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Opinion: Uber’s challenge to California labor law is just the beginning

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:13:54 GMT

In a stunning decision Friday that departs from nearly 90 years of Supreme Court decisions, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed a constitutional challenge to Assembly Bill 5, the 2019 California law meant to protect low-wage workers.The ruling is especially shocking and troubling because in 2021 the same court rejected exactly the same challenge to the same law. The turnabout in Friday’s decision is likely to open the door to constitutional challenges to countless state business regulations.The case, Olson v. State of California, was brought by Uber and Postmates to challenge AB 5’s requirements that drivers for those companies be treated not as independent contractors, but as employees subject to the protections of minimum wage, overtime, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance and anti-discrimination laws.In a 2018 case involving truck drivers, the California Supreme Court adopted a three-part test for determining the status of a worker for purposes of state wa...

Santa Cruz police release details of officers’ shooting of suspected prowler

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:13:54 GMT

SANTA CRUZ — Ahead of criminal court proceedings for a Live Oak man who police shot at last month, Santa Cruz Police Department has revealed new audio and video footage.Released directly to its social media accounts, the department for the first time Tuesday aired select 911 audio and video clips from property surveillance, as well as officers’ dash-cam and vehicle body-worn cameras.After the shooting, the department initially remained tight-lipped with case details. Neither police nor their intended target, George Andrew Jaynes, 36, were injured in the shooting.Department authorities were releasing the recordings this week, however, in order to “bring additional context to the facts surrounding case 23S-00640,” an official is heard saying in the department-produced video.Jaynes, who pleaded not guilty last month to criminal charges of felony criminal threats, two counts of exhibiting a replica gun toward an officer and misdemeanor prowling, is scheduled to appear next in court for ...

California company fined $838,000 for failing to protect workers from cancer-causing gas

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:13:54 GMT

A Carson company that sterilizes medical devices has received 18 citations and civil penalties totaling $838,800 for failing to protect employees from overexposure to the cancer-causing chemical ethylene oxide, state officials announced Tuesday, March 21.A half-dozen of the citations issued to Parter Sterilization Services are for willful and intentional violations, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.“Our inspection showed this was not an isolated incident of chemical overexposure to workers,” Cal/OSHA Chief Jeff Killip said in a statement. “The employer failed to take action to protect employees even after it knew that some of them were exposed to dangerous levels of ethylene oxide.”Parter officials did not return a phone call seeking comment.Chronic exposure to ethylene oxide is associated with cancer, reproductive effects and neurotoxicity resulting in damage to the brain or peripheral nervous system. Its odor is undetectable to humans until it...

Potential 2024 presidential hopeful implores GOP not to overlook California

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:13:54 GMT

With the 2024 presidential election on the horizon, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is contemplating a run for the White House, has a message for Republicans in Orange County: “Californians will have a voice.”Hutchinson, 72, is swinging through Orange County this week as he develops his message about the country’s future and mulls a presidential bid. A decision on that, he said in an interview Tuesday, March 21, will come in April.But in the meantime, Hutchinson is visiting a blue California, speaking to a Republican Party of Orange County gathering and a Laguna Niguel Republican Women group this week before he headlines an event at the Nixon Library on Wednesday. And while here, he is imploring the national Republican Party to pay attention to California ahead of 2024.“California is important. We can’t simply be a party that appeals to middle America,” Hutchinson said, referring to what is typically seen as more conservative-leaning states not on either coast. “We have to ...

Los Angeles police to investigate how photos of undercover officers were released to anti-spying group

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:13:54 GMT

The chief and commissioners of the Los Angeles Police Department scrambled Tuesday, March 21 to explain how photos of officers doing undercover work were apparently released as part of a public records request for the names and photos of nearly every sworn member of the force.The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a civil rights group and frequent department critic over its surveillance policies, published the names and photos of around 9,200 LAPD officers in a searchable database Friday, March 17. The group obtained the photos after they were released in September 2022 as part of a freelance journalist’s request under state transparency laws.In Tuesday’s Police Commission meeting, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said the city was required to release the photos under the California Public Records Act. But he said didn’t know why the photos of the undercover officers were included in that release.Moore said he learned Friday the photos included officers “who work sensitive assignments.” He said the...

Strong winds, heavy rain pound Southern California – and it’s not over

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:13:54 GMT

A storm system that dropped widespread rainfall across Southern California on Tuesday will keep at it on Wednesday, with moderate rain expected for most of the region and heavy snowfall in the blizzard-weary San Bernardino mountains.Tuesday was a mixed bag: Intervals of heavy rain, then brief windows of sunshine, then additional rain and intense winds. There also was a sinkhole scare on the 5 Freeway in San Clemente, and warnings about waterspouts in Orange County and possible landspouts and hail in Los Angeles.Conditions could worsen before it’s over. The forecast for Big Bear was 18 to 24 inches of snow possible overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, and then 6 to 10 more inches that day.A prospective student nearly loses her umbrella as she walks across campus during a tour in the rain at the University of Redlands in Redlands on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)A student walks across campus in the rain at the University of Redlands in ...

Opinion: For Iraqis like me, U.S. invasion brought daily devastation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:13:54 GMT

In March 2003, I was in my second year at the University of Baghdad, studying engineering. The United States invaded Iraq and my dormitory emptied out, as we all returned home and waited to see what would happen.In my hometown of Basra, we watched U.S.-led coalition troops surging into the city. Yet people still couldn’t believe it — that longtime dictator Saddam Hussein was gone. For it to be real, we had to wait for Baghdad to fall and only once we saw that on television did we trust this new reality. On our screens, a coalition-run TV channel called al-Hurriya, or “Freedom” in Arabic, broadcast the iconic scene of Hussein’s statue in Baghdad being demolished and the bronze face covered by an American flag.Two decades on, we have learned that spectacle was mere propaganda, and that freedom cannot be imposed by an occupying force. And all these years later, I’m still struck by this contrast: The magnitude of what Iraqis lost — and continue to lose — and how vivid our memories are o...

California Army Master Sgt. who died in parachute accident to be welcomed home

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:13:54 GMT

Master Sgt. Michael Ty Kettenhofen was the tie that held those around him together, his brother said.Whether it was his four siblings, his parents, his friends or his Army brothers in the elite Golden Knights parachute team, the 37-year-old Orange native was the kind of person people clung to.“He was that kind of human being,” said Garrett Campbell, Kettenhofen’s older brother. “He was literally friends with everyone. If you weren’t friends with him, you just hadn’t met him yet.”Kettenhofen, 37, died on March 13 in a parachute training accident on a Florida air reserve base. Community members are being encouraged to join those whose lives he touched in lining the streets from the Ontario Airport to a Menifee funeral home with American flags on Thursday, March 23, to welcome home the 18-year active duty Army soldier who will be buried on Monday at the Riverside National Cemetery, where his grandparents are buried, with full military honors.Kettenhofen graduated from Orange High Schoo...

Argentina-born Retegui could start for Italy against England

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:13:54 GMT

MILAN (AP) — When Italy and England kick off their European Championship qualifying campaign against each other on Thursday, some of the spotlight will be on a player from Argentina.Forward Mateo Retegui has been called up for the first time by Italy coach Roberto Mancini, reigniting a debate in the country about selecting foreign-born players for the national team.Retegui was born in Argentina and has spent his entire playing career in the South American country, representing it internationally at Under-19 and Under-20 level. But he has never played for the senior national team and has Italian citizenship through his maternal grandmother.Instead of opting to wait for his chance to play for the World Cup winners, the 23-year-old Retegui has responded to the call of the Azzurri, who didn’t even qualify for last year’s tournament.“We had been following him for some time, he has quality and is a young, bright boy,” Mancini said. “We didn’t think he would say yes, we hope that he can be...

Proposed heavyweight fight between Fury-Usyk appears off

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:13:54 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The proposed fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk to become the first undisputed world heavyweight champion since 2000 appears to be off.Usyk’s promoter, Alex Krassyuk, said Wednesday the Ukrainian’s team ended negotiations because Fury was “putting so many obstacles in front of making the deal.”Usyk, the WBA, WBO and IBF champion, went on social media last week to accept Fury’s terms for a proposed April 29 fight in London, notably a 70-30 split of earnings from the bout in favor of the WBC titleholder.They were given a deadline of April 1 by the WBA to officially agree to a deal, otherwise Usyk would be ordered to undertake a mandatory title defense.“There was a feeling that after Usyk accepted 70-30, Tyson Fury started to think he can put a saddle on his neck and start riding Usyk as much as he can. It is not right,” Krassyuk told British broadcaster talkSPORT.“Usyk accepted the 70-30 split. He was so loyal and he was so willing to make this...