JOBS: Amazon to add 1,000 more jobs

Amazon has announced it will create 1,000 more jobs for its Inland Southern California fulfillment centers.

In addition to 1,000 jobs announced earlier this month, takes the hiring roster to 2,000.

Mike Lee, the community and economic development director for Moreno Valley, says he hasn’t seen this many job

s created in such a short amount of time, ever. “This is huge for our region,” Lee said.

Amazon’s announcement was made at the Moreno Valley City Conference & Recreation Center. The hiring is part of a nationwide recruitment effort by Amazon.

“What we heard was Amazon was impressed with the quality of candidates they are getting from the region,” Lee said.

Amazon, in a statement issued Wednesday by spokeswoman Ashley Robinson, said the firm is proud to continue to hire for 1,000 more newly created permanent, hourly positions at the Inland Empire fulfillment centers in Moreno Valley, Redlands and San Bernardino.

Tuesday, the company held a hiring event with about 400 applicants in Moreno Valley, and each received a contingent offer of employment at facilities there, Robinson said.

Asked to comment on the caliber of the candidates on the whole, Robinson said, “We have found an enthusiastic, dedicated and customer-obsessed workforce in the Inland Empire.”

Moreno Valley Mayor Jesse Molina called the recruitment announcement terrific news.

“Anytime a business says that it is hiring this many people it is a big deal,” Molina said. “When it’s coupled with community investment, it means all that much more.”

Thomas J. Goldsby, a business and logistics professor at Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, said in a Monday symposium for forecasters at Riverside Convention Center that “Amazon is expanding at a pace that is making Wal-Mart very, very nervous.”

Amazon has created thousands of full-time jobs in the Inland region since the first California facility opened in San Bernardino in 2012, Moreno Valley city officials said. Fulfillment centers in Redlands and Moreno Valley began shipping customer orders in 2014.

Amazon is making the news almost daily with innovations like rapid delivery and mail drops with drones, Goldsby said.

Tuesday’s hiring event was an offshoot of the Hire MoVal program and coordinated efforts with Riverside County Workforce Development Agency. Communication networks were shared. Amazon recruitment opportunities were publicized to Moreno Valley businesses.

As an added benefit to Amazon, the company qualifies for a 2 percent discount on electrical rates under the Hire MoVal program if at least 20 percent of the workforce hails from Moreno Valley. The discount rises to 4 percent if the workforce percentage is at least 40 percent.

Fielding Buck contributed to this report.

Via: http://www.pe.com/articles/amazon-771361-moreno-valley.html

This time for real: Legislature passes (another) budget

Three days after Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders reached agreement on a $115.4 billion general fund state spending plan, lawmakers in both houses on Friday ratified the deal.

The budget includes Brown’s more conservative revenue estimates and lower overall spending levels, while increasing funding for preschool and universities and expanding Medi-Cal coverage to undocumented children starting in May 2016.

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, said the budget contained “unprecedented gains” in education and social services. The budget also won support from some Senate Republicans, while one Senate Democrat, Holly Mitchell, refused to vote on it. She said the budget did too little to help people living in poverty.

In the lower house, the bill passed almost entirely along party lines, with every Republican except for Rocky Chávez of Oceanside voting against it.

Democrats in the Legislature passed a more expansive spending plan on Monday, knowing Brown would not accept it but racing to meet a June 15 deadline or forfeit pay. They announced a budget agreement the following day on a more modest plan.

While Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, praised the revised budget bill for hewing to Brown's more conservative revenue estimates, she said it redirected education funding to other areas and failed to adequately fund transportation infrastructure or more judges, a major issue in her Riverside County district.

Lawmakers in both houses were continuing to debate a raft of budget-related trailer bills.

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article24986815.html

Rally to Stop the Jail Expansion in Riverside County!

Come and join us!

Please Endorse One of Our Own!

The Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) plays a monumental role in all aspects of the criminal justice system. It works in partnership with local corrections systems and assists efforts to achieve continued improvement in reducing recidivism through evidence- based decision making in the State of California. 

This July 1st, committee positions will be up for appointment and we're asking for you to endorse Kim Carter's appointment to the BSCC!

Please sign and send the attached sample letter on your organization's letterhead ASAP to each of the following representatives:

Honorable Toni Atkins

Speaker of the Assembly 

State Capitol 

P.O. Box 942849 

Sacramento, CA 94249-0078 

Via Fax: (916) 319-2178

Honorable Chris Holden

Majority Floor Leader of the Assembly 

State Capitol 

P.O. Box 942849 

Sacramento, CA 94249-0041 

Via Fax: (916) 319-2141

Honorable Reggie Jones-Sawyer

Legislative Black Caucus Chair of the Assembly

State Capitol 

P.O. Box 942849 

Sacramento, CA 94249-0059 

Via Fax: (916) 319-2159

For more information about Kim Carter and Time for Change Foundation please visit 

www.timeforchangefoundation.org.

Prop 47 Information Clinic In the Inland Empire!

Please bring your rap sheet!

Saturday, June 13, 2015

10:00 am - 2:00 pm

Lifeway Church

7477 Vineyard Avenue

Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730

Support El Super Grocery Store Workers!

Come out and support!

El Super

24899 Alessandro Blvd.

Moreno Valley, CA 

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

10:00 a.m.

Contact: Yesenia Gonzalez

714-470-5996

yesenia@ufcw1167.org

California anti-profiling bill requires data on police stops

California lawmakers on Wednesday narrowly approved anti-racial profiling legislation ordering unprecedented data collection on police stops, as they grapple with reducing tensions between law enforcement and minority communities.

It was one of dozens of bills considered ahead of a Friday deadline to pass legislation out of one chamber of the Legislature. The Senate also approved an ambitious climate change package that would boost the use of renewable energy to 50 percent in 15 years and slash greenhouse gas emissions.

In the Assembly, AB953 barely advanced to require law enforcement agencies starting in 2018 to report a racial breakdown of whom they pull over or question. It is one of few surviving police reform bills introduced in the wake of nationwide protests over police killings of minority men.

AB953's author, Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, said she believed police pulled her over because they thought she was out of place in her own neighborhood. Weber is black.

"When do we stop the cycle? When do we say enough is enough in this country?" the San Diego Democrat said.

Her bill calls for police departments, sheriff's offices and other agencies to write annual reports breaking out the number of stops, the outcomes (such as citations or arrests) and the age and race of those stopped. Law enforcement groups say such data tracking is unnecessary and would distract from keeping communities safe.

Supporters of the bill countered that data collection could end up showing that racial discrimination by police isn't as widespread as believed.

"It will help law enforcement, especially now when the public believes there is something dramatically wrong with their interactions with people of color," said Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Los Angeles Democrat who leads the Legislative Black Caucus.

Assemblyman Rocky Chavez, R-Oceanside, was the only lawmaker to speak against the bill, saying "labeling police officers as part of the problem isn't helpful."

The bill heads to the Senate after passing 41-23, the minimum needed to advance.

Other police reform legislation has struggled in California this year.

A fiscal panel last week shelved legislation requiring independent investigations of police shootings and an annual report about deaths in police custody. Another bill regulating the use of police body cameras, AB66 also by Weber, is at a standstill over whether officers should be able to review footage before submitting reports about shooting people.

Via: http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/06/03/52189/california-anti-profiling-bill-requires-data-on-po/

California Senate approves health care for undocumented immigrants

A proposal to expand health care to Californians in the country illegally cleared the Senate on Tuesday, passing on a 28-11 vote and heading to the Assembly.

Senate Bill 4 would allow undocumented immigrants to purchase health insurance on the state exchange, pending a federal waiver, and enroll eligible children under the age of 19 in Medi-Cal, the state’s insurance program for the poor. A capped number of undocumented adults would also be allowed participate, if additional funding is appropriated in the state budget.

“We are talking about our friends, we are talking about our neighbors and our families who are denied basic health care in the richest state of this union,” said Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, the measure’s author. “Ensuring that every child in California grows up healthy and with an opportunity to thrive and succeed is simply the right thing to do.”

Debate got increasingly feisty as it turned into a discussion of stalled immigration reform efforts in Congress. Sen. Isadore Hall, D-Los Angeles, baited his Republican colleagues to support SB 4, calling their “excuses” not to support the measure “tools of the weak and incompetent.”

Republican Sens. Andy Vidak of Hanford and Anthony Cannella of Ceres, who both represent swing agricultural districts, joined Democrats in voting yes on the bill.

The bill aims to expand the scope of the federal Affordable Care Act, which prohibited undocumented immigrants from participating in any of the health insurance exchanges it established. Under SB 4, California would also be required to apply for a federal waiver to allow individuals to buy plans on the exchange regardless of immigration status, though those who are not citizens would not be eligible for assistance to pay for the coverage.

Lara scaled back the bill last week to help it get past the Senate Appropriations Committee, where a similar proposal was held last year.

SB 4 still faces a challenging road in the Assembly, and should it make to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, a signature is not guaranteed. Brown has expressed skepticism over the bill because of its high cost, estimated to be as much as $135 million annually.

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article22904433.html#storylink=cpy

Senate passes minimum wage boost for California

As labor unions lead a nationwide push for a higher minimum wage, the California Senate on Monday approved raising the state’s required hourly rate to $11 in 2016 and $13 in 2017.

Under Senate Bill 3, which passed by a vote of 23-15, California’s minimum wage would also begin increasing annually in 2019 based on inflation. The measure heads next to the Assembly.

“The president of the United States has defined income inequality as the defining challenge of our time,” said Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who authored the measure. “Wages are growing at the slowest rate relative to corporate profits in the history of the United States of America.

“We must do more to address this, and we can.”

Leno pursued a similar minimum wage increase last year that passed the Senate but failed in an Assembly committee.

Since then, several major cities have raised their wage floor, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, which will both reach $15 per hour in the next few years. After joining striking fast-food workers in protest, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said last November he would also explore raising the city’s minimum wage above California’s $9-per-hour rate.

Introducing SB 3, Leno noted that a minimum wage of $13 per hour would equate to about $26,000 per year, just above the federal poverty line. He tried to appeal to Senate Republicans, making the argument that higher wages would lead to greater consumer spending and drive the economy.

“There are thought leaders on the conservative right who support increasing the minimum wage,” Leno said. “We taxpayers subsidize employers who pay sub-poverty wages,” because those workers get public assistance for housing, food and health care.

None were convinced, and they were joined by Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, in voting no on the bill.

“It’s a capitalistic society,” said Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa. “We need to honor the work of those that are creating the jobs, that are paying the taxes ... With a minimum wage increase, you are attacking businesspeople who are subsidizing this state and this nation.”

The California Chamber of Commerce placed SB 3 high on its annual list of “job killers,” bills that the powerful business lobby argues would have a negative economic impact on the state, and their argument was echoed during Monday’s debate.

“Let’s work together to find real solutions to create jobs and lift people out of poverty,” said Sen. Jeff Stone, R-Temecula, “not kill jobs, as this measure would unfortunately do.”

Two other moderate Democrats – Sens. Steve Glazer of Orinda and Cathleen Galgiani of Stockton – left the room during the vote. But the remainder of the caucus carried the bill, speaking passionately about the difficulty that many workers face in supporting their families on low wages.

“There is not honor in going out and working hard and then you got to go beg for” help, said Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles. “When you get out there and get a job, you should have enough money to feed your family. You should have enough money to pay for the roof over your head and decent conditions.”

“The problem is, we want to pick and choose the work that we value,” added Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, the measure’s co-author. “All work has value.”

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article22841253.html#storylink=cpy