Limited to the first 25 Culver City Chamber members to respond with a paid reservation

ONLY $295.00!

~ Make your paid reservation now
~ Email us a description of your item
~ Provide us with 900 gift items
(Be creative, no flyers, or discount certificates, please) by September 10, 2007

~ Your gift item will be included in a special zippered canvas bag
~ Your company name will be printed on the bag
~ You will be among the first to reach the 900 high-income employees of Symantec
~ Receive a sample gift bag as a thank you

The Culver Chamber is going to China on March 28, 2008 for a nine-day trip.

All Culver Chamber members, their employees and spouses are invited to join the business/sightseeing trip.

The trip includes airfare, hotel accommodations, and three meals a day for only $1499.00 per person.

People interested in joining us that do not fit the above mentioned criteria may do so for $1599.00.

A flyer will be included in the July ChamberPAK and a brochure in PDF format will be emailed to everyone in the coming weeks.

PRE-TOUR ORIENTATION MEETING:
Thursday, August 2, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Location The Four Points by Sheraton Los Angeles Westside. Their address is 5990 Green Valley Circle.

For further information please click on the link below.

Too many Favorites or Bookmarks?

Organizing them can be a chore, and many of us never quite get around to it. But you can at least put your Favorites and Bookmarks in alphabetical order, though it's not obvious how to do that.

Follow these steps for Internet Explorer:
- Right Click anywhere on the Favorites Menu.
- In the drop down menu, choose "Sort by Name." Note that this doesn't sort Favorites inside folders -- if you're that organized, you need to open each folder and repeat the steps above.

In Firefox, follow these steps:
- Choose the Bookmarks menu, then choose "Organize Bookmarks."
- In the window that opens you'll see the columns labeled "Name," "Description" and "Location."
- Click on the label "Name" and your bookmarks will sort alphabetically.

SPECIAL NEWSLETTER TIP
Send a text message consisting of an airplane flight number (i.e. AA 931 for American Airlines 931) to 44636, and receive virtually instantaneous flight status info. More details at http://4info.net.

GUILTY PLEASURES
Zillow.com -- type in the address, find out how much the home is worth. snopes.com -- before you forward that message about cell phones causing gas station explosions, or the latest money making tip from Nigeria, check here. The most current urban legends site.
kissthisguy.com -- Was that REALLY what Jimi Hendrix was singing? Well, yes and no. Check here for hard-to-understand song lyrics -- the correct ones, and the hilariously incorrect ones.

Scott Wyant
Information Systems Analysis and Design LLC
310.839.0958

A handful of California Chamber of Commerce- opposed bills that roll back cost-saving workers' compensation reforms, including three "job killer" bills, are moving through the Legislature.

SB 942 (Migden; D-San Francisco), SB 936 (Perata; D-Oakland) and AB 338 (Coto; D-San Jose) increase workers' compensation costs and jeopardize the 2004 reforms.

'Job Killers' Still Moving

Following are three "job killer" bills to increase workers' compensation costs still moving through the Legislature:

Åú SB 942 increases workers' compensation costs by creating new requirements for employers when bringing injured employees back to work.

The bill expands labor code section 132(a), which protects employees from discrimination based on their workers' compensation claims. Specifically, the bill creates new penalties for employers who do not return injured workers to their pre-injury occupation within five days of receiving notice that the employee can return to work, making the employer liable for a penalty of $100 per day, plus payment of full wages while not in compliance.

This unnecessary expansion is not in keeping with the traditional purpose of labor code section 132(a), and would create a situation in which litigation over violations would be commonplace. If the goal of SB 942 is to facilitate increased return-to-work, there should be a collaborative approach that is not punitive for employers who are seeking to comply with the law.

At press time, SB 942 awaited a third reading in the Assembly.

Åú SB 936 increases the cost of hiring and keeping employees by rolling back historic reforms and doubling permanent disability costs in California's workers' compensation system. The CalChamber is leading a coalition of more than 100 associations and businesses opposing SB 936.

The CalChamber believes there is no statistically valid and objective evidence that warrants an increase in benefits. The drop in overall amounts spent on permanent disability benefits is due to the application of objective medical evaluations using American Medical Association guidelines, the appropriate use of apportionment, the reduction of benefit weeks for low ratings and return-to-work adjustments.

Although there has been evidence of a drop in benefits, the CalChamber believes California should take a data-driven approach to reviewing the available information before considering a permanent disability benefit increase, let alone doubling benefits. Measuring the adequacy of permanent disability ratings under the current system by comparing them against the old system is unproductive.

At press time, SB 936 awaited a third reading in the Assembly.

Åú AB 338 increases temporary disability costs in workers' compensation claims by increasing the number of weeks benefits can be paid and creating a disincentive to use utilization review to enforce medical treatment guidelines.

AB 338 increases the cap on temporary disability benefits from 104 weeks to 156 weeks, even though evidence suggests that a prompt return to employment after an injury reduces the injured worker's long-term wage loss. Moreover, the bill creates a number of situations in which the cap on temporary disability benefits would not apply, thereby increasing the duration of benefits even past 156 weeks.

Provisions in AB 338 also punish an employer for the legal application of utilization review, the only way an employer can force medical providers to adhere to evidence-based medical treatment guidelines (one of the reforms) when requesting treatment.

AB 338 passed the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee July 11 by a vote of 3-2. The bill awaits its next hearing on the Senate floor.

Action Needed

Contact your representatives in the Senate and Assembly and encourage them to oppose these

Our CHAMBERPAK allows you to advertise to all our Chamber members for only $85.00 -- just give us no less than 1000 flyers printed on 20 pound, 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper and we do the rest!

Yes, reach out to your fellow Chamber members with specials and information to make that sale or just introduce your business to other members in an inexpensive manner.

The CHAMBERPAK is sent out by the third week of each month along with a monthly Chamber calendar and Chamber event information.

Flyers and payment must be in our office by Thursday, August 9th before 5:00 and of course, you must be a Chamber member to take advantage of this opportunity.

To be included in the ChamberPak, make your reservation by calling the Chamber Office at 310.287.3850 or click on the link below!

We hope that by now you have become a regular visitor to our website!

As you browse the site, if you find something especially helpful, something missing or something needing improvement, please do let us know.

We want it to be your best resource for remaining current on our growing membership, on upcoming events and on the legislative positions of your Chamber!

Over the past few months we were all brought the news of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villagrosa and City Attorney Rocky Dellegio's personal and professional issues; that have been written and spoken about in newspapers, radio and television. These issues need to be brought up and made public and if they break public law or policy, they need to be dealt with in an appropriate manner.

I bring this up as a way of comparing the State Budget Compromise that includes cutting of hundreds of millions of dollars in voted State Transportation Bonds in the 2006 election. This is being done in a legal manner, but has the Governor and the legislature broken a public trust by diverting voted bond money to solve California's leading issue, transportation?

The cost of the diversion of voted transportation money will cost the public in time, money and health issues in the long run. We need not only to catch up on our lagging infrastructure needs; we need to get ahead of it. If we do not it will affect our quality of life, our health and we will be just spending too much time on the roads, wasting more oil and costing everyone more money.

Our elected officials need to make some hard decisions on our budget. We need to stop spending money on special interests groups of all kinds. We need to get relatives of elected and appointed officials out of government contracts. We need to have a growth budget not political handouts to gain elected office or maintain appointed office.

That's what I think. . .

Steven J. Rose
President/CEO