $185 Million in Uncollected Cleanup Bills
SANTA MONICA, CA –Consumer Watchdog called for the California State Auditor to perform a comprehensive financial audit of the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) today after, as acknowledged in the Sacramento Bee, the state’s top toxics regulator admitted it had never billed or failed to collect $185 million in reimbursements of public funds from polluters for overseeing cleanup of their toxic messes.
New Documents Reveal Top Toxics Regulator Knew of Exide Safety Risks for Years
SANTA MONICA, CA – New documents reveal that, contrary to its public statements, the state’s top toxics regulator knew about lead and arsenic emissions at Exide Technologies for years but looked the other way, Consumer Watchdog said today.