Pharmacists, nurses, rehab therapists and scores of other health care workers are striking against Kaiser Permanente until Sunday morning as they demand better pay and staffing – with picket lines being held at separate times in front of Kaiser hospitals in Anaheim and Irvine.

The strike, happening in California and Hawaii, comes as Kaiser officials say labor unions have been offered fair raises and anything more would drive up health care costs, while the picket lines won’t impact services too much – claims heavily disputed by employees and union officials. 

The Santa Ana City Council could be the first dais in Orange County to officially endorse efforts to temporarily redraw California’s Congressional districts to give Democrats an advantage in the House of Representatives – a ballot proposal voters across the Golden State will decide on Nov. 4. 

While Republican officials in cities like Huntington Beach, Orange, Newport Beach and Westminster have opposed the move, Santa Ana officials are expected to consider supporting the move through a resolution later this month. 

Cloudy details are slowly emerging on Orange County Supervisors’ discretionary spending after Voice of OC Publisher and Editor in Chief Norberto Santana Jr. detailed how the elected officials directly spend millions of tax dollars with little oversight – a practice that opened the door to bribery for one former supervisor who’s now in federal prison. 

That same bribery scheme by disgraced former Supervisor Andrew Do is also pushing county officials to consider hiring an outside firm to potentially audit thousands of public contracts amounting to billions of dollars in taxpayer spending.

Irvine City Council members refused to ban whippets, with elected officials instead saying police can already enforce state law against retail sales of laughing gas. 
In stark contrast, Newport Beach City Council members banned whippets after city staff found retailers selling nitrous oxide for recreational use have been exploiting loopholes in state law.

An e-bike rental shop on the Newport Beach coast in in Newport Beach, Calif. on Dec. 7, 2022. Credit: AMIR GHANI, Voice of OC Credit: AMIR GHANI, Voice of OC

Newport Beach City Council members also banned e-bikes at an elementary school playground as they gear up to consider stricter laws on e-bikes in a growing regulatory trend in Orange County

Roughly 20 miles to the north, Stanton is also getting tougher on e-bikes as council members decided to prohibit speeding, texting while riding, riding against traffic, doing wheelies and not yielding to pedestrians and cars when entering a road. 

In another growing local trend, Placentia is grappling with short term rentals – commonly known as Airbnbs – as city council members temporarily banned them for up to one year so they can figure out how to best regulate the rentals while boosting tax revenue. 

Some Santa Ana police cars could be outfitted with dash cams after city council members directed staff to research the proposal and come back with specifics. 

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