Hair-Raising, and Premium-Raising, Tales

Ooh, what a come-on -- just the kind of thing the rest of the country loves to use to point to “those California wackos.”

The subject of the state Senate’s insurance committee informational hearing last week: “Haunted Houses: Do claims make houses uninsurable in California?”

Before all you movie producers climb aboard a plane for Sacramento, read on.

The hearing concerned the state of homeowners insurance in California. Committee chair Jackie Speier, a Hillsborough Democrat, heard allegations of manipulation -- that, in violation of Prop. 103, some insurance companies are using credit information to create an insurance “score” that determines whether home buyers will be offered insurance. Speier’s office says that in her district, it can sometimes be easier to buy a house than to buy insurance for it, except under the last-resort California Fair Plan or Lloyd’s of London.

A retired San Francisco cop recounted how he told his insurance company that he lost his wedding ring and asked whether it was covered under his homeowner’s policy. Even though he never got an answer, much less any reimbursement, he said that his insurer evidently filed his question as a “claim.” When he switched to another insurer, it promptly canceled him for not telling them he had made a “claim” on his earlier policy.

As for the haunted house part, the committee heard from a woman who paid premiums for more than 20 years and, after a few roof-leaking claims for water damage totaling $2,000, she found her house is considered uninsurable, except through a higher-priced Lloyds of London policy.

Even though she fixed the problem, her house is now “haunted” with a kind of insurers’ felony record as a bad risk. The new roof doesn’t exorcise its “record.”

And that really is scary.

Sister Countries Are Anyone’s Guess

The signs, they are a-changin’. Last week’s repeat episode of “The West Wing” dwelt on tensions between the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan -- and the city of Los Angeles was also avoiding an international incident, on the mainland.

A monument to L.A.’s score of sister cities no longer refers to the actual nations where one would find those 20 cities.

When the 32-foot signpost went up in September near City Hall, China complained that Taipei was identified as a city in Taiwan. More than a half-century after the Nationalist Chinese fled the Communist revolution for the island now known as Taiwan, China still considers Taiwan to be a renegade province.

To appease the Chinese -- and smooth Mayor James K. Hahn’s panda-hunting trade trip last month to Asia -- Los Angeles briefly changed the sign to place Taipei under Chinese control.

Of course, that offended the Taiwanese.

Finally, the man who dreamed up the signs, council member Tom LaBonge, stripped all the country names off the cities. Admirers of the sign will have to puzzle out on their own the home countries of Kaunas (Lithuania) and Lusaka (Zambia).

LaBonge joked that he’d add one more “little directional sign -- to the library over at Fifth and Flower -- the geography section.” And that would be in L.A., in the U.S. of A., but don’t tell anyone we said so.

Hollywood’s Reluctant Republicans

Look under “Democrat” in the encyclopedia and you might find Mike Medavoy’s picture. The A-list Hollywood producer has donated early and often to Democratic candidates and causes.

Not long ago, he got one more phone call asking, in rather an oblique way, for money.

But this came from Republicans, on behalf of newly minted House majority leader Tom DeLay. The caller told Medavoy that for a $500 donation toward a pro-Bush administration ad in the Wall Street Journal, he could receive a National Leadership Award, and be an honorary chairman of the Business Advisory Council, which is, its phone line says, “a project of the National Republican Congressional Committee.”

Medavoy’s assistant, Jeff Steele, checked it out, and Medavoy asked him to call back and leave this message: “This is a scam to get money for Tom DeLay’s PAC, or whatever it is. If he calls me about giving money to poor people or disadvantaged people, I’m more than happy to do this, but I’m not going to be pulled into this one.”

Steele did call, and then, puckishly, proposed that he get the award instead.

Medavoy described Steele’s phone exchange: They agreed to give Steele the honors, “just send us 500 bucks. Jeff said, ‘I don’t have it.’ They said, 300? ‘Sorry, I can’t.’ ‘Well, send us a hundred.’ ‘I don’t have a hundred.’ ‘OK, OK, you’ve got it anyway,’ the voice on the other end responded.

“Jeff,” declared his boss, “was having fun.”

Medavoy says someone already sent him a membership card to the Republican National Congressional Committee -- why, he isn’t sure.

“Maybe because I had a subscription to [something related to] Fox News -- or the Wall Street Journal.”

Beltway Showdown Over Soda

More cola wars -- in the Beltway.

Democratic Rep. Henry A. Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the committee on government reform, zapped off a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson demanding to know why the U.S. is balking at a World Health Organization draft report that calls for cutting down on soda drinking in a campaign to fight obesity.

The U.S. argued in its formal comments that “evidence that soft drinks are associated with obesity is not compelling.”

“The U.S. opposition to WHO’s efforts to fight obesity around the world,” Waxman wrote in dudgeon, “needs an explanation.”

In Waxman’s own backyard, L.A.’s board of education banned soft drinks sales at all 677 schools after recent reports found high rates of obesity in young children -- some of whom received more than 10% of their daily calories from soft drinks. Children’s obesity has doubled in more than two decades.

Coca-Cola relied in 2001 on foreign markets for 62% of its $20.1 billion in sales and 76% of its $4-billion profit. During World War II, Coke persuaded the U.S. government to ship its drink wherever military forces went, across the globe.

Point Taken

* A Sacramento jury has levied a $4.5-million judgment on the state’s Department of Education and departing Supt. Delaine Eastin on behalf of an adult-education consultant who says he was unfairly demoted after blowing the whistle about federal money being misused by community groups that were supposed to offer adult English classes. Federal criminal charges were later brought against operators of adult programs in Sacramento and Los Angeles. Department officials say they intend to appeal.

You Can Quote Me

“I personally believe in God, but I think regarding the City Council chambers, it’s best not to have a plaque with that language on the wall.”

Oceanside Mayor Terry Johnson, who changed his mind and voted not to hang a big plaque with the words “In God We Trust” in the City Council chambers. The council had voted in October to pay $6,500 to put up the sign, but residents’ objections -- and the departure of a council member who supported the plaque and wasn’t reelected -- flipped the vote.

*

Patt Morrison’s columns appear Mondays and Tuesdays. Her e-mail address is patt. morrison@latimes.com. This week’s contributors include Jean O. Pasco and Massie Ritsch.