January 9, 2018

Orange County

Voice of OC: Big Donors can dominate city election spending – regardless of contribution limits

That’s especially true on the local level, according to campaign finance experts, where there tend to be fewer rules and less transparency about how people give money to candidates.

 

LA Times: Everything you need to know about the suddenly wide-open race for an Orange County congressional district

The Cook Political Report immediately moved the Orange County district’s rating from “leans Republican” to “leans Democratic,” and Inside Elections shifted it from the GOP column to “Tossup.”

 

OC Register: Garden Grove City Council scheduled to chose mayor pro tem at Tuesday, Jan. 9, meeting

The City Council tonight, Jan. 9, is scheduled to select from among its ranks a mayor pro tem, which acts as a second-in-command to Mayor Steve Jones, leading meetings when Jones can’t attend and sometimes giving speeches at events.

 

Region

LA Times: Moments of terror in Thomas fire zone as powerful rains send the earth moving

Last night and early Tuesday morning, the rains began to pound. Within hours, the community was inundated with mudslides, leaving at least five dead and some trapped among damaged homes.

 

LA Times: San Diego coalition wants to raise hotel room tax to fund homeless solutions, road repairs and more

A coalition of tourism, business and homeless advocates and organized labor interests has launched a citizens’ initiative to significantly increase the hotel room tax to fund an expanded convention center, homeless solutions and road repairs.

 

Labor

Capital and Main: L.A. Times staffers await union vote tally

The drama now will lie in awaiting the results, not due until the mail-in ballots are counted and the NLRB announces the results on January 19.

 

NY Times: Unions are gaining a foothold at digital media companies

After employees at the online media company Vox Media announced plans to form a union last month, German Lopez, a senior reporter at the company’s general news website Vox.com, posted a thread on Twitter that inspired a heated debate more than 1,000 comments in length.

Publication Date: January 9, 2018