{"id":500840,"date":"2026-10-19T07:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T07:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500840\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T07:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T07:33:17","slug":"orange-countys-biggest-headlines-as-strike-impacts-public-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500840\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County\u2019s Biggest Headlines as Strike Impacts Public Services"},"content":{"rendered":"

As contract negotiations between the Teamsters union and the county stall, over 400 workers are on strike in OC<\/a>, impacting public services like landfills and the animal shelter.<\/p>\n

Union and state labor officials say the county failed to negotiate a new contract in good faith while the county seemingly minimized the impact of the strike<\/a> \u2013 like not publicly disclosing that landfills are closed to residents, but not waste haulers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer dropped charges against a man violently arrested<\/a> in Santa Ana, instead pursuing a probation violation after a viral video of the arrest spurred growing questions and calls for accountability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Santa Ana police union criticized some city council members<\/a> for their public remarks on the arrest while also raising concerns about an \u201cunprecedented\u201d independent investigation into a violent arrest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While facing a budget deficit that\u2019s expected to eat up half of the incoming $120 million in freed-up bond repayment money, Anaheim City Council members voted \u2013 without any public discussion \u2013 to give police officers nearly a 17% raise<\/a> over the next three years that will cost the city $45 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A large crack underneath Pacific Coast Highway in between Laguna Beach and Newport Beach pushed Caltrans to indefinitely shut down a southbound lane<\/a> on the scenic coastal road.<\/p>\n

OC Transportation Authority officials are moving to get sand to South Orange County\u2019s disappearing coast \u2013 but it\u2019s not happening until after the incoming super El Ni\u00f1o<\/a>, which could hasten sand loss and coastal erosion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coastal Orange County has already seen flooding<\/a> in Newport Beach and Laguna Beach ahead of El Ni\u00f1o after a tropical storm caused tides to swell over the weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The OC Water District is drawing criticism for bulldozing bird habitats in the Santa Ana River<\/a> as activists say it\u2019s a violation of an agreement with state officials, but water district officials say it\u2019s in line with the agreement to maintain the river and capture stormwater.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Candidates for the Orange County Board of Supervisors continue answering Voice of OC questionnaires<\/a> about critical areas like corruption investigations<\/a>, public safety<\/a>, a rocky budget<\/a>, discretionary spending<\/a> and transparency reforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"The tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove that caused a hazmat incident. Credit: ANGELINA HICKS, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

GKN Aerospace, the company that owns the chemical tank in Garden Grove that nearly exploded in May, is expected to pay out $125 million in claims<\/a> for the roughly 50,000 people who had to evacuate and to reimburse local agencies for emergency responses \u2013 including a $15 million penalty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A controversial battery storage site in South OC won\u2019t get built<\/a> after the company behind it withdrew its application for the facility following scores of local residents raising concerns about wildfire risks.<\/p>\n

Amid accusations of hurling racist and homophobic slurs at her chief of staff, Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken refused to meet with a host of community groups<\/a> about the allegations after she said she\u2019s not safe if former City Councilman and longtime community activist Jose Moreno is there \u2013 a claim that\u2019s perplexing other local Latino activists, including Moreno.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Huntington Beach police union political action committee is spending against two city council incumbents \u2013 including a former police officer<\/a> \u2013 in the upcoming election after they voted against police raises.<\/p>\n

Over $2 million has already been spent<\/a> in the Newport Beach City Council elections \u2013 more than half of that coming from a local developer who\u2019s spearheading four different ballot initiatives, including one that would severely limit new housing construction in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While public concerns are growing over increasing surveillance employed by police departments, like Flock cameras, the Tustin Police Department will soon have access to local public school camera feeds<\/a>, with officials saying officers will only use them in emergencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken\u2019s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As contract negotiations between the Teamsters union and the county stall, over 400 workers are on strike in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,124257,164,19740,1237,10648,593,193263],"class_list":["post-500840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-mayor","tag-anaheim-news","tag-ashleigh-aitken","tag-coastal-erosion","tag-el-nino","tag-pacific-coast-highway","tag-teamsters-2026-strike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}