Feckless Shell Oil nailed for lying about environmental cleanup claims

The rats who run Shell Oil Co. have been nailed by a private whistleblower over false claims. Shell Oil Co. has forfeited a chance to collect up to $150 million from a state-run fund that reimburses oil companies for cleaning up leaking underground storage tanks.

Besides losing out on the potential reimbursements, Shell will pay $20 million in penalties under a settlement announced Friday by California officials, bringing the total cost to as much as $170 million.

The whistleblower will collect a portion of the $20 million.Shell and its Equilon Enterprises LLC subsidiary were essentially accused of double billing – collecting insurance proceeds and then submitting claims to a mammoth cleanup fund run by the State Water Resources Control Board.

“They were getting reimbursement for cleanup costs from an insurer,” said Andrew DiLuccia, spokesman for the water board. Under the settlement announced Friday, the state is disallowing claims by Shell covering 100 underground tanks, worth up to $150 million in potential total reimbursements.

Shell is the third oil company in the past two years to settle with the state over false claims allegedly submitted to the storage tank fund. The Shell settlement is by far the largest.

Read the whole story at: Shell Oil could lose millions over false California environmental cleanup claims – The Sacramento Bee

Cali pols try to legislate against secret Coastal Commission deals

Lingering frustration over potentially cozy relationships between California’s coastal protection agency and developers prompted the state Senate on Monday to advance legislation prohibiting board members from engaging in private, off-the-record conversations with the parties in permit decisions and other matters.

Under current law, these “ex parte” communications are allowed as long they are disclosed through a form or, if they occurred less than 7 days before a meeting, verbally at that hearing. Supporters of Senate Bill 1190 allege that builders and their consultants have developed special access to the California Coastal Commission because of their full-time involvement in the issues it oversees.

“These quasi-lobbyists literally travel with the coastal commissioners. They are everywhere,” author Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, said. “This process has become flawed, seriously flawed.”

Source: The Sacramento Bee

Feckless Bay Area schools hide tax hikes from voters

When voters approve school bond measures, they’re agreeing to raise taxes. But you’d never know it by reading the ballot language for 12 East and South Bay measures in the upcoming election.

Bonds are essentially loans. They must be paid back. When voters support state bonds for something like, say, high-speed rail construction the repayments come from existing funds.

But when voters approve local school construction bonds, they’re simultaneously agreeing to pay higher property taxes to retire the debt. School districts don’t mention that when they write the 75-word summary for the ballot.

It’s a cynical political calculation. School officials lard up the summary with details about what they plan to buy. But they know that if they call attention to the resulting tax increases support will drop off.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Clearly @MarkLeno is right…we can no longer trust the police

California has some of the strictest laws in the U.S. against publicly releasing information about officer discipline.

State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) says recent high-profile clashes between police departments and the communities they serve show that now is the time to change the rules.

Leno has introduced SB 1286, which would unravel some of the protections against releasing officer information.

His push for transparency is generally supported by police reform advocates as a way to improve police-community relations.

“We can begin to rebuild the critically needed trust between law enforcement and community members,” Leno said. “I don’t think it’s at all debatable that that trust has come into question.”

Source: LA Times

WTF? Apple has unlocked iPhones for the Feds 70 times before

Tim Cook: Phony, lying, jerk.

Apple CEO Tim Cook declared on Wednesday that his company wouldn’t comply with a government search warrant to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers, a significant escalation in a long-running debate between technology companies and the government over access to people’s electronically-stored private information.

But in a similar case in New York last year, Apple acknowledged that it could extract such data if it wanted to. And according to prosecutors in that case, Apple has unlocked phones for authorities at least 70 times since 2008. (Apple doesn’t dispute this figure.)

In other words, Apple’s stance in the San Bernardino case may not be quite the principled defense that Cook claims it is. In fact, it may have as much to do with public relations as it does with warding off what Cook called “an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers.”

Source: Apple Unlocked iPhones for the Feds 70 Times Before – The Daily Beast

Liar! Liar! @Uber nailed for lying, fined millions

A California regulatory body voted unanimously Thursday morning to fine Uber $7.6 million for failing to disclose data to the California Public Utilities Commission.

Uber officials told the San Francisco Examiner the company will pay all fines.

In its decision, the CPUC also found Uber, by way of its subsidiary, Rasier-CA, in contempt of the commission.

The company was found to be in contempt because “Rasier-CA failed to comply with the laws of this state and further misled this Commission by an artifice or false statement of law by asserting multiple legal defenses that were unsound,” wrote Robert Mason, a CPUC administrative law judge, in his decision.

Uber said it has now submitted all requested data to the CPUC and disputes how its fines were calculated.

“While we are disappointed bythe decision, we look forward to making our case to the California Courtof Appeals,” spokeswoman Eva Behrend wrote in an email. “In the meantime, we will pay the fine and continue to work in good faith with the Commission.”

Regulators requested Uber share data on rides accepted through its app, along with rides denied, zip codes of rides, miles traveled and the amount paid.

Source: Uber ordered to pay $7.6 million penalty, found in ‘contempt’ by regulator – The San Francisco Examiner

2 ball players sue #Islamic network over phony doping report

Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals and Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies have filed defamation lawsuits against Al Jazeera over a documentary that claimed they, along with other athletes, allegedly received shipments of performance-enhancing drugs. In the report, Charles Sly, a former intern at an Indianapolis anti-aging company, says in a secretly recorded conversation that the two ballplayers received Delta-2 hormone supplement shipments, but he has since recanted the story, saying the statements attributed to him “are absolutely false and incorrect.”

Both players accuse the network of libel and invasion of privacy. The suits name as defendants Al Jazeera America, reporter Deborah Davies, and British hurdler Liam Collins, whom the network sent undercover to expose PED use in sports. Via ESPN, the suits claim that the report contained false statements and was inaccurate, unsubstantiated, and reckless in nature. As public figures filing defamation suits, Zimmerman and Howard need to show not only that Al Jazeera’s report was false, but that the network also acted with either actual malice or reckless disregard of the truth.

In the filing, Zimmerman’s attorneys make claims to that effect, and also take a shot at the network’s ratings woes, writing that the “defendants knew full well that their ‘source’ [Sly] had recanted his scandalous and untrue allegations against Mr. Zimmerman, but, abdicating all journalistic responsibilities, defendants nonetheless chose to publish their defamatory story in an attempt to stir scandal and increase Al Jazeera’s low ratings, no matter the cost to Mr. Zimmerman.”

The suits also seek to call into question the integrity of Collins, a hurdler who pretended to be a potential client searching for PEDs and secretly recorded his conversations.

Source: 2 Big Leaguers Sue Al Jazeera Over Doping Report — NYMag

Bill Cosby: Deposition reveals a lying, pervert, rapist

He was not above seducing a young model by showing interest in her father’s cancer. He promised other women his mentorship and career advice before pushing them for sex acts. And he tried to use financial sleight of hand to keep his wife from finding out about his serial philandering.

Bill Cosby admitted to all of this and more over four days of intense questioning 10 years ago at a Philadelphia hotel, where he defended himself in a deposition for a lawsuit filed by a young woman who accused him of drugging and molesting her.

Even as Mr. Cosby denied he was a sexual predator who assaulted many women, he presented himself in the deposition as an unapologetic, cavalier playboy, someone who used a combination of fame, apparent concern and powerful sedatives in a calculated pursuit of young women — a profile at odds with the popular image he so long enjoyed, that of father figure and public moralist.

via Bill Cosby, in Deposition, Said He Used Fame and Drugs to Seduce Women – The New York Times.

Brian Williams Inquiry Is Said to Expand

An NBC News internal investigation into Brian Williams has examined a half-dozen instances in which he is thought to have fabricated, misrepresented or embellished his accounts, two people with inside knowledge of the investigation said.

The investigation includes at least one episode that was previously unreported, these people said, involving statements by Mr. Williams about events from Tahrir Square in Cairo during the Arab Spring.

The investigation, conducted by at least five NBC journalists, was commissioned early this year after Mr. Williams was forced to apologize for embellishing an account of a helicopter episode in Iraq in 2003. He was subsequently suspended for six months from his anchor position on the “NBC Nightly News.” The inquiry is being led by Richard Esposito, the senior executive producer for investigations, for the news division.

The review of Mr. Williams’s reporting is not finished and no final conclusions have been reached. When completed, it is expected to form the basis for a decision on whether to bring him back. It is not clear when that decision will be made.

via Brian Williams Inquiry Is Said to Expand – New York Times.