To those of you in Bay Area, hope you like your side of the Bay. Now, to the links!

• Consumer Watchdog has been hounding Mercury Insurance for a while now, what with the 10 reasons not to trust them list.  A few weeks ago, they put up a sign on Wilshire near Mercury’s HQ saying: ‘Consumer Watchdog Says: “You Can’t Trust Mercury Insurance.”‘ CBS Outdoor approved that sign when it went up initially, but has now pulled it down under pressure from Mercury.  Incidentally, Mercury is a huge political donor in the state, and was a good friend of Chuck Quackenbush, the Insurance Commissioner who resigned in shame.

• In a related story, Mercury Insurance is trying to get a proposition on the ballot to essentially repeal Prop 103, the landmark insurance regulation proposition passed by Harvey Rosenfield, the founder of Consumer Watchdog. Unfortunately for them, they screwed up in their petitions and will have to throw out a bunch of signatures.  Whaa-whaa.

• Showing that it’s not just the insurance companies who are the problems in health care, the state fined 6 SoCal hospitals for violating guidelines and safety standards, including several cases which resulted in death.

• The Yacht Party smells blood and thinks they can beat Joan Buchanan next year after she failed in her effort to jump to Congress.  Certainly, the CA-10 race didn’t bode well for her, but she clearly has the means to compete, although the massive self-funding for the Congressional seat may lead labor to let her go it alone.  I don’t think Buchanan is completely safe, but she’s not dead in the water, either.

• Speaking of insurance, the Senate narrowly passed AB 1200 that would allow insurance companies to be more heavy handed about bringing your car into a body shop of their choosing rather than one that you choose that isn’t on their list.

• The State prisons aren’t the only ones that are overcrowded. LA County’s jails are also packed to the gills.  The Senate approved AB 1369 (Davis) to allow some prisoners to be transferred to home detention with GPS monitoring.

• Former Assemblyman Tom Umberg, who lost a primary to Lou Correa…(thanks Don Perata), was activated in his role as US Army reserve Colonel. Umberg previously served in the Clinton Administration fighting the so-called War on Drugs. Good luck and be safe Mr. Umberg!

• Some pet breeding legislation is moving (or not moving as the case may be) through the Legislature. One bill would increase regulations on puppy mills and the other is the long controversial bill about spaying and neuturing dogs.