Regulators

SACRAMENTO -- The California lawmaker who authored the country's first ban on teenagers using tanning beds is complaining to the Federal Trade Commission about a new tanning group's safety claims. State Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) on Wednesday accused the newly organized American Suntanning Assn. of Jackson, Mich., of making similar safety claims as those made by a predecessor organization, the Indoor Tanning Assn. In Feb. 5 letter, Lieu asked the FTC to order the suntanning group to stop saying that indoor tanning has health benefits.

State officials who regulate boxing have used their positions to gain admission to big-ticket events for friends -- actor Sylvester Stallone among them -- relatives and other associates who sit ringside for free, records show. One member of the California State Athletic Commission directed state employees to obtain free passes for his wife and pastor. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appointed all but one of the commissioners, attended an event gratis, as did one of his high-ranking aides.

Federal banking examiners found serious problems at Washington Mutual Bank at least five years before its 2008 collapse, but their supervisors showed little concern, according to results of a lengthy Senate investigation released Thursday. The lack of action, exacerbated by a turf battle between agencies, allowed the bank's shoddy lending practices and risky bets on subprime mortgages to continue until just months before its failure. During those five years, examiners constantly warned of "less than satisfactory" loan underwriting, the "horrible performance" of its subprime-backed mortgage securities and the failure of WaMu executives and federal regulatory supervisors to do much about it. One examiner said he was derided by colleagues as "the housing 'bubble' boy" for his "gloom and doom" predictions for some risky loans, and another complained that critics of subprime loans were called "chicken little."

Federal regulators working around the clock have yet to pinpoint the cause of last week's rapid stock market plunge, but they've learned enough to propose changes to prevent a repeat, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Schapiro said Tuesday. The SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are sifting through records of the 66 million trades — 17 million during the most volatile hour alone — last Thursday, when the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 700 points in just 15 minutes.

Using a new state law for the first time, state regulators Monday issued fines to a private hospital and a police and fire department for failing to report and prevent the spread of bacterial meningitis. The failure to follow safety and reporting protocol, regulators said, sickened two workers who ended up unconscious in intensive care. Alta Bates Sutter Medical Center in Oakland was fined $101,485 by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health for 10 health and safety violations after officials failed to immediately notify public authorities and protect staff when an infected patient arrived Dec. 3, 2009, regulators said Monday.

Dozens of registered nurses who have been convicted of serious crimes including murder, sex offenses, robbery and assault have been identified by California regulators reviewing newly required fingerprints from tens of thousands of caregivers. The state Board of Registered Nursing expanded its review of nurses' criminal records after an October 2008 story by The Times and the nonprofit news organization ProPublica found that regulators often didn't know about nurses' convictions and didn't act quickly once they learned of them.

Federal regulators said Monday that Edison Mission Group's power-generating unit had agreed to pay $9 million to settle allegations that its employees misled federal regulators investigating bidding practices in mid-Atlantic power markets. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said the Irvine company, a subsidiary of Edison International in Rosemead, "made a series of representations and produced data and documents" that misled enforcement staff before and during their investigation.

State insurance regulators today seized control of Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co., a financially struggling company that has primarily served the African American community for the last 84 years. The Los Angeles-based company, which has been losing money for six consecutive years, agreed to immediately stop selling new policies, state officials said. It currently serves 83,000 customers with financial products ranging from life insurance to burial, mortgage and disability insurance and annuities.

Regulators need to avoid "ineffective or burdensome rules" as they implement the sweeping financial reform law passed last year, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said. In a speech at a Fed conference in Chicago, Bernanke said broad new oversight of the financial system required under the law is already underway. As Fed chief, Bernanke is part of the new Financial Stability Oversight Council, which regularly convenes top government regulators to monitor the economy for signs of risk.

Apparently unable to find a willing buyer for financially troubled Central Savings & Loan Assn., federal regulators on Friday forced the resignation of Central's board of directors and turned over operations to executives of an Arizona savings and loan.