Regulation

SACRAMENTO -- A state lawmaker has revived legislation to regulate medical marijuana in California, saying the measure is necessary to clarify hazy legal areas that continue to plague the state's pot program 16 years after voters approved it. The proposal, AB 473 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), would create a division within the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to monitor supply and sales of medical marijuana. While the Legislature passed a bill that offered limited guidance on regulation in 2003, it has yet to adopt requirements for state licensing and labeling of cannabis, among other issues, resulting in a series of contradictory court decisions.

PHOENIX - In the name of player safety, the NFL is weighing a ban on running backs initiating contact in the open field by lowering their heads and using the crown of their helmet to strike defenders. But the proposed rule is jarring to many, including some prominent former ballcarriers who are concerned the potential change fundamentally alters the game and could leave running backs even more vulnerable. "This is a joke," Hall of Fame back Marshall Faulk said Tuesday on NFL Network, for whom he's an analyst.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has begun posting online more than 200 previously undisclosed settlements related to bank failures that accompanied the financial crisis. The revelations come in response to a Los Angeles Times story last week that examined the FDIC's policy of quietly settling civil claims involving failed banks, sometimes with "no press release" clauses to help bankers avoid embarrassment. The first three settlements, involving Florida banks that failed in 2008 and 2009, were put online Friday at FDIC.gov.

Emotional regulation -- the ability to take negative feelings and recognize, accept and channel them properly -- is an Achilles' heel for many people, but especially for those with anxiety-related disorders, eating disorders and some personality disorders. It can take years of psychotherapy to strengthen one's powers of emotional regulation. Or, says a new study, it might take a few weeks of brain training aimed at strengthening one's short-term memory. It turns out that the brain circuitry involved in emotional regulation  largely overlaps with the network of brain structures that govern short-term (or working)

WASHINGTON - In a scathing report, Senate investigators said JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s huge trading losses last year were caused by high-risk market bets that bank executives failed to catch despite numerous red flags. The 307-page, bipartisan report released Thursday said the bank tried to hide the $6.2 billion of losses in the so-called London Whale trades from regulators and the public. The report went on to criticize JPMorgan's federal regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, for failing to discover and properly investigate the trades.

Faced by widespread public opposition, the Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday sent a proposed parcel fee to combat storm water pollution back to the drawing board. The proposed fee would be levied on all property owners within the county's flood control district, raising an estimated $290 million a year to help cities and the county deal with widespread water quality issues stemming from polluted storm water and urban runoff and the need to comply with new state regulations.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating whether to add more than a million General Motors mid-size cars to a 2009 recall for brake light problems. In 2009, the automaker recalled 8,000 Pontiac G6 mid-size cars from the 2005 model year for a problem in which the brake lights may not come on when the pedal was pressed. There were also problems with the brake lights turning on when the pedal was not being pressed. NHTSA is now investigating 97 similar complaints from owners involving the model year 2004 to 2011 Chevrolet Malibu and the model year 2007 to 2009 Saturn Aura.

SACRAMENTO -- State oil regulators have scheduled a series of public meetings to explain the Brown administration's proposed rules for hydraulic fracturing. The draft regulations, which were released in December, represent California's first attempt to govern the controversial drilling process known as fracking. The daylong meetings are set for Wednesday in Bakersfield and March 21 in Sacramento. Although the proposed rules would require energy companies to disclose many of the chemicals they inject deep into the ground to break apart rock and release oil, some lawmakers and environmentalists have said the regulations should go further, including advance notice to nearby landowners and water monitoring around fracking operations.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants to know: How much money do banks have to launder to get charged with a crime? In a Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday, Warren asked financial regulators why officials from banks weren't prosecuted even after confessing to extensive money laundering. Specifically, she asked why British bank HSBC -- which was fined $1.92 billion after admitting to moving millions of dollars around for drug cartels, terrorist organizations and regimes such as Iran -- avoided prosecution.

SACRAMENTO -- Ethics officials are reviewing allegations that two of state's top environmental regulators violated conflict-of-interest rules by regulating companies in which they own stock. Officials at the Fair Political Practices Commission said Wednesday they are studying a complaint that Odette Madriago, chief deputy director of the Department of Toxic Substances Control, and Stewart Black, deputy director of the agency's brownfields and environmental restoration division, may have improperly taken regulatory actions affecting the operations of oil, chemical and manufacturing companies in which they have financial interests.