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Tag: CAW

  • Panera Bread to raise employees’ minimum wages in California after backlash

    Panera Bread to raise employees’ minimum wages in California after backlash

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    A Panera Bread franchisee owner said he will raise the minimum wage for his employees in California when the state’s new fast food minimum wage law goes into effect, despite reports saying the chain wouldn’t have to comply.

    California’s new fast-food minimum wage law, which goes into effect on April 1, would raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers from $16 per hour to $20.

    However, the law’s text doesn’t recognize places that operate “a bakery that produces for sale on the establishment’s premises bread” as fast food, seemingly excluding places like Panera Bread from following the new requirements.

    Many were puzzled as to why the exemption was included in the law’s final version.

    “That’s part of the sausage-making of politics,” Gov. Gavin Newsom previously said during a news conference when asked about the exemption.

    However, in February, reports came out that Newsom pushed for the exemption since it would benefit Greg Flynn, a billionaire and longtime donor who has two dozen Panera Bread locations in the Golden State.

    Newsom and Flynn have denied those accusations.

    Regardless of the exemption, representatives for Flynn told KTLA that Panera Bread locations owned and operated by Flynn Group will abide by the new law.  

    “At Flynn Group, we are in the people business and believe our people are our most valuable assets. Our goal is to attract and retain the best team members to deliver the restaurant experience our guests know and love,” representatives for Flynn told KTLA in an emailed statement.

    “Regardless of whether the bakery exemption in AB1228 applies to our bakery-cafes, California locations owned and operated by Flynn Group will increase all hourly pre-tip wages to $20 per hour or higher effective April 1.”

    Still, due to backlash regarding the bread-making exemption, California Republicans have called for an immediate ethics investigation.

    “Friends of the party in power get exemptions, and that’s not right.” Assemblyman Joe Patterson (R- Rocklin) said. “If this is a bad law for one company, then it’s probably a bad law for other companies.”

    Other companies that aren’t exempt from the law, like Chipotle, previously announced plans to raise prices in the Golden State.

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    Iman Palm

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  • NWS releases final snowfall totals from Sierra Nevada blizzard

    NWS releases final snowfall totals from Sierra Nevada blizzard

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    (FOX40.COM) — The skies are beginning to clear after four days of nearly nonstop snowfall in the Sierra Nevada, where over 100 inches of snow fell in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.

    Forecasts indicated that an unbelievable 10 feet of snow would pile up in some areas of the Sierra and snowfall levels would drop as low as some communities at 2,000 feet of elevation during the multi-day storm.

    These predictions were not far off and the snow total even exceeded some of the expectations from forecasters.

    Sugar Bowl stole the snowfall total show with 126 inches or 10.5 feet of snowfall recorded over the four days.

    That is enough snow to bury the average covered bus stop with two-and-a-half feet extra of snow on top.

    Soda Springs and Kingvale also recorded over 100 inches of snow with 116 inches (9.6 feet) and 106 inches (8.83 feet) respectively.

    Other Snowfall Totals:
    • Palisades Tahoe: 93 inches
    • Dodge Ridge: 89 inches
    • Sierra Snow Lab: 75.2 inches
    • Boreal: 74 inches
    • Eagles Lake CalTrans: 66 inches
    • Blue Canyon CalTrans: 31 inches

    NWS Sacramento is predicting that another six to eight inches of snow is expected to fall throughout the Central and Northern Sierra on Monday evening.

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    Matthew Nobert

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  • Yosemite National Park to close due to forecast weather

    Yosemite National Park to close due to forecast weather

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    YOSEMITE, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Yosemite National Park announced Thursday that the park will be closing due to a forecast major winter storm.

    Park officials say the park will remain closed at least through Sunday, March 3 at noon, or possibly later depending on conditions.

    Visitors currently in the park are being told to leave as soon as possible, and no later than noon on Friday, March 1.

    Officials say the National Weather Service is forecasting several feet of snow throughout the park. Badger Pass may receive over seven feet of snow with very high winds.

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    Cristina Lombardo

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  • SF misses out as San Diego Zoo prepares for return of giant pandas

    SF misses out as San Diego Zoo prepares for return of giant pandas

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    The San Diego Zoo is preparing for the potential return of giant pandas after an agreement was signed with a wildlife association in China.

    “We are humbled by the potential opportunity of continuing our collaborative conservation efforts to secure the future for giant pandas,” Dr. Megan Owen said in a news release Thursday from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

    The collaboration between SDZWA and Chinese research partners plays a role in efforts to bring the giant panda back from the brink of extinction, contributing directly to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List downgrading the giant panda from endangered to vulnerable in 2021, the news release stated.

    “Our partnership over the decades has served as a powerful example of how—when we work together—we can achieve what was once thought to be impossible,” Owen said.

    SDZWA also filed a permit application with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and shared conservation plans to “ensure alignment for the greater benefit of giant pandas,” Owen said.

    Zoo officials say that if all permits and other requirements are approved, they could receive male and female pandas as early as the end of summer.

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    Tony Kurzweil

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  • America’s first Black opera singers debuted in Sacramento

    America’s first Black opera singers debuted in Sacramento

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    (FOX40.COM) — Following the mass migration of the Gold Rush in the early 1850s, an African American New York barber, his wife, and two children made the 3,000-mile journey west to strike a figurative gold of their own.

    Finding themselves in Sacramento, Samuel B. Hyers set up shop in the future capital city as his wife Annie E. Hyers tended to the musical education of their daughters Anna and Emma.

    The young sisters showed a natural vocal and musical ability as he continued to invest in their education.

    German professor Hugo Sank and later opera singer Josephine D’Ormy taught the young girls before they began performing for private parties to prepare for larger audiences.

    The Hyers Sisters, at the ages of 9 and 11, would make their public debut on April 22, 1867, at the Sacramento Metropolitan Theater, which was located on K Street between 4th and 5th streets.

    This performance in Sacramento would launch their pioneering career as professional singers and stage actors in post-Emancipation America.

    The young girls’ opera performance received glowing reviews, which jumpstarted their careers that would take them across the country.

    With their father leaving behind the barber chair to manage his daughters, they hit the road in August 1871 for their first nationwide tour.

    They performed in Salt Lake City, Chicago, Cleveland, New York City and Boston.

    Their performance in Boston was part of the 1872 World Peace Jubilee, which was one of the nation’s first integrated major musical concerts.

    As the sisters’ fame grew over the following years, they decided to launch their own theater company, where they produced musicals and dramas.

    Some of the more notable works to come out of the theater company were:
    • Out of Bondage, written by Joseph Bradford
    • Urlina, the African Princess, written by E. S. Gethchell
    • The Underground Railway, written by Pauline Hopkins
    • Stage version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Pauline Hopkins

    According to Nadine George-Graves’ The Royalty of Negro Vaudeville, the 1890 production of Out of Bondage was the first Black-organized musical show.

    These shows would create a new pathway for future Black artists and those looking to bring the stories of the African American experience to the stage.

    From the late 1870s to the 1880s, the Hyers sisters’ theater company had more than six shows running. They traveled with the shows through the mid-1880s and continued to appear on stage into the 1890s.

    In 1893, the sisters announced their retirement from stage life at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

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    Matthew Nobert

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  • California State University faculty vote in pay raises and other benefits amid strike

    California State University faculty vote in pay raises and other benefits amid strike

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    (FOX40.COM) — After a lengthy negotiation process and strikes, the California Faculty Association ratified a vote that adds pay increases and other benefits for California State University instructors to their employment contracts.
    •Video Above: Faculty begins weeklong strike at Sacramento State, other CSU campuses

    “The California State University (CSU) is pleased with the results of the California Faculty Association’s (CFA) ratification vote,” the CSU chancellor’s office said in a statement on Monday.

    The tentative agreement provides a 10 percent general salary increase to all faculty by July. It also includes a raise in salary minimums for the lowest-paid faculty that will result in increases—some as high as 21 percent—for many of them, according to the chancellor’s office.

    It also addresses issues that the CFA identified as “extremely important to its members, such as increased paid family leave from six to 10 weeks and a process for making gender-inclusive restrooms and lactation spaces more easily accessible.”

    “We look forward to the CSU Board of Trustees Committee on collective bargaining ratification of the agreement in March and to continue working in partnership with the CFA and its members to carry out our mission in service to our students and the university,” the CSU chancellor’s office said.

    The CFA went on strike in 2023 and again in January 2024. The most recent strike (January 2024) was planned for the first week of the spring semester. After one day, CSU agreed to negotiate.

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    Veronica Catlin

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  • The innovative ways California is improving its underground water storage

    The innovative ways California is improving its underground water storage

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    As of mid-February, the Sacramento area has now received more than a foot of rain in the current water season. 

    The rain and snowfall from this winter’s storms have been swelling rivers, adding to the Sierra Nevada snowpack and hopefully replenishing reservoirs. 

    Water experts say if we don’t change the way we store and use the water we will be in trouble in the future, likely facing higher water bills and laws that seriously restrict water use. 

    There could be another way, however, if we look beneath our feet. 

    When massive storms bring lots of water to California, bodies of water like Folsom Lake have to release water to make room for more water.   

    All that water that is released heads out to sea unused. A lot of storm runoff also goes unused.   

    But what if there was a way to capture a good chunk of that unused water and store it for a drought that we know is possible? 

    That is exactly what state officials are trying to do by putting excess water underground.  

    For decades hydrogeologist Tim Godwin has been studying groundwater.  

    “This is fundamentally changing the way we look at how we manage water in the state,” Godwin said.   

    He says the state’s Dept. of Water Resources is now looking at the whole water picture. 

    “Notice I am not distinguishing groundwater from surface water… it is one resource, and they are connected, and now we are starting to manage the basins, the bottom of our system,” he said.  

    So how much water can be stored underground? 

    Imagine a standard bucket. That bucket can represent all the water in California’s lakes and rivers in one year, about 40 to 50 million acre-feet of water. 

    Four standard garbage bins —the ones that you set out on the curb every week— represent the capacity of how much water can be stored underground. 

    Even though the aquifers are not empty, they can still take two to four times the amount of water California gets in a normal year.  

    Scientists have found two main ways to get all of that water underground. 

    Roseville has been implementing one of the ways for almost two decades through the use of a reversible water pump.   

    “Roseville was key in sort of pioneering the process really from the start,” Sean Bigley with Environmental Utilities of Roseville said.  

    The massive pumps can withdraw groundwater, but when we aren’t in a drought, these pumps can put large amounts of treated water back into the ground. 

    “This past year we were able to recharge about 2000-acre feet of water.  That is 6-thousand households worth of water (in an entire year),” Bigley said.  

    It’s hard to visualize where all the water goes underground.  

    They send water hundreds of feet down, saturating layers of rock, dirt, sand and silt, replenishing the aquifers that have been slowly shrinking over decades of use. 

    The other way to get a lot of water underground fast is with groundwater basins. These big areas of land can be flooded with storm runoff, water we couldn’t otherwise capture. 

    Dr. Graham Fogg, professor emeritus of hydrogeology at UC Davis, said, “If you look across this landscape, I mean it looks all the same, so people think, ‘Oh, the aquifer is uniform.’  Well, it’s not uniform.” 

    “It’s kind of like a complex architecture underground. Where water moves quickly and where we can recharge relatively rapidly is sand and gravel,” Dr. Fogg added.  

    To find where the best, most porous soil is, the DWR uses a high-tech electromagnetic device carried high above the ground by a helicopter traveling up and down the state. 

    Think of it like a giant X-ray or MRI that looks deep into the ground, around 1,000 feet, to map where the most porous areas are located. 

    Whether it is with big basins or reversible pumps, these tools will become more important as our climate is changing and storms have the potential to get stronger. 

    “Our surface water storage can fill quickly as we saw last year, (but) then what?” Godwin said. “This is the ‘then what?’”  

    This way of thinking about groundwater storage is so different from what was applied in previous decades. It takes years to get the different water agencies and thousands of landowners on board. 

    However, cities like Roseville, as well as the state’s water administrators and countless owners, are catching on and making those changes to save California’s water future. 

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    Richard Sharp

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  • California storage unit buyers come across belongings that may have ties to MC Hammer, others

    California storage unit buyers come across belongings that may have ties to MC Hammer, others

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    MODESTO, Calif. (KTXL) — A couple of Northern California TikTok users have posted about their storage unit finds before, but a unit they recently purchased in the city of Tracy could be extra special: it may have belonged to legendary artist MC Hammer.

    The storage unit had parachute pants, a couple of fur coats, an old Mac computer, and over 30 master tapes labeled Death Row Records with possible unreleased music from MC Hammer, DJ Quick, and Snoop Dogg. 

    “In the pictures, it just looked like a bunch of clothes laying in the back of the unit,” Alex Stevens told Nexstar’s KTXL, explaining they often pick up these units for about $5 and make between $100 to $200 off them. “This one just happens to be different.”

    However, the guys who bought the storage unit aren’t 100% convinced it has ties to the artists. 

    “Until I actually hear from MC Hammer himself or Snoop Dogg, I don’t believe it,” Stevens said. “People claim to be managers, but all we have is the documentation, the tapes, and people are contacting me [claiming to be] affiliated with them. So obviously, something’s going on to where it’s related.”

    Stevens and Andrew Cordova, who go by Central Valley Picker on TikTok, said they have been in contact with people claiming to be from Death Row Records, the music label MC Hammer was signed to in the 1990s. 

    Those who claim to be from the label have contacted the guys about acquiring some of the stuff, but they have not yet agreed on a deal. 

    Stevens and Cordova believe the items in the storage could be worth millions, creating a massive opportunity from a unit they paid $30 for. 

    “It’s amazing. You just don’t know what you’re gonna find when you get inside the unit, but this is probably one of our most amazing finds.” Cordova said.

    In response to a post on X, a verified account belonging to MC Hammer said, “if this be truth a man spent $50 for such a gift are they not his? God bless him.” 

    KTXL reached out to MC Hammer and Death Row Records but has not yet received a response. 



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    Jeremiah Martinez

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