McDonald’s says it's suing Stephen Easterbrook, the CEO it ousted last year over an inappropriate relationship with an employee, alleging Monday that he covered up relationships with three other employees and destroyed evidence. The company now wants to reclaim hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation paid to Easterbrook on...
Robots Out of Work as Automated Businesses Close in Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — It has been a bad week for robots in the San Francisco Bay Area. A Silicon Valley company that used robots to make its pizzas closed this week, and three coffee shops in downtown San Francisco that used robots as baristas also shuttered. Zume Pizza said it...
Uber, Postmates Sue to Challenge California's New Labor Law
SACRAMENTO — Ride-share company Uber and on-demand meal delivery service Postmates sued Monday to block a broad new California law aimed at giving wage and benefit protections to people who work as independent contractors. The lawsuit filed in U.S. court in Los Angeles argues that the law set to take...
Disney Characters Say Tourists Inappropriately Touched Them
ORLANDO, Fla. — Walt Disney World employees who portray Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck each filed police reports this month claiming they were inappropriately touched by tourists. The woman inside the Mickey Mouse costume went to the hospital with neck injuries caused by a grandmother patting the character's...
Walters: Local Governments Are in Distress
California’s economy has been booming for most of this decade and has generated a cornucopia of tax revenues for state and local governments. The state has benefited most, because it collects income taxes. Californians’ taxable incomes have been soaring, especially for those atop the economic ladder, whose tax rates also...
Affordable Housing Among Striking Chicago Teachers' Demands
CHICAGO — Striking Chicago teachers who are seeking smaller class sizes and higher pay also are demanding that the nation's third-largest city do more to lower housing costs and put more resources into helping homeless students. The demand for affordable housing citywide — for students and their financially-strapped families as well as...
US Public Land Workers Getting Assaulted, Threatened on Job
BILLINGS, Mont. — Federal employees overseeing U.S. public lands were assaulted or threatened at least 360 times over a five-year period marked by heightened tensions with anti-government groups, according a Congressional watchdog agency. The Government Accountability Office in a new report highlights anti-government tensions that at times have boiled over....
Walters: Politicians Mull the Future of Work
The Legislature’s 2019 session will end in two weeks and no issue will have more impact on California’s workers and economic future than Assembly Bill 5 – even if it doesn’t pass. AB 5 would place in law, with some exceptions, a landmark state Supreme Court decision that sharply tightened the legal parameters governing...
Walters: Politicians Mull the Future of Work
The Legislature’s 2019 session will end in two weeks and no issue will have more impact on California’s workers and economic future than Assembly Bill 5 – even if it doesn’t pass. AB 5 would place in law, with some exceptions, a landmark state Supreme Court decision that sharply tightened the legal parameters governing...
Walters: Politicians Mull the Future of Work
The Legislature’s 2019 session will end in two weeks and no issue will have more impact on California’s workers and economic future than Assembly Bill 5 – even if it doesn’t pass. AB 5 would place in law, with some exceptions, a landmark state Supreme Court decision that sharply tightened the legal parameters governing...