On Friday, federal accident investigators told California legislators that the state’s patchwork of oil industry regulations needs a serious overhaul. The Chevron fire that produced a toxic cloud and sent 15,000 people to the hospital could have been prevented, but the system was reactive and not designed to foresee and forestall problems, said the U.S. Chemical Safety Board. Duh. The board didn’t need 18 months to come to that conclusion.

About 500 students are currently blockading entrances to the University of California Board of Regents meeting at UC San Francisco this morning, where the Regents are scheduled to vote on a budget that presumes a 24 percent across-the-board increase on UC tuitions. Picketing students have pledged to shut the meeting down.

Brad Plumer has a decent enough explanation of why gas prices have soared in California over the past week or so. Being a California resident, perhaps I can provide a bit more insight into how this has played out on the ground. Professor James Hamilton explains that a series of refinery and pipeline shutdowns, and [...]

Mat Staver and these charlatans are only looking for attention. I can’t fathom that they want to take on the merits of conversion/reparative therapy — long discredited — to “pray away the gay.” But as LGBT rights advance, groups like Liberty Counsel have fewer opportunities to put on their dog and pony show to raise cash.

Fatster’s rounds up news stories from all over, include links and articles about Syria’s tragedy, Iran helping Syria, US troops in Afghanistan, Gaza’s nightmare, Rachel Corrie and Israel, ECB head to miss Jackson Hole? another housing scam, LIBOR scandal, Federal Reserve, Dems neglecting the poor, Tampa partying, Chris Christie, corporate sponsors vs. ALEC, Jerry Brown, Girl Stuff, and much more.

If you believe that America should have first-class infrastructure, if you believe in the benefits to productivity and reducing carbon emissions and creating an environment for economic growth in the nation’s largest state, if you believe that times of economic struggle are actually perfect moments for infrastructure improvements, while labor costs are relatively low, then tomorrow is an enormous test of that proposition.

California’s efforts to create a better environment for foreclosure victims have begun to fade. $410 million from the foreclosure fraud settlement that was supposed to go into counseling and legal services was instead diverted to pay for a state budget shortfall. While this has angered the legal aid community, with the enormity of the budget problem in the state, it’s unlikely that will be reversed.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris has responded to Jerry Brown’s bid to raid foreclosure fraud settlement funds through the back door by zeroing out the state support for the programs she has slated for the money to go.

The federal government delivered $410 million to California in the foreclosure fraud settlement. That money is supposed to go to homeowners, but many states have raided the funds for their own budgets. So this was an inviting target for Jerry Brown.

Over the weekend, California Governor Jerry Brown announced that the budget deficit for the next fiscal year has nearly doubled, from $9.2 billion to $16 billion. This almost assuredly means a commensurate increase in cuts to the state budget.