In anticipation of Governor Schwarzenegger’s State of the State Address this morning, CALPIRG advocates made their own recommendations for priority issues in his final year in office

A New CALPIRG Report Details the Ins and Outs of California’s New Government Transparency Website

For this year’s OneWebDay CalPIRG and the Media Alliance will release A Public Interest Internet Agenda a report that prescribes broadband policy solutions that are tied to the common good and our nation’s prosperity.

In the hectic final two weeks of the 2009 regular session, hundreds of bills will move swiftly through both chambers of the legislature. A number of these bills – good and bad – are of utmost importance to California’s consumers.

At a tele-news-conference today, Pedro Morillas, CALPIRG’s Legislative advocate, was joined by Chairman of the CA Assembly Banking and Finance Committee Pedro Nava who explained that the [Obama-backed] Congressional proposal to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency would also allow state attorneys general to once again vigorously defend the public against unfair financial practices. That authority had been drastically restricted by federal agency preemption rulings prior to the crisis.

National consumer protection organizations applauded President Obama’s proposal to create a new federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency to ensure the safety, fairness and sustainability of credit.

Last year, 236,231 Californians lost their homes to foreclosure. This meltdown has made it all too clear that there are systemic market failures within the lending industry.

Some good news came out of a budget filled with cut backs and tax hikes. An aggressive and much needed foreclosure prevention program that will halt all foreclosures in the state for 90 days was included as part of the final budget package.

Yesterday, U.S.PIRG, our federal lobbying office, joined 26 groups in sending Congress a detailed platform of Public Interest/Main Street Principles To Guide the Wall Street Rescue.

The Governor should take the opportunity to add a big step to his hopefully unfinished list of projects if the legislature approves the comprehensive mortgage reform bill currently being debated.

The California Senate Banking Committee bowed to industry today, killing all but one of the Assembly Democrats' crucial bills designed to rein in abuses prominent in the subprime market and thereby eliminating the prospect of restoring responsibility and accountability to the mortgage market in California this year.

In one year, 22 million Americans who rely on free over-the-air analog broadcasting – including many elderly and other vulnerable populations – will be at risk of losing access to TV, which for many is a primary source of news and emergency information as well as entertainment.

CALPIRG applauds Assemblyman Ted Lieu for introducing “The Subprime Lending Reform Act of 2008.”

California Attorney General Jerry Brown joined a twelve-state lawsuit today challenging a recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that limits public access to information about toxic chemical releases.

S. 2045 (Pryor), a bill to reform the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) passed out of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee this afternoon. This bill, strongly backed by CALPIRG, will give the CPSC the resources and manpower needed to protect consumers from unsafe products that end up on store shelves.