November 20, 2017

Orange County

OC Register: Saying thank you to our local veterans: Jennifer Beuthin

Our Veterans Day was short on political grandstanding and long on more than 70 veterans’ organizations committed to providing access to good jobs, mental health services and scores of other resources veterans actually need and can depend on.

 

Voice of OC: OCTA considers faster bus service or streetcar for heavily-used North and Central County routes

The Orange County Transportation Authority’s (OCTA) plans for the future could give public transportation in the county’s north and central areas a boost, including the possibility of two streetcar routes along north Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue.

 

OC Register: Orange County is bleeding better-paying factory jobs

Almost all the county’s new jobs came in leisure and hospitality, which gained 7,400 positions, most of them in restaurants and hotels. These jobs, many of them servicing the county’s booming tourist industry, pay on average less than $25,000 a year.

 

OC Register: Huntington Beach desalination plant challenged in court

The latest legal challenge, by California Coastkeeper Alliance, California Coastal Protection Network and Orange County Coastkeeper, is the sixth one the Huntington Beach plant has faced.

 

OC Register: Parents march to protest a result of Irvine’s growing pains: Overcrowded schools

Many say they bought into a promise their children could walk to elementary and middle schools in one of the state’s top-ranked school districts, in exchange for small backyards and high Mello Roos taxes.

 

OC Register: Get ready for an ‘abnormally warm’ Thanksgiving

A high-pressure system is expected to linger over the region and will be its strongest just in time for Thanksgiving, with low humidity creating a dry heat, said Stephen Harrison, a meteorologist with the weather service in San Diego.

 

Labor

Capital & Main: Judging Janus: What happens to California’s progressive legislation?

California’s 1.4 million-member public-sector unions are the key force that has pushed the state toward increasingly progressive policies. The Supreme Court could seriously diminish that force.

 

California

LA Times: California lawmakers upset that wildfire money is left out of White House's disaster aid request

California lawmakers had asked the White House for $7.4 billion to help residents recover from the wildfires that began in early October, calling it one of the deadliest and most destructive fire events in the state’s history.

 

Publication Date: November 20, 2017