Authorities were called to Golden Oak Park shortly before 11:30 a.m. on a report of a female experiencing a medical emergency.

“Deputies arrived and located the victim lying on the ground, and she was not breathing,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.

Paramedics provided medical treatment and rushed the woman to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Her name was not released. She was a resident of Ontario, the sheriff’s department said.

Anyone with information was urged to contact the Rancho Cucamonga Sheriff’s Station at (909) 477-2800.

Rancho Cucamonga and many other communities in California’s Inland Empire were under a heat advisory as temperatures climbed into the 90s Friday afternoon and were expected to hit triple digits over the weekend.

The post Woman collapses, dies at Inland Empire park appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

In December, the 29-year-old received a letter from the pizza franchise informing him that his employment was being terminated in February. The news shook him. 

“Pizza Hut was my career for nearly a decade and with little to no notice it was taken away,” Ojeda said, whose story was recently highlighted by the Wall Street Journal.

Ojeda appears to be just one of the thousands of casualties of a new California law that will raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20 an hour on April 1 for all restaurant chains that have at least 60 locations nationally.

Making $20 instead of $15 sounds like a win, but economics shows there’s no such thing as a free lunch. California lawmakers just proved it.

When the minimum wage goes up, the money to pay workers must come from somewhere, and it typically comes from three places: higher consumer prices, reduced labor costs in other areas (fewer workers, fewer hours, reduced benefits, etc.), and lower profits and capital expenditures.

Many minimum wage proponents want to focus just on that last item (profits) and ignore the other adverse consequences of the policy. But events unfolding in California show this is a mistake.

Restaurant franchises such as Chipotle, Jack in the Box, and McDonald’s have already announced they’ll be jacking up prices to cover increased labor costs, which are expected to increase by roughly $250,000 per location for many of these restaurants (though the economics here is nuanced).

But raising menu prices isn’t the only way California restaurants are responding. Records submitted to the state show Pizza Hut and Round Table Pizza plan to sack nearly 1,300 delivery drivers. Other chains are taking similar actions, and many restaurants have stopped hiring new workers.

This is not unexpected. Critics of the law predicted it would result in less employment, and that’s exactly what has happened.

“California had 726,600 people working in fast-food and other limited-service eateries in January,” the Wall Street Journal reports, “down 1.3% from last September, when the state backed a deal for the increased wages.”

This is not the only way restaurants will reduce labor costs, of course. Benefit cuts, fewer hours, and a shift toward automation are also on the table. But the layoffs at California restaurants are what is currently generating the most attention, and for good reason.

Work isn’t just a paycheck. For many, it’s something that brings meaning, an idea the author David Sturt explored in his bestselling book Great Work, which showed that even so-called “unglamorous jobs” often provide purpose and a sense of responsibility to those who work them.

This is one reason researchers say losing a job can be psychologically crushing. It destroys that sense of purpose while simultaneously taking away from people the single biggest antidote to poverty: a job.

This is not mere rhetoric. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that just 4% of people who spend at least 27 or more weeks per year in the labor force fall below the poverty line (compared to 12.4% overall). Census data show that the rate falls to 2.4% for those who work full-time year-round.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that a job is the single most important path out of poverty.

This is why so many economists lament minimum wage laws. They reduce employment by raising the cost of labor above the value the worker is able to bring to the employer. This is why minimum wage laws tend to fall hardest on the most vulnerable workers in society, consigning to the unemployment line those with the fewest skills and who can offer the least value to employers.

“There is only one way to regard a minimum wage law: it is compulsory unemployment, period,” the economist Murray Rothbard stated.

If you doubt this, consider Ojeda, who, after eight years as a driver for Pizza Hut, was unceremoniously axed. The wages and tips he received as a driver are gone, and he recently filed for unemployment.

How Ojeda will continue to provide for his mother and partner is unclear. But how he arrived here is: California lawmakers outlawed his job by presuming to know what a “just” wage is for restaurant workers.

Now, the California legislature is reportedly scrambling to carve out additional exemptions for restaurants.

For Ojeda and the thousands of other fast-food workers put out of work by California’s law, it’s already too late. And these job losses reveal the truth of economist Thomas Sowell’s famous adage: The real minimum wage is $0. 

The post California’s $20 minimum wage is killing thousands of jobs appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California official is seeking federal help in stopping an influx of illegal fireworks that has fueled use of skyrockets and firecrackers well beyond July 4 and led to the deadly explosion of a cache in the middle of a neighborhood this year.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger outlined the concerns in letters to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, her office said Tuesday.

The letters emphasized the potential for wildfires in drought-stricken California.

“Because illegal fireworks are smuggled from outside California, our federal partners are in a unique position to help local jurisdictions combat the influx of fireworks contraband,” Barger said in a statement.

Use of illegal fireworks has surged beyond the Fourth of July. Celebrations of sports championships unleash barrages of aerial shells, and fireworks are set off for just about any kind of celebration any time of year.

On March 16, an illegal stockpile of fireworks blew up in the city of Ontario, east of Los Angeles, killing two men and forcing evacuation of a wide area so that unexploded items could be gathered and destroyed.

California law allows so-called “Safe & Sane” fireworks, but many local jurisdictions ban them and urge residents to report any they see.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Southern California seeks US help against illegal fireworks appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Commercial air travel at Ontario International Airport (ONT) is showing signs of recovery for June based on published flight schedules, creating a sense of measured optimism among local officials that the worst of the unprecedented travel declines caused by the global coronavirus pandemic has passed.

According to current airline schedules, ONT will have an average 37 daily departures in June, a decrease of 46% compared with last June, yet a significant improvement over the 24 daily departures scheduled in May. The more than 50% increase in daily departures from May to June is a sign of encouragement for airport officials who have eagerly awaited indications that recovery is forthcoming.

“It may be too soon to say happy days are here again, but happier days might come earlier than some anticipated for ONT and our aviation partners,” said Mark Thorpe, chief executive officer of the Ontario International Airport Authority. “Since air travel volumes cratered virtually overnight in mid-March, we have scrambled to sanitize facilities, protect customers, visitors and those who work at the airport, and maintain payrolls. Needless to say, we are encouraged as airline bookings increase slowly but steadily and carriers restore flights accordingly.”

Thorpe also noted that all customers, visitors and employees must still wear appropriate face coverings while at ONT and onboard flights. The airport continues to utilize enhanced safeguards to keep facilities clean and germ-free, including frequent sanitizing of high-touch surfaces with highly effective disinfectant and security screening trays treated with powerful antimicrobial technology. Passengers are reminded to wash hands with soap and water frequently and use the many hand sanitizing stations that have been added throughout ONT terminals.

Nonstop service from ONT to seven destinations will remain suspended: Atlanta, Chicago (Midway), Dallas (Love Field), Houston (George Bush Intercontinental), New York (John F. Kennedy International), Orlando and Taiwan. Service to these destinations is tentatively scheduled to resume in July, according to future airline scheduled published this week.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

Search: Ontario International Airport

The post Ontario International Airport flight schedules show improvement for June appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.