Rolling Blackout

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

A corporation is a legal “person,” just like you. Maybe even better. Exhibit A is a bill passed last week by the Missouri House of Representatives:

— It allows utility companies to avoid complying with local zoning laws or with past court decisions that went against them.

— It permits a new surcharge on your gas bill to cover something that’s supposedly already figured into utility rates.

— And it allows those surcharges — for fuel costs, environmental compliance, infrastructure improvement and other expenses that are supposed to be built into rates — to stay on your bill for a longer time before utilities must file a full-blown rate case to explain and justify their entire financial picture.

Click here to read the full St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial.

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch correction

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Sen. Joan Bray, D-University City, voted against a telecommunications deregulation bill (HB1779), which passed the Missouri Senate Commerce Committee 8-1 on Thursday. Bray’s vote was not reported in the Savvy Consumer column in Friday’s Metro section. She was not present when the rest of the committee voted but returned and cast her vote later after attending another legislative meeting.

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Phony Excuses to Raise Phone Bills

Friday, April 11th, 2008

Consumer groups say phone deregulation bill hurts them

by Michael Sorkin of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A deregulation bill backed by cable and big phone companies sailed through the Missouri Senate’s Commerce Committee on Thursday, 8-0.

Consumer advocates oppose the bill (House Bill 1779), warning that it would wipe out many consumer protections and lead to higher monthly phone bills.

The legislators weren’t buying either argument. Please click here to read the full story.

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1 in 15 children in hospital harmed by medicine mistakes

Monday, April 7th, 2008

Study: Medicine mix-ups hurt 1 in 15 hospitalized kids

By Lindsey Tanner of the Associated Press

Medicine mix-ups, accidental overdoses and bad drug reactions harm roughly one out of 15 hospitalized children, according to the first scientific test of a new detection method.

That number is far higher than earlier estimates and bolsters concerns already heightened by well publicized cases like the accidental drug overdose of actor Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins last November.  Please click here to read the entire Associated Press story.

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch calls for PSC Chair Jeff Davis to Step Down (or for the legislature to remove him)

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

Turn out the lights
Jeff Davis helped engineer a deal that resulted in a blatantly anti-consumer utility law in 2005.

He helped write the rules that dictate how the law can be used to fatten utility company bottom lines.

And when one of those utilities files a legal case to take advantage of it, he serves as a judge and helps give the yea or nay.

Please click here to read the entire St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial.

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April Fool’s Day (actually 10 pm) Hearing Attempts to Hoodwink Consumers

Friday, April 4th, 2008

Consumers are rejected in late night meeting with legislators

by Michael Sorkin, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Consumers complain that they don’t get much respect from Missouri legislators, even in an election year.

A group of consumer representatives asked a key legislative committee to block surcharges that could be tacked onto consumer electric bills starting this year. Critics say it could add millions of dollars to monthly electric bills statewide.

The legislators agreed to hear the consumers — at 10 p.m. Tuesday, on April Fools’ Day. Please click here to read the full story.

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Medical Mistakes Harm 100,000 Each Year

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Insurer Anthem to no longer pay for medical errors

By Mary Jo Feldstein of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

To give hospitals an incentive to avoid some of the most egregious medical errors, Missouri’s largest insurer no longer will pay for certain mistakes, including when a surgery is performed on a wrong body part or patient.

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in Missouri announced the plan Wednesday as part of a national initiative by Wellpoint Inc., its parent company and the nation’s largest insurer. Wellpoint’s policy change comes on the heels of similar changes by Medicare, the government health plan for the elderly, and Aetna Inc., another of the country’s large insurers. Other insurers are considering similar changes.  Click here to read the entire article.

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Water: Liquid Gold

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

Home water rates are going up

By Michael Sorkin of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

 

The price of water in St. Louis went up Tuesday, and residents of St. Louis and St. Charles counties and Southern Illinois may be next to pay more when they turn on their water faucets at home.
St. Louis residents buy water from the city. The Board of Aldermen and the mayor passed a law to raise rates by 19 percent starting this month. A typical city resident will pay $58.80 every three months, up from $49.54.

Those rates will go up again on July 1, 2009, by 11 percent.

Meanwhile, the Missouri-American Water Co. is seeking rate increases for its 466,000 water customers in Missouri. The company asked state regulators this week to approve $50 million in annual rate increases.   Increases would vary by community.  Click here to read the full story.

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More, Not Less, Info is Better

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Lobbyists try to keep milk information from consumers

By Michael Hansen and Rhonda Perry

 

Missouri lawmakers are about to consider House Bill 2283, which would ban milk labels that inform consumers that their dairy products are free of artificial growth hormones. That’s a remarkable turn of events, and it bucks a well-established national trend toward more information in food labeling, not less.

Why is Missouri going backward while the rest of the country goes forward on consumer information labels? The answer is…click here to find the answer and to read the entire opinion piece.

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