ORLANDO, Fla. — Squeezed by limits on attendance at its theme parks and other restrictions due to the pandemic, The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday it planned to lay off 28,000 workers in its parks division in California and Florida. Two-thirds of the planned layoffs involve part-time workers but they...
Disney Fans Will Enjoy 'Disney's Land' by Richard Snow
“Disney’s Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park that Changed the World," Scribner, by Richard Snow Scores of books have been written on Walt Disney and the entertainment colossus he created, but author Richard Snow finds some new running room, delivering an elegantly written chronicle focusing on...
California Legislature Declares May 4 ‘Star Wars Day’
SACRAMENTO — May the fourth officially be with you. The California Legislature voted Thursday to declare May 4 "Star Wars Day" in recognition of a Disneyland theme park slated to open later this month. It's a play on the Star Wars' phrase "may the force be with you." The resolution...
Absentee Returns Suggest Strong Interest in Supervisor Race
The election clerk’s office reports that voters have returned nearly 11,000 absentee ballots in the March 5 election for a vacant Fresno County supervisor seat. That is a 15% return rate of the approximately 71,600 sent out. In all, District 2 has 113,596 registered voters, meaning 63% received mail-in ballots. The...
Black History Month: Celebrating Disney Animator Floyd Norman
Floyd Norman is an award-winning animator and in 1956 became the first African American hired by Walt Disney. In 2017, he was named the Ford Freedom Award scholar for his efforts to improve the African American community and the world at large. The previous year, the documentary movie "Floyd Norman: An...