Jobs and Labor

Where's the Diversity At in the Orange County Register's Recent Hiring Spree?

Yes, yes: The Orange County Register has embarked on a hiring spree not seen since the days Otis Chandler was sweating money back in the 1980s. Yes, yes: hiring up, not down, is a wonderful strategy, not just because it ensures news reporting doesn't disappear but also employs people and keeps write ... More >>

UCI Medical Center Workers Prepare for Strike Vote; UC Says Union Ducking Pension Reform

Thirteen thousand patient care technical workers from the University of California's $6.9 billion medical system, which includes UC Irvine and UCI Medical Center in Orange, will start taking strike votes April 30.After 10 months of negotiations and more than three months of post-impasse proceedings, ... More >>

Disney Closes Space Mountain, Soarin' Over Cali and Now-Reopened Matterhorn Over Fall Fears

M-I-C . . .. . . See you at the bottom!Following citations by the state Friday over concerns about workers falling from tall attractions, Disney closed the Matterhorn and Space Mountain at Disneyland and Soarin' Over California at California Adventure on Saturday.

Irvine City Employees Doing Just Fine, Thanks!

For those disenchanted by reports of continued high unemployment, sequestration and the devaluation of your hard earned dollars, take heart, apparently it's not all doom and gloom. According to a study conducted by the California Public Policy Center (CPPC), we in the media haven't been entirely vig ... More >>

Rand Foster: The Vinyl Prophet

See our full OC Weekly 2013 People Issue

Get Up Tuesdays

Tiki Bar

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom To Address Orange County Democrats Tonight in Anaheim

Gavin Newsom--the onetime San Francisco mayor, current California lieutenant governor and possible future governor or U.S. senator--is scheduled to give the keynote speech tonight at the 18th Annual Truman Awards Dinner in Anaheim for the Democratic Party of Orange County.Newsom follows Barney ... More >>

Radical Labor History Walking Tour in San Pedro this Saturday!

The South Bay town of San Pedro is more than just Ports O'Call, messy shrimp, and tasty garlic bread. The place where 'the ghetto meets the sea' is also, more importantly, home to some of Southern California's most radical labor history dating back to the early 20th century. Famed rebel crooner J ... More >>

Embassy Suites Irvine Workers Strike Against New Management Company

Striking hotel workers at the non-union Embassy Suites Irvine walked off the job today and are taking their two-year long labor dispute to Pasadena. The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, which held its monthly board meeting there this morning, is a dominant investor in the ownersh ... More >>

Skateboard Shop Boss Abused Workers ... on Pot: Lawsuit

The pot-smoking boss of a Santa Ana skate shop forced employees to pose for "sexually prurient" ads, work with "crude and questionably pornographic material" and, if they piped up about sexual harassment and drug use on the job, quit or be demoted, claims a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior ... More >>

Matthew Edmondson, HIV Teacher, Sues "Hostile" Pegasus School for Discrimination

A gay middle school science teacher is suing the private Pegasus School in Huntington Beach over allegations they discriminated against him and forced him to quit because he is HIV positive.According to court documents, the head of the school and the middle school director "waged a discrimination ... More >>

Mop Jock

[Hey, You!] Gym etiquette for meatheads

Fresh & Easy Comes to Costa Mesa ... and So Do the Pickets

​"Sir, I'm asking that you don't shop here today." This seemed to be an unusual request from a Fresh & Easy employee near the entrance of the Tesco-owned market chain's latest store, which only opened an hour earlier along Harbor Boulevard just south of the 405 freeway in Costa Mesa. As he wen ... More >>

[UPDATED with Santa Ana Hypocrisy?] "Bain" of Mitt Romney's Existence: Shitty Stewardship of Anaheim Company

​UPDATE, JAN. 13, 10:42 A.M.: Even those who question Mitt Romney's commitment to conservatism would agree that, when it comes to business, he has steadfastly advocated in public speeches that government must get out of the way so they can flourish. But now, a second Orange County connection to Ro ... More >>

Adam Devine

Brea Improv

Occupy OC Protesters Duped For Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's Orange County Event

​About 50 liberal Orange County activists protested a Republican event here tonight for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, but rallied at the wrong location.The error wasn't necessarily the activists' fault. The Walker event was scheduled for the private, Newport Beach offices of Orange County Republica ... More >>

UC Irvine Students Protest Tuition Hikes Today With a 'Study-In'

​Occupy textbooks!   Angry over tuition hikes, slashed resources and hefty pay raises for top administrators, students at UC Irvine will be demonstrating today with a "study-in."  Reads the Facebook page: "Bring your notebooks, your textbooks, your laptops and bluebooks. Bring lawn ... More >>

Bossypants

[Hey, You!] The mistress of bad management

Noose Found Hanging Outside Orange County Labor Federation Office This Morning

​If someone was trying to send a message to the Orange County Labor Federation, they certainly caught everyone's attention. A noose was found dangling from the roof of the federations' offices in Orange this morning, according to numerous reports.As of this afternoon, there were no leads on who or ... More >>

Chuck DeVore Slams Todd Spitzer on Vegas Trip & Union Support

Spitzer: "I've done nothing wrong."​Talking to Chuck DeVore and Todd Spitzer, two men who were once pals, you get the sense that these two Republican candidates seeking the same office, the county's 3rd District supervisor's seat, don't like each other.DeVore recently produced a bombshell 30-secon ... More >>

[UPDATED with "Victim" Speaking:] Muslim Worker Told to Remove Hijab Sues Abercrombie & Fitch

​UPDATE, JUNE 27, 11:52 A.M.: The Muslim woman at the center of a lawsuit against Abercrombie & Fitch over being forced to remove her hijab while working in the stockroom of a Hollister Co. store in San Mateo spoke at this morning's press conference."When I was asked to remove my scarf after ... More >>

[UPDATED: Police Chief Uncertain of Cocaine Involvement] City Employee Commits Suicide, Jumping Off Costa Mesa City Hall

Christopher Victorio/OC WeeklyHuy Pham, in a photo brought to a candlelight vigil for him​UPDATE, MAY 31, 8:16 A.M.: Costa Mesa's police chief, Steve Staveley isn't entirely convinced by the conclusions being made from the coroner reports that Huy Pham had cocaine in his system at the time of his ... More >>

Newport Beach is So Trying to be the Next Costa Mesa: Considering Layoffs, Including Lifeguards

​Newport Beach sits just to the south/southeast west of the oh-so-troubled city of Costa Mesa. It's a city full of pretty people and prettier cars. It has 10 miles of coastline. Its population is 90-plus percent white and the median value of a home is said to exceed $1 million. And yet, just like ... More >>

Jim Righeimer Has Earned the Hate of the Unions

[Moxley Confidential] The conservative Costa Mesa city councilman insists his pension-slashing plans are about pragmatism, not politics

Cubensis

Marlin Bar

Sic Waiting

DiPiazza's

OC Register Is Hot for Teacher . . . Salaries

Local educators fume as the daily publishes its latest salary database

Orange County Register Teacher Salary Expedition Spooks Public School Instructors

​An Orange County Register editorial project that relies on the names, campuses and salaries of all public school teachers in the county has riled many instructors, a state teacher union official confirmed.This was most dramatically played out in the Huntington Beach Union High School District (HB ... More >>

Disney's Hotel-Workers' Union Is Still Trying to Bring Down the Mouse

After some two-and-a-half years of stalled negotiations and street theater, a new labor deal still seems like Fantasyland

Disneyland Prohibits Muslim Worker from Wearing Hijab on the Job, Suit Claims

Art piece courtesy of the Nadia Afghani Collection...​EDIT, 5:30 P.M.: New updates and info emerge from the afternoon's press conference. Please see this post for more details. EDIT, 1:30 P.M.: We're live Tweeting from the press conference! Follow us at @OCWeekly for all the latest developments.Di ... More >>

Death and Taxes

[Moxley Confidential] While the public wasn't listening to Steven Greenhut, the certainties of life changed

Positions Trimmed, Reductions Remain in 2010-2011 Orange County Budget

​Joking with a county official earlier today, the notion "that's why you make the big bucks" was thrown out."Not so much," replied the bureaucrat, now serious. "We just found out they are extending our 5 percent pay cuts.""They" would be the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which in adopting a ... More >>

Mitchell Basil Zogob, Insurance Broker Fraudster, Brokers 10 Years in Can

​A San Juan Capistrano insurance broker this week brokered a 10-year deal behind state prison bars after pleading guilty to grand theft and insurance fraud in a $4.6 million scheme involving false certificates of insurance being issued to four companies.Mitchell Basil Zogob, 51, worked as an insu ... More >>

It's Bring Your Invisible Friend to Work Day!

[Hey, You!] The case of the Christ-bot boss

Cop Union To Sue OC Prosecutor Tony Rackauckas

Union Boss Quint Unhappy With Rackauckas​The union representing investigators in the district attorney's office, notified county officials this morning that it will file a lawsuit tomorrow in federal court to block District Attorney Tony Rackauckas' plan to implement a temporary layoff plan as a w ... More >>

Irvine Company Janitors Prepare to Strike--Good Luck With That

A couple of days ago, members of the Service Employees International Union (SEUI) Local 1877 who clean offices at Fashion Island and the Irvine Spectrum Center voted overwhelmingly to strike against the two facilities' owner, the mighty Irvine Company. The Orange County Labor Federation is on board ... More >>

OC Register Death Watch Part Two

Last week, I reported that the Orange County Register is in secret talks with Dean Singleton, owner of the Denver-based MediaNews Inc. and an all-around Darth Vader of daily news--he bought and all but killed the Long Beach Press Telegram, just as one example--to share content and lay off writers. I ... More >>

A SCOWL in the Night: Anonymous Poet Bemoans the Self-Inflicted Demise of the OC Register

This week, an anonymous source sent the Weekly a poem called "Scowl," which appears to be a riff on Allen Ginsberg's famous and similarly-titled manifesto of 1950s beatnik angst, "Howl." The poem also appears to be written by someone intimately familiar with the inner workings of the Orange County R ... More >>

Update-a-palooza

A variety of stories lurching forward this morning… It looks like the most special of all special elections is finally over, and Janet Nguyen is the new First District Supervisor, winning by a total of 3 votes.   Superior Court Judge Michael Brenner rejected Trung Nguyen's claim th ... More >>

Suck on it, USC!

My alma mater (at least for the MA) shocked USC, 13-9, a great joy for all of us who despise the lords of Orange County. Click over to OC Blog, where you can find a comprehensive list of these terrible Trojans (my boss and courageous Catholic lawyer John Manly excepted). Also remember that South Coa ... More >>

Cheeseburgers and Patsies in the White House

If it wasn't for the cheeseburgers, I might have found this morning's resignation of White House Chief of Staff Andy Card touching. Certainly the reporters– and I use that word loosely– on the various cable news stations did, but then they were just following the White House's lead and i ... More >>

Tailgate Party

These Jeans Are a Steal

Mexican factory workers say they work all dayliterallyto keep you in Wet Seal jeans

Million-Dollar Munchikins

How a councilwomans taxpayer-funded multiple childbirth complicated HBs budget crisis

Letters

Quackos

Ugly Ducklings Politics Are Even Uglier

Bad Company

Six of Americas worst corporations are your neighbors!

Blood Simple

Moss Appeal

Mossimo hits Target, cheapskates go nuts!

Teletubby