OB Rag

Southern California Grocery Workers Are Rising for Fair Wages and Better Working Conditions

By Todd Walters, President, UFCW Local 135

For too long, the hardworking union grocery workers of Southern California have been overworked, understaffed, and underpaid. These essential workers, who showed up day in and day out during the pandemic to keep our communities fed, now find themselves struggling to make ends meet. With inflation driving up the cost of living at an alarming rate, it’s time for major grocery corporations—Kroger/Ralphs, Albertsons/Vons, Stater Bros., and Gelson’s—to step up and provide the fair wages and benefits that these workers have earned.

Southern California UFCW Locals are gearing up for what will likely be the toughest round of negotiations in decades. Bargaining with Kroger/Ralphs and Albertsons/Vons kicks off on February 13, with Stater Bros. negotiations beginning on March 6.

UPDATE:

The two-person crew of an EA-18G Growler is in stable condition after their aircraft crashed during an attempted landing at Naval Air Station North Island, Navy officials told USNI News.

“At approximately 10:15 PDT, a U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 135 crashed while landing,” read a statement from Naval Air Forces.
“Two aircrew ejected into San Diego Bay and were quickly recovered before being transported to a local hospital for medical assessment. Both personnel are in stable condition. Naval Base Coronado has stood up an Emergency Operations Center in response to the mishap, and assessment of the crash site is ongoing.”

The aircraft had traveled from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island and was in San Diego for an exercise. The Growler was not assigned to the air wing that is currently training with the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group.

According to radio traffic at the time of the crash, the two-seat electronic attack aircraft was approaching NAS North Island. Shortly after leaving the runway, the crew of the aircraft ejected, and the plane crashed into the water. The two aviators were initially picked up by a sport fishing charter before they were transferred to a Customs and Border patrol vessel, according to radio traffic. According to ABC 10, the aviators were taken to UC San Diego Health.

Following the recovery of the crew, emergency crews were responding to the debris and fuel from the crash, according to radio traffic.

The following is the complete statement from Naval Air Forces.

Law professors have long debated what the term means. But now many have concluded that the nation faces a reckoning as President Trump tests the boundaries of executive power.

It will take some time, though perhaps only weeks, for a challenge to one of President Trump’s actions to reach the Supreme Court.

By Adam Liptak / New York Times / Feb. 10, 2025

There is no universally accepted definition of a constitutional crisis, but legal scholars agree about some of its characteristics. It is generally the product of presidential defiance of laws and judicial rulings. It is not binary: It is a slope, not a switch. It can be cumulative, and once one starts, it can get much worse.

It can also be obvious, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley.

“We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis right now,” he said on Friday. “There have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions in the first 18 days of the Trump presidency. We never have seen anything like this.”

Prepared by Kate Callen

Source: Citizens Budget Review Committee

The first of four 2025 Budget Review Town Hall forums explored a range of public concerns about San Diego city finances, from diversion of developer impact fees (DIFs) to inflated management payrolls to sparse infrastructure maintenance.

More than 50 people gathered for the February 8 forum in the Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Knox Library on Washington Street. Chief Operating Officer Eric Dargan and Randy Reyes, a Community Representative for Mayor Todd Gloria, were in the audience. Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, whose District 3 includes Mission Hills, did not attend.

Throughout the two-hour forum, which began with a slideshow from Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica, several points of public consensus came through strong and clear, including:

When constituents challenge City Hall funding decisions, and they are told, “Well, that’s what the policy dictates,” they must exert pressure on their elected officials to change the policy.

by Ernie McCray

As I still reflect on the positive and hopeful vibe
that I basked in
at a Dr. Martin Luther King Day
celebration,
I find myself
thinking about
the night before the event
when I went to bed
feeling a little trepidation
because of the upcoming inauguration
of a man who stands against
any and every idea that ever played
in MLK’s warmhearted imagination,

Videos on social media are circulating showing Latinos rejecting or turning away from American products in response to mass deportations taking place around the country.

One video shows a family about to have dinner together when a young man emphatically tells his mother “how could you do that when Coca-Cola is turning its back on Mexicans.”

In response, the mom takes a large bottle of Coke and pours its contents down the drain.

This is part of an effort by a group called Freeze Latino Movement to boycott American companies while poking fun of the ongoing deportations launched by the Trump administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

by Ella Lee / The Hill / Feb. 10, 2025

A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to comply with his order to unfreeze federal grants, after attorneys general for several Democratic states claimed the directive was not being fulfilled.

In a short order Monday, U.S. District Judge John McConnell directed the Trump administration to “immediately” end any federal funding pause until he decides whether to indefinitely block the freeze while litigation is ongoing.

The judge said specifically that the withheld funds that must be restored include those appropriated under two laws championed by former President Biden — the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — and those intended for institutes and other agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country,” McConnell wrote.

A La Jolla-based ice cream shop is coming to Ocean Beach and plans to open this spring right next to the Ocean Beach Playhouse at 4944 Newport.

Scoops Ice Cream Shop will be expanding its presence in San Diego with the opening of its third location.

According to SanDiegoVille:

Since launching in La Jolla Shores in 2018, Scoops has built a loyal following for its handcrafted ice cream, crepes, and other sweet treats. Known for offering both dairy and vegan ice cream flavors sourced from Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, the shop has become a go-to spot for high-quality, all-natural frozen desserts.

People into football have heard of Eric Allen.

And for those that haven’t, be it known that Allen played football under the legendary coach Bennie Edens at Point Loma High School in the early 1980s, and was just inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Finally. Because for him, it’s been a long wait.

For Eagles fans, Allen is the first cornerback in Eagles history to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was announced as part of the Class of 2025 on Thursday night last week at the NFL Honors awards ceremony in New Orleans.

By Erwin Chemerinsky / OpEd LA Times / Feb. 10, 2025

If one were to design a path to authoritarian rule, it would be what we have seen in the first weeks of the Trump administration. For my book No Democracy Lasts Forever, I studied how democracies die and are replaced by authoritarian regimes. Almost always the rulers are elected rather than coming to power through a coup, and then they consolidate authority and silence their critics.

Where are we on the path?

Checks and balances are being destroyed. The quintessential legislative power is control over the purse. But President Trump and those around him have asserted that he can control that by refusing to spend money appropriated by federal statute. The newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, at his confirmation hearings, was explicit that the president could refuse to spend funds notwithstanding a federal law — the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 — that prohibits this. And the president already has done this on a large scale, by signing an executive order freezing a massive amount of federal expenditures (enjoined by two federal courts), and by all but eliminating the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was created and funded by federal statutes. At the same time, he has asserted the power to spend money without congressional authorization as in the offer of a buyout to federal workers.

From downtown San Diego to the streets of Los Angeles and across the country to countless other cities, to the stately rooms of dozens of federal courts, to the California legislature in California, to the halls of Congress and the Senate, the resistance to Donald Trump and Elon Musk is growing.

Just on Sunday, February 9, in San Diego several thousand people gathered at two different protests of Trump, Musk and his immigration policies.

In the Streets

Protesters began demonstrating at Waterfront Park Sunday, voicing “anger, fear, courage and resistance to hate, fascism, oligarchy and eroding civil rights,” the San Diego Union-Tribune reported this morning, citing it was the third time this week alone that protesters against Trump had marched through downtown San Diego.The U-T:

“…people came from Point Loma, El Cajon, Vista and Santee. There were babies, high school students, families and retirees in a crowd that appeared to easily top 1,000 people.”

They were united in protesting two U.S. leaders — Elon Musk and President Donald Trump — and one scourge: fascism. “Hey hey, ho ho, Nazis have got to go,” attendees chanted. While the president was a primary focus, at least as much of crowd’s ire was directed at Musk, who is the appointed head of the new Department of Government Efficiency and whose directives have aimed to shrink the federal government and replace civil servants with new hires loyal to the current administration.