Out-of-state groups step up to alleviate overwhelmed Los Angeles pet shelters
The Southern California wildfires have caused unprecedented damage. While homes and communities are left smoldering, hundreds of pets are now displaced, injured or in need of urgent care.
The wildfires have displaced hundreds of pets, pushing local shelters to their limits. Best Friends Animal Society in Los Angeles rescued 155 dogs and cats in a single day. Of those, 70 found foster homes immediately.
Pasadena shelter sees record intake
Pasadena Humane Society has taken in more than 400 animals, many suffering from burn injuries. One of the youngest survivors is a 5-day-old puppy found under a collapsed building.
Although grateful for the outpouring of support, the Pasadena shelter announced on Sunday, Jan. 12, that it has received so many donations and supplies that it can no longer accept additional items.
Out-of-state shelters provide relief
Out-of-state shelters are stepping in to help. A Seattle rescue flight transported dozens of cats and dogs to their city, easing the burden on Los Angeles’ shelters.
Similarly, shelters in Texas, Oregon and Washington have taken in displaced animals. An NBC affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth reported that 150 additional dogs and cats arrived on Sunday.
Elias Weiss Friedman, better known as The Dogist on social media, partnered with several shelters to transport dogs to a Best Friends Animal Society location in Utah.
It’s not just cats and dogs in need. Some shelters have rescued horses, donkeys and even sheep. With so many animals displaced, shelters are working quickly to identify and reunite pets with their owners or find them new homes.
Starbucks baristas unleash strike against company in 3 major cities
Starbucks joins the list of companies hitting the picket line just in time for the holidays. Baristas started a five-day strike at stores in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle.
Starbucks Workers United is leading the protest. The union is calling out the company for backtracking on negotiations around better labor practices and wages.
In a post on X, the union said, “Since February, Starbucks has repeatedly pledged publicly that they intended to reach contracts by the end of the year, but they’ve yet to present workers with a serious economic proposal.”
Since February, Starbucks has repeatedly pledged publicly that they intended to reach contracts by the end of the year – but they’ve yet to present workers with a serious economic proposal.
The conversation surrounding wages began in 2021 between the newly formed union and the coffee giant, with promises to reach an agreement by the end of 2024.
The union said despite Starbucks’ new CEO Brian Niccol having a salary of more than $100 million in the first year, the company hasn’t increased wages based on the value of its unionized employees.
“Union baristas know their value, and they’re not going to accept a proposal that doesn’t treat them as true partners,” Union President Lynne Fox said.
The company is offering an annual pay increase starting at 1.5% with a potential increase in the future. However, Workers United is countering that proposal. Starbucks said the union is asking to bump up the minimum wage for hourly workers by 64%.
Starbucks said it isn’t able to meet the demands of the union and the company’s benefit package is competitive with other businesses.
Workers currently earn about $18 an hour, but the company says benefits raise the total pay package to $30 an hour. Right now, Starbucks offers health care, paid family leave and free college tuition benefits to full-time employees.
Starbucks is asking the union to resume negotiations after talks were cut short when the it walked away from the bargaining table.
Of its 10,000 union workers, 98% voted for the strike, which could impact hundreds of locations right before the Christmas rush.
“We are aware of disruption at a small handful of stores, but the overwhelming majority of our U.S. stores remain open and serving customers as normal.”
Statement by Starbucks
Starbucks has more than 16,000 stores across the U.S. with at least 500 of those unionized.
The strike comes just days after Niccol’s announcement to triple paid leave for birth parents. Starbucks will now offer up to 18 weeks of paid leave compared to the previous six weeks. The new benefit starts in March of 2025 for employees working at least 20 hours a week.
Suspected terrorist arrested by federal agents at northern US border
A Jordanian migrant with alleged ties to terrorism is now in custody after he illegally entered the United States. In November 2024, Mohammad Hasan Abdellatif Albana, 41, was caught in Lynden, Washington, near the U.S.-Canadian border, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Albana was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol after he entered without being inspected, admitted or paroled by immigration authorities.
Authorities are not sure where or when Albana entered the country. An immigration official in the U.S. later identified Albana as a suspected terrorist.
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) said he was removed on Nov. 15. Albana went through immigration proceedings in front of a federal judge before being sent back to Jordan.
The ICE ERO Seattle Field Office Director, Drew H. Bostock, said federal officers are working to protect communities in the Pacific Northwest.
“ERO is committed to the removal of noncitizens who pose a risk to the national security of the U.S.”
ERO statement by Seattle Field Office Director Drew H. Bostock
Federal data shows so far, in fiscal year 2024, Customs and Border Protection officers arrested more than 400 migrants on the terrorist watchlist at the northern and southern U.S. border.
In fiscal year 2023, 564 individuals were arrested, while 380 were arrested in fiscal year 2022. The agency has said that encountering individuals on the watchlist is still considered “uncommon.”
‘Bomb cyclone’ whips US Northwest, California with intense winds and rain
A so-called bomb cyclone, which meteorologists explain as a storm system that rapidly intensifies within 24 hours, whipped through California and the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday, Nov. 19. The storm killed two people and left more than half a million households from Washington to California without power.
A tree reportedly collapsed on a home east of Seattle and killed a woman. Another woman died when a tree landed on a homeless encampment in Lynnwood, Washington.
Forecasters warn another bomb cyclone, while not as intense as the one Tuesday, is headed for the same region on Thursday, Nov. 21, through Friday, Nov. 22.
In California, the National Weather Service (NWS) extended a flood watch into Saturday, Nov. 23, for regions north of San Francisco. The agency is warning residents of the potential for flash flooding, as well as rock and mudslides over the next few days.
The NWS warned residents on the West Coast to danger caused by trees during strong winds and told people to avoid “exterior rooms and windows.” The agency also told drivers to heed caution.
The best it gets? Boeing machinists union urges striking members to vote yes
It is time “to lock in these gains and confidently declare victory,” the Boeing machinist union told its striking members after Boeing’s latest contract offer. The deal on the table includes 38% pay raises over four years, just shy of the 40% union members demanded and much higher than the 25% the company started negotiations at.
Boeing’s latest offer also quadruples the original ratification bonus to $12,000 and comes with a strong 401(k) company match. District 751 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers will vote on the contract Monday, Nov. 4.
The contract offer notably leaves off what it appeared machinists wanted most: the return of pensions. But the union is endorsing and recommending the latest offer after nearly two months off the job.
“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything that we can in bargaining and by withholding our labor. We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future,” IAM 751 posted.
A week ago, 64% of union members rejected Boeing’s offer of 35% raises, despite union negotiators saying the offer was “worthy of [their] consideration.” Now, with a new contract in front of them, striking machinists are still casting doubt on the latest deal days before casting their vote.
“They’re going to get a no vote from me,” one worker told Seattle news station KIRO. “They’ve used legal mumbo jumbo to re-explain it, but no, it’s the same offer as last time, up slightly.”
“It is lucrative, more lucrative than it has been, but there’s still room for improvement,” another told KOMO.
“When you think about what’s been going on at Boeing with issues of quality, with issues of ignoring employee reports of whistleblowing around those quality issues, I think that those workers have an outsized amount of bargaining power in this very instance, in this moment,” Alicia Modestino, research director of Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center, said.
Workers will vote on the latest contract offer all day Monday, the day before the presidential election. Meanwhile, the impact of the strike is showing up in national economic data ahead of the national election.
The U.S. economy recorded adding just 12,000 jobs in October, about 100,000 jobs below estimates. Strikes and two hurricanes dragged down the results.
Officials with the King County Sheriff’s Office said another teenager who had been injured went to a Seattle hospital. They said the teenager and the teen in custody both live at the home where the shooting happened, but did not know the relationships between those teens and the five people killed.
“I just don’t know the relationships, so I’m going to withhold confirming any relationships, but it does appear to be that this is a family incident,” Deputy Mike Mellis told reporters Monday. “Clearly, a domestic violence incident that involves not only a young man — who’s now in significant trouble — and it involves firearms. Young men and firearms.”
A neighbor told Seattle news station KING TV a couple lived in the home with their five children.
Harris, Trump look for votes in battlegrounds with 2 weeks to go
With exactly two weeks to go until Election Day, both candidates for president are blitzing the battleground states. And we’ve learned how long student loan repayments for about eight million Americans will remain on hold. These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024.
Harris, Trump look for more votes in battlegrounds with 2 weeks to go
With two weeks to go until Election Day, the presidential candidates are crisscrossing the country trying to pick up any undecided voters that remain.
.@Liz_Cheney: Vice President Harris is going to defend our Constitution. We're not always gonna agree, but I know Vice President Harris will always do what she believes is right for this country. She has a sincere heart, and that's why I'm honored to support her pic.twitter.com/lcFD6MGDSF
“So, I think that we are facing a choice in this election; it’s not about party, it’s about right and wrong,” Cheney said. “And I certainly have many Republicans who will say to me, ‘I can’t be public.’ They do worry about a whole range of things including violence, but they’ll do the right thing.”
In Wisconsin, Harris described her opponent former President Donald Trump as “unstable,” referencing comments made by former Trump cabinet members.
“I think it’s very important that we acknowledge — and I have said publicly that Donald Trump is an unserious man,” Harris said, “and the consequences of him ever being President of United States again are brutally serious. Brutally serious.”
Former President Trump visited North Carolina on Monday where he surveyed the damage created by Hurricane Helene and continued his criticism of the Biden administration’s relief efforts.
“The power of nature, nothing you can do about it, but you got to get a little bit better crew and to do a better job than has been done by the White House,” Trump said. “It’s been not good. Not good. I’m here today in western North Carolina to express a simple message to the incredible people of the state: I’m with you and the American people are with you all the way. We’re going to continue to be with you. We’ll see what happens with the election. And we’re, on January 20th, you’re going to have, I think, a new crew coming in to do it properly and help you in a proper manner.”
Trump made two more stops while in North Carolina Monday, holding a rally and speaking at a faith leaders’ event.
On Tuesday, Oct. 22, former President Trump will continue campaigning in North Carolina with a rally in Greensboro, and Vice President Harris will sit down for an interview with NBC News in Washington, D.C.
Blinken in Israel to revive Gaza cease-fire talks after Sinwar death
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel once again — his 11th visit to the region since war broke out between Israel and Hamas a little more than a year ago.
On my way to Israel and other stops in the Middle East for intensive discussions about the importance of ending the war in Gaza, returning the hostages to their families, and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people. pic.twitter.com/lIaRUo7Ea2
This visit is the first stop on a wider tour of the Middle East in which Blinken is expected to revive talks for a cease-fire in Gaza in the wake of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Blinken’s weeklong trip comes as the Middle East braces for Israel’s response to an Iranian missile attack on Tel Aviv earlier this month.
Teen arrested after 2 adults, 3 children killed in shooting at Washington home
Officials with the King County Sheriff’s Office said another teenager who had been injured went to a Seattle hospital. They said that teenager and the teen in custody both live at the home where the shooting happened, but did not know the relationships between those teens and the five people killed.
“I just don’t know the relationships, so I’m going to withhold confirming any relationships, but it does appear to be that this is a family incident,” Deputy Mike Mellis told reporters Monday. “Clearly, a domestic violence incident that involves not only a young man — who’s now in significant trouble — and it involves firearms. Young men and firearms.”
Reports say he has chronic myeloid leukemia, a form of bone marrow cancer, and he’s undergoing treatment at Rikers Island prison in New York where he’s serving a 16-year sentence.
This is just the latest health issue Weinstein has faced behind bars. Last month, he had emergency heart surgery to alleviate a significant amount of fluid in his lungs and heart, and he was hospitalized in July with COVID-19 and double pneumonia.
Student loan payments pause extended for 8 million SAVE plan borrowers
Eight million Americans will be able to continue holding off paying back their student loans for at least another six months, the Department of Education confirmed on Monday.
The Education Department said save enrollees will be placed in an interest-free general forbearance for at least six months pending the outcome of legal challenges to the plan.
Cheapest World Series tickets costing at least $1,000 on secondary market
The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees have each punched their ticket to the World Series and now if you want a ticket, you’ll need at least $1,000. According to SeatGeek, the cheapest single seat for the Game 1 in LA on Friday, Oct. 25, will cost $1,034.
For Game 2 on Saturday, Oct. 26, also at Dodger Stadium, the least expensive ticket is $1,209.
Games 3 and 4 on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 28 and 29, head back to the East Coast, with the cheapest tickets for Yankees Stadium costing $1,385 and $1,110, respectively. A possible Game 5 is showing the same as Game 4.
And “if necessary,” Games 6 and 7 would be back in LA, with the cheapest tickets going for around $1,300 or more.
As for the good seats behind home plate at Dodger Stadium, those tickets are going for $1,500 or more.
Seattle police have released a video showing officers responding to a call about a man experiencing a mental health crisis on a downtown bridge. The man stood on a ledge about 25 feet above train tracks as officers tried to persuade him to come down to safety.
In the video, one officer can be heard pleading with the man, saying, “I want to help you, and I need you to hear me when I say that.” However, before officers could get him to safety, the man slipped and fell onto the rocks next to the tracks.
At that moment, a freight train approached at high speed. Officers immediately rushed to the tracks. With the train’s horn blaring, one officer managed to drag the man off the tracks just seconds before the train passed.
Seattle police detailed the event in a Facebook post, stating, “Policemen on the lower platform ran across the tracks to rescue the man while a train approached them at high speeds. An officer dragged the man to safety, risking his life, with only seconds to spare.”
The 57-year-old man suffered serious injuries, including multiple fractures, and was unable to move after the fall. Despite police requesting a halt to incoming trains, the freight train was already en route when the call was made.
Thanks to the swift actions of the officers, the man survived. He was treated at the scene by the Seattle Fire Department before being rushed to Harborview Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.
Turkish Airlines pilot dies mid-flight, plane makes emergency landing in NY
A Turkish Airlines flight made an emergency landing at JFK Airport in New York on Wednesday, Oct. 9, after its pilot collapsed mid-flight and later died. In a statement, the airline said flight TK2O4 was on its way from Seattle to Istanbul when the pilot fainted.
Our captain lost his life before landing.
Turkish Airlines spokesperson Yahya Ustun
After efforts to provide him first aid did not help, the cockpit crew, consisting of another pilot and copilot, decided to make an emergency landing. Even with the attempts to save the pilot, the airline later said, “Our captain lost his life before landing.”
The flight’s path, as seen on the tracking site FlightAware, displays a sharp turn toward New York, indicating the change in direction for an emergency landing at JFK around 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Turkish Airlines identified the pilot as 59-year-old Ilcehin Pehlivan, who has been working for the company since 2007. Pehlivan had undergone a medical examination earlier this year which showed no health problems that would prevent him from working, according to the airline.
“As the Turkish Airlines family, we wish God’s mercy upon our captain and patience to his grieving family, all his colleagues and loved ones,” spokesperson Yahya Ustun posted to X.
Turkish Airlines said passengers from the original flight would be connected through New York to continue their trip to Istanbul.
Boeing strike strategy ‘baffles’ top aviation analyst. Where do talks go next?
Boeing and machinists are back at the negotiating table the morning of Monday, Oct. 7, after more than a week of stalemate. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said Boeing’s last offer disrespected the entire union after the company released the terms to the public before the union had responded.
Even then, 80% of machinists rejected the offer that included 30% raises and doubling the ratification bonus to $6,000.
IAM said Monday’s meeting is another critical opportunity to push for the priorities of their membership. At the same time, Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, told employees getting to a resolution is a priority.
“I thought the arrival of new management with a lot of experience and understanding in the industry would make things different, but that doesn’t appear to be the case at all, I’m afraid,” aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia said of Boeing’s handling of the prolonged strike.
It’s possible [Kelly Ortberg] was blindsided by the institutional, confrontational approach that Boeing management has taken, maybe even the board.
Richard Aboulafia, Managing Director, AeroDynamic Advisory
Non-striking employees are also taking hits. Tens of thousands are facing rolling furloughs as Boeing bleeds cash from the strike and lack of production.
The 737 MAX is a big revenue driver for the company. Deliveries are already behind schedule, and the strike is halting all progress. Last week, Bloomberg reported the company is considering raising $10 billion in a stock sale to plug the hole.
Now in its fourth week, both sides of the strike are meeting to discuss key sticking points in the presence of federal mediators. One such issue is the union’s desire to bring back pensions, which workers lost a decade ago.
“The only possible sticking point is if Boeing absolutely doesn’t want to provide a structured pension program and the workers insist upon it, that’s about the only thing I could think of that would prevent two sincere parties from reaching a relatively quick agreement,” Aboulafia said.
Workers in other industries have previously tried to revive lost pension programs without success. Aboulafia said he does not believe Boeing would cave to worker demands on this issue.
“On the other hand, if you really do believe, as I hope Boeing management would, that there is a pretty strong long-term future for this industry without maybe some of the crazy cycles we’ve seen in the past, and you also believe that good labor relations and talent retention are a strategic priority, you might even regard a structured pension program as a form of competitive enhancement for the company, but that would require a big leap of faith, if you will,” Aboulafia said.
For more on how much longer Boeing can withstand the strike and Boeing’s ‘baffling’ negotiation mistakes, watch Straight Arrow News’ interview with Richard Aboulafia in the video above.