15 Strange, Funny, Dumb and Outdated California Laws

Do you know of any stupid laws in your area? California has quite a few and we here at Datavo put a list of them together for your enjoyment.

• Sunshine is guaranteed to the masses.
• Women may not drive in a house coat.
• No vehicle without a driver may exceed 60 mph.
• Ice cream may not be eaten while standing on the sidewalk. (Carmel)
• Peacocks have the right to cross any street, including driveways. (Arcadia)
• Nobody is allowed to ride a bicycle in a swimming pool. (Baldwin Park)
• You are not permitted to wear cowboy boots, unless you already own two cows. (Blythe)
• Bowling on the sidewalk is illegal. (Chico)
• Men who wear mustaches are forbidden from kissing women. (Eureka)
• You may not hunt moths under a street light. (Los Angeles)
• It is illegal to set metal balloons afloat in the air.  (Los Angeles County)
• It is illegal to molest butterflies. (Pacific Grove)
• Elephants are prohibited from walking down Market Street unless they are on a leash. (San Francisco)
• Persons classified as "ugly" may not walk down any street. (San Francisco)
• One must not leave sand in their own driveway. (Walnut)

So what did we learn from these laws today? Sunshine is guaranteed (even if it rains). Always stop for pedestrian peacocks, keep your elephant on a leash, and buy a flashlight so that you can hunt down those rogue moths!

Feel free to leave any laws we missed in the comments section.

Kobe Bryant is Shooting for His Second Gold!

While a majority of the NBA players are resting and enjoying the off season, Kobe Bryant is with Team USA for the Summer Games in London. Lets take a minute to see how he got where he is today. 

Born in Philadelphia, he was the youngest of three and the only son of Pamela and Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, a professional basketball player that played for the Philadelphia 76er and coached the Los Angeles Sparks. At the age of 6 his father left the NBA to play professional basketball in Italy and moved the family with him. Kobe enjoyed his new lifestyle and learned to speak Italian and Spanish fluently. 

Kobe started playing basketball at the age of three. Even once, his family moved to Italy he would always return to the US to hone his skills and play in basketball summer leagues. His other favorite sport is soccer and he has stated that if he wasn't a basketball player he would of been a soccer player. 

When he was 13, his father retired and moved their family back to the US. Kobe excelled at basketball so much that as a freshman at Lower Merion High School he made the varsity team. He was very versatile as well, playing all five positions. But his breakout year was his junior year in high school which he was named Pennsylvania Player of the Year and resulted in numerous college scouts trying to recruit him. He had a couple different colleges on his list he was thinking of going to, but when Kevin Garnett got drafted into the pros in the first round right out of high school he started to consider going directly into the NBA.

His senior year in high school he led his team to their first state championship in over 50 years. His averaged stats for that season were 30.8 points, 12 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 4.0 steals, and 3.8 blocked shots per game. Kobe was honored with the following accolades; Naismith Player of the Year, McDonalds All-American, Gatorade Men's Player of the Year, and USA Today's All-USA First Team. 

At age 17, Kobe decided that he was going to go straight into the NBA, making him only the sixth player in NBA history to do this, as prep-to-pro players were not that common during this time. He was 13th pick in the first round of the 1996 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets who already had agreed to trade their pick to the Lakers. At the time he signed his contract he was only 17 and his parents had to co-sign until he turned 18 at the beginning of the season.

His first two seasons as a Laker, he mostly came off of the bench, but this third season 1998-99 marked his emergence as a premiere shooting guard in the league. He started every game of the shortened lockout 50 game season and resulted in him signing a 6-year extension on his contract valued at $70 million. But the Lakers were swept in the Western Conference Finals.

The next season 1999-2000 proved to be the year that Kobe became one of the premier shooting guards in the NBA. The Lakers, hired Phil Jackson to coach and signed free agent Shaquille O'Neal, who with Kobe formed one of the greatest center-guard combos in NBA History. Together they went on to win the NBA Championship in 2000, 2001, and 2002, catapulting him into elite status.

The Lakers did not renew Phil Jackson's contract after the 2003-2004 season and traded Shaquille O'Neal to the Miami Heat, and the Lakers went into decline with rumors that Kobe had something to do with both men leaving. The next few years he continued to play well, but had ups and downs in his personal & professional life. 

The 2005-2006 season saw Phil Jackson back as head coach of the Lakers despite the past differences he and Kobe had. In the 2007-2008 season, he was unhappy with the way the Lakers were being managed and requested to be traded if things did not change. After working out his issues with management, the Lakers were able to acquire Pau Gasol at the trade deadline. The Lakers made it to the Finals again for the first time without Shaquille O'Neal but lost to the Boston Celtics. This year was also his first time going to the Olympics, where as past of Team USA he help secure the GOLD. 

This proved to be the start of another great Laker run. Kobe led the team to two consecutive NBA Championships for seasons 2008-2009 and 2009-2010.

As he gets older, he continues to prove how great of a player he is in a league of elite players 10 years his junior. During the 2011-2012 season he could of been the leading scorer in the NBA but choose to sit the last game of the season out so that he could be ready for the playoffs giving the title to Kevin Durant.

He is a 5x NBA Champion, 2x Finals MVP, 2008 NBA MVP, 14x All-Star, 2x NBA Scoring Champion, and Olympic Gold medalist.

We at Datavo have our eye on him as he helps lead Team USA to another GOLD medal!

Understanding Your Datavo Taxes & Surcharges

When you get your bill in the mail, do you wonder what each tax is for? Here at Datavo, we know this can be difficult at times so here is a brief understanding of what each tax/surcharge covers.

• Universal Lifeline Telephone Surcharge:  Imposed by the CPUC* to help subsidize the fund for Universal Lifeline Telephone Service. It applies to all consumers, business or residential. It is billed monthly at a percentage of 1.150% (as of 7/1/12)**.

• CA Relay Service and Communications Devices Fund: Imposed by the CPUC to help provide telecommunications devices to deaf or hearing impaired consumers. It applies to all consumers, business or residential. It is billed monthly at a percentage of 0.2% (as of 7/1/12)** .

• CA High Cost Fund-A:  Imposed by the CPUC to provide supplemental revenue to 14 small phone companies to minimize rate disparities of basic phone service between rural and metropolitan areas. It applies to all consumers, business or residential. It is billed monthly at a percentage of 0.4% (as of 7/1/12) ** .

• CA High Cost Fund-B: Imposed by the CPUC to provide subsidies to Carriers of Last Resort (COLR's - A carrier that commits or is required by law to provide service to any customer in a service area that requests it, even if it will not be cost effective to the carrier) for providing basic telephone service to residential customers in high-cost areas currently serviced by any Pacific Bell Telephone Company (dba AT&T, Verizon, Cox, etc.). It applies to all consumers, business or residential. It is billed monthly at a percentage of 0.3% (as of 7/1/12)** .

• CA Teleconnect Fund (CTF): Imposed by the CPUC to provide a 50% discount on select communications services to libraries, schools, hospitals, and other non-profit organizations. It applies to all consumers, business or residential. It is billed monthly at a percentage of 0.079% (as of 7/1/12)** .

• CA Advanced Service Fund: Imposed by the CPUC to provide grants to telephone companies to help bridge the digital divide and bring service to unserved/underserved areas of the state.  It applies to all consumers, business or residential. It is billed monthly at a percentage of 0.14% (as of 7/1/12)**. 

• Number Portability Charge: Local Number Portability provides you the option of keeping your same telephone number when switching from one phone company to another.  It applies to all consumers, business or residential. This fee is a fixed monthly charge of $0.34** that helps telephone companies recover costs of providing the service of  local number portability.

• End User Common Line Charges - EUCL: This is a federally regulated monthly service charge billed by the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) intended to compensate them for the costs of connecting a call to a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) or interxchange carrier (IXC). It applies to all ILEC supplied loops. It is currently $6.50 ** per line.

• Federal Universal Service Fund Surcharge:  Imposed by the FCC to help make phone service  affordable and available to all Americans. Congress has mandated that all telephone providers providing interstate services must contribute to this fund.  It is applied to all consumers, business or residential.  The rate fluctuates every quarter and is mandated by the FCC.

• Federal Telecommunications Relay Service Fund (TRS):  Imposed by the FCC to help compensate TRS carriers for providing telephone transmission services that allow speech or hearing impaired consumers to communicate with a person without a speech or hearing disability. It applies to all consumers, business or residential. Carriers are billed for their share of the annual budget monthly.

• Los Angeles Communications Users Tax (CUT): Imposed by the City of Los Angeles, on the following communciations services: wired and wireless communications; intrastate, interstate and international services; ancillary services; VoIP; paging; and private communication services.  It is applied to all consumers, business or residential; at a rate of 9% ** .

• PUC: Imposed by the CPUC on all telecommunications carriers supplying services directly to customers in California. The rate is based on the telecommunications carriers intrastate revenue. 

• E911: imposed by the FCC used to fund enhanced 911 telephone systems and 411 services.  It is applied to all consumers, business or residential; at a rate of 0.5%**. 

*California Public Utilities Commission

** Rates are subject to change at any time.

Understanding Local, Local Toll, and Long Distance Calling Areas

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between Local, Local Toll and Long Distance calling areas when you're reading your telephone bill? We know it can be confusing at times, so let  Datavo help you understand.

• Local Call: any calls made within a Service Area up to 12 miles*.

• Local Toll Call (intraLATA): any calls made within a Service Area over 13 miles*. It is necessary to dail "1" when making a Local Toll Call even if the area code is the same as yours.

• Long Distance Toll Call (interLATA): any calls outside the Local and Local Toll Service Areas, calls orginating in one Service Area (LATA) and terminating in a different one, and international calls.

California is divided into 11 different Service Areas (LATA's). Which are then broken down into smaller 'Rate Centers'.

*Mileage is calculated from your local Rate Center in your community not your specific home address.  

London Summer Games 2012

It's 2012 and the Summer Games are almost here. With the torch lit and already on its way to London, excitement is brewing and Team USA is training.

Are you as excited as my coworkers and I are? It's all we're talking about around the water cooler here at Datavo. Everyone is chatting about which sports are their favorites; swimming, track and field, soccer, shooting, tennis, gymnastics, and of course my favorite, Basketball!

While July 27th is still two weeks away, the world is eagerly waiting to see the surprises that are in store. In the 16 days that the games will cover we will see people  running faster, throwing farther, jumping higher and pushing themselves past the point they thought possible all for that coveted GOLD medal. 

With the announcement of the 504-athlete roster, Team USA is ready.

I want to highlight some of these athletes exceptional talents over the next few weeks that made the cut onto Team USA. Specifically, the ones that have a connection to my home state of California, which include Kobe Bryant (basketball), Kerry Walsh (volleyball), sisters Serena and Venus Williams (tennis), Allyson Felix (track and field), the twins Bob and Mike Bryan (tennis), Tyson Chandler (basketball), Kyla Ross (gymnastics), Kim Rhode (shooting), sisters Haley and Alyssa Anderson (swimming), and Russell Westbrook (basketball), just to name a few. 

So get ready, set GO USA!