Disneyland workers offer mixed reactions to $1,000 bonus
If Denise Anderson, a 27-year costume worker at Disneyland, gets a one-time, $1,000 bonus this year, she has no illusions that it will better her life in the long run.
“Working for Disneyland, you live paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “Maybe I could use it to pay off a medical bill that’s been hanging over my head.”
The Walt Disney Co. announced this week that as “a result of the recently enacted tax reform” law signed by President Donald Trump in December, it would pay out one-time, $1,000 cash bonuses to 125,000 full- and part-time non-executive employees.
RELATED: 125,000 Disney employees getting $1,000 bonus, access to $50 million educational fund
The company, with annual revenues of $55 billion, is among more than a dozen businesses, including AT&T, Wal-Mart and Verizon, that recently announced bonuses.
But a sentence in the company’s press release has raised alarm among the company’s 30,000 Disneyland employees, most of whom belong to one of the park’s 26 unions.
Briceño: Why We March
After the repeated attacks this year on the rights of women, immigrants, and the poor, it is more important than ever to organize across all social justice movements and make our voices heard. This time last year, 20,000 people stood in the streets of Santa Ana unified on women’s rights, social justice, and human rights. We marched to show that we are here and our voices are loud and strong. On Saturday January 20, 2018 we will take another step to support human rights and lift our voices in solidarity.
As a single mother on my journey from a front desk agent to becoming the co-president of an important Union in our region, I learned how important it is to advocate for myself and to teach others how to do the same. This journey continues as we come together at the 2018 O.C. Women’s March. There is much to stand up and march for.
I march for immigrant, low-wage women to have a voice on the job and equity in pay. I march for the mother who made a dangerous journey from a war torn country and works her fingers to the bone to provide a safe, healthy life for her little ones. She deserves a fair chance and fair pay for the work she has put in.
I march for the father who’s committed his life to helping the American economy thrive by building a business that supports our community. He shouldn’t be taken from his family over a policy. Family members shouldn’t be forcefully ripped apart from one another.
I march for their daughter and son, who dream of a future in the only place they have ever lived and known. They deserve safety, opportunity, and chance to hope – and most importantly, they deserve to sleep each night with loving parents nearby, not mourning their loss or living in fear of an ICE raid.
I march to keep immigrant families together. I march for comprehensive immigration reform.
Why do you march?
On January 20th, I will be at the second annual O.C. Women’s March in downtown Santa Ana, and I hope to see you there in solidary with us, for all the reasons you march. www.OCWomensMarch.org
Say No to Short Term Rentals in Garden Grove
Everyone deserves to live and work in safe, friendly, and clean communities. Short term rentals threaten to disrupt that for Garden Grove residents.
Over the past few months, the city of Garden Grove has reported an increase in resident complaints about short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods. As a neighboring city to popular tourist destinations such as Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott’s Berry Farm, and other destinations, Garden Grove is an attractive location for tourists. Currently, renting a private house or room for less than 30 days is illegal in the city of Garden Grove, and it’s in the city’s best interest to maintain that status.
Short term rental (STR) corporations hide STR’s negative effects. In reality, the STR industry imposes its business costs onto residents, neighborhoods, and cities.
STRs consist of rented-out homes, apartments and other living spaces for short-term stays. STR corporations that offer these services, like AirBnB, publicize people could “optimize one’s greatest asset,” by helping them rent out their homes to make additional money to pay off their mortgages or purchase necessary items.” However, while some individuals may benefit from some profit, the presence of STRs in a neighborhood introduces a host of problems by creating unregulated mini hotels.
Four County GOP Congressional Seats Targeted in 2018
Four Orange County Congressional Districts that pundits predict will be competitive races in November’s national election fight to control the House of Representatives have been flooded with 32 candidates as Democrats target the Republican-held seats and gear up for the June primary.
“It’s unbelievable, the record breaking numbers of candidates,” Orange County Democratic Party Chairwoman Fran Sdao said. “We typically have a hard time finding a Democrat to run, so this year we have the opposite problem.”
Democrats need to take at least 24 House seats throughout the country in order to win control. Currently, the House has 239 Republicans, 193 Democrats and three vacancies. The June 5 primary will narrow the Orange County field to the top two vote getters in each Congressional district, regardless of political party.
Women's March 1/20/18
The OC Women's March Coalition is proud to announce the date for the 2nd Annual March On Washington - Orange County!!
On January 21, 2017 we marched and lifted up our voices letting the nation know, Womens' rights are human rights! Since then, we have built a movement, called, wrote letters all to protect women's rights on so many levels. The time has come to march again, grow our movement and continue the change we started. Will you be a part of the change?
https://www.facebook.com/OCWomensMarch/
City-Subsidized Hotel Resort in Garden Grove Moves Forward
Plans for a 769-room, three hotel resort in Garden Grove will move forward after the City Council approved a development agreement that hands over a 5.18-acre property to the developer for $852,571 in fees.
The hotels, on Harbor Boulevard, are part of an overall strategy the city to benefit from its proximity to Disneyland, the Anaheim Convention Center and other tourist attractions.
The project, spearheaded by Land & Design and the American subsidiary of the Shanghai Construction Group, includes three different hotels with 39,867 square feet of conference and meeting room space, 36,885 square feet of entertainment/restaurant space, and a 1,297-space parking structure.
It comes with a package of subsidies as part of an agreement approved in April 2013. In addition to giving the site, known as Site C, to the developer, the city will pay up to $250,000 in improvements to the site and give the developer tax subsidies worth at least $17.6 million. The city’s former redevelopment agency paid $15.6 million for the Site C property on the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Twintree Lane.
Anaheim Council To Consider New Police Review Board
Beefed-up citizen oversight of the Anaheim Police Department will be considered by the City Council Tuesday with the underlying issue a report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU), which found Anaheim to be among the nation’s worst cities for deaths at the hands of police.
Council members Dec. 5 are scheduled to discuss the creation of a new police review board to replace a citizen review commission, the Public Safety Board, created in response to July 2012 police shootings that killed two young Latino men and sparked civil unrest and riots in front of City Hall.
The discussion comes on the heels of the Nov. 20 release of the ACLU report which found Anaheim ranks ninth among 60 of the largest U.S. cities for police-involved deaths. Anaheim Acting Police Chief Julian Harvey disputed the findings, and said the city actually ranks 27th.
Critics of the Public Safety Board – a pilot board that ran from 2014 to 2016 – contend it lacked purpose and authority.
10 Reasons to Revive the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign
Lake Forest Finalizes Map to Create City Council Districts
Lake Forest is moving away from at-large elections to district-based elections after the City Council finalized a map to avoid a potential lawsuit and create a district that potentially could be won by a Latino.
Currently there are no Latinos on the City Council. The council will vote next month on whether to adopt the map.
Despite disagreements over keeping communities together, breaking them apart completely, reducing the population deviations between districts and what defines communities of interest, council members voted 3-2 for the map that attempts to keep communities and neighborhoods together while creating the near-majority district for Latino residents near the 5 freeway.
Councilmen Jim Gardner and Andrew Hamilton, during the Nov. 21 meeting, opposed the map.
“We are forced down this road and I think there was a lot of people in this community who came out and spoke in favor of 116 …. I think the fairness is well-preserved in 116,” Mayor Scott Voigts said during the Nov. 21 council meeting. “We’re not going to have a utopia map.”
Anaheim Police Ninth Deadliest
The killing of two young Latino men in 2012 by Anaheim Police Department officers, which sparked mass protests in front of City Hall that summer, were not isolated incidents but part of a troubling pattern that put the city near the top of a national list of deadly force used by police, according to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California released Monday.
The back-to-back deaths of Manuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo in July 2012 were part of a pattern of fatal shootings that makes the Anaheim Police Department the ninth deadliest police force among 60 of the largest U.S. cities, the report states.
From 2003 to 2016, 33 people died following use-of-force by an Anaheim police officer. Of those 33, 29 were shot, three died in incidents where officers used a TASER and other physical force, and one after an APD officer placed the person in a chokehold, according to the report.
