Reports

Sea Change in Sacramento: How Electronic Ballot Signatures Empower Voters

September 25, 2020  ·  Carmen Balber

The report finds that high signature costs have put the initiative process out of reach for all but the wealthy. It concludes that electronic signatures...

LA Times Op-Ed Pages Don’t Reflect LA

July 1, 2020  ·  Carmen Balber

A Consumer Watchdog review of one year’s worth of the authors published on the op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times found that it failed...

The Price of Pickel: The LADWP’s Ratepayer Watchdog Comes With A $7 Billion Price Tag

March 13, 2018  ·  Liza Tucker

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest, most powerful municipal utility in the country. For its first 110 years, the...

Amazon Slime: Amazon’s New Consumer Deception

June 12, 2017  ·  John M. Simpson

Two Consumer Watchdog reports show that Amazon is deceiving its customers by putting fake crossed-out prices next to its products.  It’s a deceptive marketing ploy...

The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell: How to Win Grassroots Campaigns, Pass Ballot Box Laws, and Get the Change We Voted For

August 27, 2010  ·  Jamie Court

Change is no simple matter in American politics-a fact that Americans have recently learned well. Elections rarely produce the change they promise. After the vote,...

Out for the Count

May 3, 2004  ·  Carmen Balber

In 2002 and 2003, three of California’s largest newspapers, the Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times, carried articles and editorials raising concerns about the increasingly...

Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Personal Freedom… And What You Can Do About It

January 1, 2003  ·  Jamie Court

Enron. Tyco. Arthur Andersen. These companies have turned “corporate” into a four-letter word as headline after headline reveals shocking stories of executives stealing money from...

Consumer Imposters: The Big Business Deception Behind Props 200, 201, & 202

March 11, 1996  ·  Jamie Court

Who is really behind propositions 200, 201, and 202? Read the report here.