Foster Care Agency Terminated by L.A. County

The foster care agency that allowed a 2 year old girl to be placed with a woman who is now under investigation for the child's death was terminated as a foster facility by Los Angeles County in a unanimous decision last week.

United care oversaw 88 homes and 216 foster children and had been repeatedly cited in recent years as allegations of abuse escalated from choking, hitting, and whipping with a belt. In 2007 a child drowned while swimming unsupervised in a pool.

United Care was responsible for certifying the foster parents and checking regularly on the home. United Care certified Kiana Barker despite her criminal history.

Barker and her boyfriend were arrested earlier in March on suspicion of murder. Their foster child, Viola had been killed while trapped underneath a bed. Barker told investigators that she accidentally struck the child with a hammer while trying to free her. There were multiple bruises on her body and the child's death was ruled a homicide.

Barker had been the subject of five child abuse complaints, including on substantiated case involving her biological child. United Care knew of Barker's criminal record but did not believe it was a problem because she was deemed by state regulators to not pose a danger.

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Medical Information Theft Rising

Criminals have devised a way to have expensive medical procedures billed to you. They set up fake clinics to bill for phony treatments. Thieves may also impersonate a patient, and there are some medical workers willing to download your records to sell.

Pam Dixon, founder of the World Privacy Forum, a non-profit consumer-research group based in San Diego, CA believes the rise of digital records is a large factor in the rise of medical information theft, "Once the files are in electronic form, the crime scales up quickly."

Patients medical records can be altered to reflect diseases and treatments they never had. The thief may change the patients address so they will not be aware of the charges and changes to their medical history.

Medical Identity Theft is about 2.5 times more costly than other types of ID frauds, said James Van Dyke, Javelin president - because the medical data can be used for a much longer period of time before the criminal is caught.

The average fraud involving health information as $12,000 compared with $,841 for general identity theft.

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Make Way for Fraud : Falsified Employment Letters

Kevin Sluga and his wife Leslie, owners of California Business Solutions cooperated with authorities and admitted under oath that they prepared employment verification letters containing false information. The letters allowed their son-in-law, realtor David Crisp, his wife, and their associates to purchase homes they could not otherwise afford.

The letters contained misstatements about the borrowers' employment and occupation. The letters allowed more than $12.6 million worth in homes to be purchase. The lenders themselves were defrauded out of nearly $4 million.

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California City Regulates Mobile Vendors

Lathrop city officials are working to pass a mobile vendor ordinance to regulate pushcarts and food wagons. The ordinance would give officials and local police to oversee the mobile vendors and require them to provide information about their equipment and merchandise. They would be subject to criminal background checks and inspections by policy. Parking hours and areas of operation would also be regulated.

Lathrop is one among a few cities nationwide opening policy to overseeing such vendors. In large cities, vendors such as these go largely unregulated and unwatched. The vendors in Lathrop will be required to pay a feed from $225 per cart. The amount of time a vendor can be in one location has increased from 10 minutes to 30 minutes.

And those mandatory criminal background checks for every vendor, a result of the unfortunate incident of a sex offender found operating an ice cream truck in Sacramento. The man was caught taking photographs of children and their homes. An ice cream truck driver who has access to children and provides those children with a false sense of security.

Mayor Kirsty Sayles said, "It's a cheaper and better way to do business and to protect the children, I can sign on to that."

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Drug Tests for California Lawmakers?

That is what some are suggesting, though they will need to gather 430,000 signatures in 150 days to get the initiative on the floor for a vote.

"Drug testing and sobriety checkpoints? I can't walk a straight line because I have vertigo so I don't know if I would pass that test," said Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Ontario.

The ballot is about getting proof that the lawmakers are not on drugs or alcohol, and many site the financial difficulty the state has faced a good reason to keep track of the legislation.

"It certainly can appear like there's some serious substance abuse going on when you see some of these crazy votes," said Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Los Angeles.

The proposal is getting a few laughs around the Capitol, but testing for any intoxicated politicians won't solve California's low cash flow.

"I think what's going on in California is what is going on globally. It's the economy, stupid," Assemb. Torres said. "It really is."

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