Garamendi Wins Auto Rate Case
A Sacramento judge rejected efforts Thursday to stop state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi from implementing groundbreaking rate-setting rules next week, the Sacramento Bee reports. Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster ruled Garamendi has the authority to issue new regulations requiring insurers to establish premiums based on a driver’s safety record, experience and miles driven instead of where they live.
Will terror take toll on ‘Trade’?
As if opening a movie about 9/11 just a month before its fifth anniversary isn’t tricky enough, Paramount, which bowed “World Trade Center” on Wednesday, now faces the dicey dilemma of a real terrorist situation, Variety reports. Of course, no one knows whether public concern about the foiled plot to blow up airplanes flying between the U.K. and U.S. will affect auds’ willingness to see the Oliver Stone-helmed film, which Par has been marketing with an extremely sensitive touch.
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Glaxo to Settle Drug Overcharging Claims for $70 Million
GlaxoSmithKline said Thursday that it agreed to pay more than $70 million to settle claims by state attorneys general and consumers that the company overcharged government health programs for its medicines, the Los Angeles Times reports. The settlement covers claims by New York, California, Nevada, Connecticut, Montana and Arizona, as well as potential claims in 34 other states and the District of Columbia, the London-based company said. The agreement also resolves a lawsuit filed in Boston by healthcare programs, individuals and insurers, the company said.
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Furutani Gets Appointment to L.A. Planning Commission
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has nominated prominent Harbor Area political figure Warren Furutani to serve on the Harbor Area Planning Commission, the Daily Breeze reports. The appointment comes as officials are re-evaluating the city’s system of regionalized planning panels, which was a key piece of the 1999 charter reform aimed at making communities around Los Angeles feel more connected to city government.
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SEC Files Investment Fraud Case
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint in federal court Thursday alleging that a 29-year-old Manhattan Beach man defrauded investors of more than $22 million in retirement funds through a real estate scam, the Los Angeles times reports, Citing Bloomberg News. Jon W. James sold stakes in a series of real estate companies he promised would generate returns as high as 24%, the SEC said. He held free dinners and retirement planning seminars to get more than 90 investors to transfer money to the companies from their IRAs.
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Simi to Get Second Macy’s
It might look like double vision, but what Simi Valley shoppers will be seeing next year is two mall anchor stores morphing into one, the Ventura County Star reports. In a strategy change spawned by solid sales, Federated Department Stores Inc. scuttled plans to sell one of the two anchor department stores it owns at the Simi Valley Town Center and instead turn it into the new mall’s second Macy’s. The transition is scheduled to begin after the Robinsons-May store closes in September, but won’t be completed until some time next year.
PG & E; Vows Fivefold Increase in Solar Use
In a historic boost for renewable energy, PG & E; said Thursday it will increase its use of solar power nearly fivefold, the San Jose Mercury reports. The Northern California utility agreed to buy at least 500 megawatts of solar energy, beginning in spring 2010, from LUZ II, one of the nation’s largest solar power developers in the 1980s. The deal calls for at least one 100-megawatt solar-thermal plant, which will use both the sun and steam to produce energy, to be built within four years. Several other plants will follow, said Charles Ricker, president of LUZ II’s U.S. operations.
