Privacy

Money finally flowing at California stem cell agency

December 1, 2006  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">The San Jose Mercury News (California)</p> <p>Proposition backers spent more than $40 million during the 2004 campaign that included television advertisements featuring actors Michael J. Fox and the paraplegic Christopher Reeve, who died days after filming his spot. "People were left with the impression that Superman would walk again," said John Simpson, another critic at the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Los Angeles.</p>

Watchdog groups: Stem cell proposals need transparency

November 29, 2006  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">The San Francisco Examiner</p> <p>In February, the stem cell agency is expected to announce the grant recipients, but who applied will remain confidential. John Simpson, an official with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, called for a more transparent system during a public comment period before the panel retreated into closed session.</p>

Governor opens new donor fund;

November 23, 2006  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Officeholder account can pay for parties or bonuses for his staff.</h3><p class="source">The Sacramento Bee (California)</p> <p>Carmen Balber, an advocate with the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights, said officeholder accounts give donors another way to gain private access to political leaders. "It's simply a way to build up a slush fund that provides an avenue for large donors to give Schwarzenegger money when he's not running for office," Balber said.</p>

Governor opens fundraising account;

November 22, 2006  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Critic calls it slush fund</h3><p class="source">Associated Press</p> <p>A critic of Schwarzenegger's fundraising said the money also could be used to pay for lavish parties and junkets. The new account amounts to "a sanitized slush fund,'' said Carmen Balber, a consumer advocate for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica-based group that has been critical of Schwarzenegger's fundraising. "(This) creates yet another avenue for special interest access and influence on the administration,'' she said.</p>

Many local measures approved;

November 9, 2006  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Santa Monica residents vote for clean beaches, clean government. Pasadenans opt to strengthen campaign finance reforms.</h3><p class="source">The Los Angeles Times</p> <p>With all of the votes counted, 53% of Santa Monica voters rejected Proposition W, which the City Council had backed. The measure would have overturned the Oaks Amendment, passed in 2000. "At the end of a very long ballot, the public rejected undue influence by developers and other special interests in local government," said Carmen Balber of Election Watchdog, a political action committee sponsored by the Campaign for Consumer Rights. </p>

Future unclear as LA Times editor ousted

November 8, 2006  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Associated Press</p> <p>One consumer group launched a "Take Back Our Newspaper" campaign, urging readers to cancel their subscriptions unless the Times pledges not to make further cuts. "It is especially egregious that Tribune's action comes on election day, when L.A. Times journalists are working at top speed and for long hours to cover a critical national election,' said Jamie Court, president of Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.</p>

Better B-havior;

November 3, 2006  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Once targeted for extinction by city leaders, Measure B re-emerges as a popular move to halt the corrupting influence of money in Pasadena politics</h3><p class="source">Pasadena Weekly</p> <p>It's an old story: Business seeks contract; councilman approves spending taxpayer funds; contractor contributes hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars to that councilman's campaign come election season. But if voters approve Measure B this week for the second time in six years, it should never happen again in Pasadena, say good government activists.</p>

Eminent domain’s slippery, costly slope

November 2, 2006  ·  Jamie Court

<p class="source">Marketplace Radio Program (American Public Media)</p> <p>Measures in four Western states would force local governments to pay property owners if regulations -- such as zoning -- reduce their property value. Commentator Jamie Court argues that would actually hurt taxpayers and homeowners.</p>

Voter enrichment: Proposition 89 looks to take big money out of politics

November 2, 2006  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Pasadena Weekly</p> <p>Supporters of Proposition 89 -- which would set new limits on campaign contributions and allow candidates to reject private funding altogether -- argue large corporate donors are funneling so much money into political campaigns that their influence over the business of Sacramento has basically taken government out of the hands of the people.</p>

Eminent domain’s slippery, costly slope

November 2, 2006  ·  Jamie Court

<p class="source">Marketplace Radio Program (American Public Media)</p> <p>Measures in four Western states would force local governments to pay property owners if regulations -- such as zoning -- reduce their property value. Commentator Jamie Court argues that would actually hurt taxpayers and homeowners.</p>

Schwarzenegger donations top $113 million;

November 2, 2006  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>On pace to become California's biggest-ever fundraiser</h3><p class="source">Associated Press</p> <p>An exhaustive review of campaign finance records by The Associated Press reveals that Schwarzenegger is on pace to become the most prolific fundraiser in California history. He has raised $113.4 million in the little more than three years since he launched his campaign to replace Democrat Gray Davis, who often was accused of having a "pay to play" approach to governing that favored his donors. That amount is nearly as much as the $120 million Davis raised over seven years for two gubernatorial campaigns and to fight the recall effort.</p>

Working With Stem Cells? Pay Up;

November 1, 2006  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>What the Wisconsin patent stranglehold means for researchers. Can someone own the cells that make up what is important about a human embryo?</h3><p class="source">The Scientist Magazine</p> <p>With $3 billion for stem cell research coming down the chute in California, researchers are terrified. They fear that their own innovations will be credited inappropriately or result in unfair profits, because they will have to license the basic stuff of life from the University of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). Wisconsin is the home of James Thomson, the researcher who successfully identified and cultured human embryonic pluripotent stem cells, roughly simultaneous to a similar experiment by John Gearhart at Johns Hopkins. All of that has led to complaints from two groups - the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and the Public Patent Foundation - that have now forced the US Patent and Trademark Office to reconsider the patents.</p>