down on these totally illegal services before the cpuc got into the picture. and now the the cpuc has given its interim blessing to lift and also to [speaker not understood] not so far to side cars, as far as i'm aware. to continue their operations, while the rule making is pending. * but this is a serious situation , not only from the point of view of the industry, but from the point of view of the public. the insurance industry has weighed in in the cpuc rule making and stated unequivocally that there is no insurance when a side car or a lift driver picks up. the private insurance that they may have on their personal vehicle does not cover this situation. and although lift claims to have a $1 million excess liability policy, the excess liability is not going to apply if the underlying insurance doesn't [inaudible]. also, if you read the contract that lift has, both the drivers and the users of the service sign, you will see that it says very, very explicitly that there -- this excess insurance will not apply if the underlying insurance isn't there or if the

one could give a straight answer but today, cpuc told lawmakers yes.t, it would double. >> how is it they're doubling a fee increase? >> in this year we're going to have to increase fee levels in order to be able to accommodate the program needs. >> do you know what you're doing? >> that is not a fair question. of course we know what we're doing. >> cpuc insists it has the best fee-setting practices in the country. >> those fresh ripe tomatoes americans enjoy could cost more at the checkout counter after a grower's agreement between us us and mexico. a dput over mexican tomatoes being sold in america. growers in florida said the mexican tomatoes were on the market here below cost. the deal between u.s. department of commerce and mexico economy department resets minimum prices. >> all right. thanks for joining us for abc 7 news at 4:00. >> the abc 7 news alarm clock app is vibl for your android, down load now for free. abc 7 news at 5:00 begins right now. >> an east bay community on edge again another high risk sex offender gets ready for release. the l

today, cpuc told lawmakers yes, in fact it would double. >> how is it that there is a doubling of thencrease the fee level in order to be able to accommodate the program needs. >> do you guys even know what you are doing? >> that is not a fair question. of course, we know what we are doing. >> while promising to do better the cpuc insists it has the best fee setting practices in the country. in sacramento, nannette miranda, abc 7 news. >>> every home owner in one georgia town could soon be required to own a gun. a controversial plan for the city of nelson. reporter john bachman has more on who is for it and who is isn't. >> one police officer patrols nelson georgia for 8 hours during the day. that leaves 16 hours overnight when the city is basically unguarded. >> when he is not here we rely on the county sheriffs. however, it takes awhile for them to get here. >> that is why the nelson city councilman proprosed in ordinance. >> every head of household in the city own and firearm. >> bill mcniff supports the law. >> i think every city should do it and it should go county wide. >> the n

. >> lawmakers scoffed at the notion that customers weren't armed because cpuc continued to raise fees. >> but we asked rate pay teors pay more and more. >> they can't even get the math right. stating the agency has trillions when it actually had billions. >> this reporting was in almost to the penny adding three zeros to it. >> and we told you last week about giving free cellphones to low income residents. we tried to get straight answer on the universal fund fee would increase to subz subsidize the program. but cpuc says yes, they would double. >> how is it a doubling of the fee increase. >> in this particular fiscal year we are going to have to increase the fee level in order to be able to accommodate the program needs. >> do you know what you shall doing? >> that is a fair question. of course we know what we are doing. >> reporter: they insist it has the best fee setting practices in the country. nannette miranda, "abc 7 news". >> katie: new this morning, solano county law enforcement agencies are holding a gun buy-back in vallejo. the goal is to get illegal guns off the streets as

>> so on april tenth and 11th the california public utility commission the cpuc is holding a workshop about the regulations that relate to the services we're talking about new online enabled transportation services. they said it would be a 6 months process these workshops on april 10 and 11th will be 930 a.m. each of those mornings on 505 van ness probably go until 430 p.m. is what we're told there should be an agenda coming out about this workshop in the last week of march is what we're told and also told that the public is welcome and that people will have an opportunity to speak so i'd encourage anybody in san francisco who has an interest about the new online enabled transportation services to consider participating in this process the main questions of the discussion are these 3 questions that they initial ly put out a large list of 20 something questions but they have said publicly they will be focusing on 3. should these providers be regulated as taxis? and if so why. or should they be regulated as a third category. and to remind everyone in california taxi service is regulated

the puc may not be able to consider, the california public utilities commission, the cpuc and this is around maintaining without doing the direct overlay, but maintaining the 415 area code for as along as possible. so i will just continue to keep you apprised as those developments happen. the affordable care act, so we received our presentation today. but then on the other hand in terms of outreach/education, the grant has been submitted. dph is the lead on that, and our office, with some other agencies, would be subcontractors with that master grant. we will know april 26th about the grant being award. i do feel confident that we will get something. there are other agencies submitting grants outside of what dph is doing. so it will be unknown if covered california will award the entire grant to dph or whether they might give us some of it and those other agencies some of it. i do feel confident that dph will get a pretty good portion of it. and then from there, we have a certain percentage of it for us to be able to hire to do some outreach and education, which i think, as you heard

since the issue before the cpuc is not ride sharing, but instead using a private passenger vehicle in a livery service, this is clearly not covered under a standard policy. if an accident occurs, coverage would not exist. that's pretty damning language from the insurance industry. these companies claim they have excess insurance policies of a million dollars. read their terms of service and you will see that that insurance does not apply if the underlying insurance does not apply. basically the poet -- public is in grave danger here. the mta is not doing anything about it. you are public elected officials. i think it's time to step in and see that this danger to the public is dealt with. ~ this is the function of governance, to protect the population. and we will ask you to do that. thank you. >> thanks. next speaker. >>> i spoke last week about this. i'm going to do it again. but last week as i left here, i watched the city employee get into a lift car right in front of city hall. like you said, they're illegally operating taxi companies city-wide. right now there are a thousand vehi

since the issue before the cpuc is not ride sharing, but instead using a private passenger vehicle in a livery service, this is clearly not covered under a standard policy. if an accident occurs, coverage would not exist. that's pretty damning language from the insurance industry. these companies claim they