Stem Cell Agency Supporters Back Changes
<p><strong>Proposed Changes To Oversight Panel For California's Stem Cell Agency Garner Backing</strong></p>
<p> </p>
Privacy
Consumer Watchdog investigations and advocacy on data privacy, surveillance, AI, and your right to control your personal information.
California Democrats Consider Giving Lawmakers More Say Over Initiatives
<p>The November election delivered California Democrats a coveted supermajority for governing the state.</p>
<p>Now the party's leader in the Senate wants to use that political capital to give the Legislature more say in the voter initiatives that make their way to the ballot.</p>
<p>Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg plans to unveil what he calls "a starting point ... to begin a very serious discussion about initiative reform" this month. Key to his proposal will be increasing lawmakers' involvement in the system.</p>
Group Calls For Physician Reforms
<p><b>Consumer Watchdog Responds to Prescribing Issues</b></p>
Break Out the Champagne at Chevron!
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; "><img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2473" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/chevron_refinery_fire.png" style="width: 300px; height: 200px; float: right; margin-right: 7px; margin-left: 7px;" width="641" height="428" />The <a href="http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/CalOSHA-Fines-Chevron-1M-Highest-in-History-189088471.html">news reports</a> were on the gee-whiz side this week as state job safety regulators announced nearly $1 million in fines--the largest ever!-- against Chevron for its refinery blaze last August. But "largest ever" o
California Restricts Hiring After Dual-Paycheck Revelations
<p><b>Gov. Jerry Brown's administration acts after learning that hundreds of employees were being paid for second state jobs in addition to their normal salaries.</b></p>
French Court Orders Twitter To Identify Racist Tweeters
<p>A French court has ordered Twitter to hand over any data that could help authorities there identify people who posted racist and anti-Semitic tweets on its website.</p>
<p>The case, decided January 24 in the 17th Chamber of the Paris Criminal Court, stems from a complaint filed in October by the Union of French Jewish Students. The group acted after an uptick in anti-Semitic remarks were posted to Twitter under the hashtag #agoodjew.</p>
Speedy Google Fiber Gives Quick Buzz To Kansas City
<p>KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Smack in the middle of the nation, this city is about as far as possible from the hubs of high-tech innovation on both coasts.</p>
<p>An effort last spring to excite new Web entrepreneurs in a place better known for cattle drives and barbecue sauce turned up just a dozen people.</p>
Facebook Spent $4 Million To Lobby U.S. Lawmakers In 2012
<p><strong>The social network is spending millions to advance a pro-Facebook agenda in the nation's capital. Cue the cynicism</strong></p>
<p>acebook wined and dined U.S. lawmakers and racked up a tab close to $4 million during 2012, an increase of 196 percent over its courting costs in the previous year.</p>
California Stem-Cell Institute Reacts To Expert Recommendations
<section>
<div class="wpn-entry-content content">
<p>California’s US$3-billion stem-cell agency plans to make a few changes in response to an assessment last month by the Institute of Medicine, an outside panel of scientific experts.</p>
<p>The governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) voted overwhelmingly to endorse a set of recommendations made by the chair of the board, Jonathan Thomas.</p>
Government Data Requests To Google Continue To Rise
<p><b>Requests of all kinds have increased by more than 70 percent since 2009, the company says</b></p>
<p>Governments continue to ask Google for more data about its users, with more than two-thirds of requests in the U.S. made through a subpoena, which usually doesn't require asking a judge for a search warrant.</p>
<p><strong>[ALSO:</strong> <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/011913-google-sees-one-password-ring-265979.html">Google sees one password ring to rule them all</a><strong>]</strong></p>
Google, Other Tech Firms Among Top Lobbying Spenders In US
<p><b>Google's spending on lobbying was up 70 percent in 2012, Facebook's up nearly 200 percent</b></p>
<p>Google, AT&T and Verizon Communications were among the top corporate spenders on lobbying the U.S. government in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to <a href="http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/ldsearch.aspx">information released this week</a> by the U.S. House of Representatives.</p>
Facebook Lobbying Spend Up 196%, Google Up 70% In 2012 To Try To Sway Privacy, Anti-Trust Legislation
<p>When you’re crushing your competitors, it’s the government that can be your biggest threat. That’s why <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/google-facebook-continue-to-flood-washington-with-cash-for-lobbying-efforts-consumer-watchdog-calls-record-spending-cynical-bid-to-buy-influence-2013-01-23" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google grew its lobbying spend</a> 70% to $16.48 million in 2012 and Facebook’s fees soared 196% to $3.99 million as they tried to buy government influence. Not everyone’s so worried about Washington, though.