SoCal Grocery Stores Reach Deal with United Food and Commercial Workers

At LAT, "Ralphs, Vons, Albertsons, union reach labor deal, avert strike."

Apparently, both sides realized a strike would be devastating, as this earlier LAT report indicated, "In the event of a walkout, the chains' competition would be the big winners":

Today, Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons have fewer stores in Southern California, and fewer employees. Albertsons has closed 67 locations since the 2003-04 strike and worker lockout. Ralphs has closed 48 stores, and Vons and Pavilions are down 47.

The competition is filling the gap. Unified Grocers, which represents at least 526 stores owned by independent chains, controls 12.1% of the grocery market in Southern California and Las Vegas, according to research by the Shelby Report, a grocery industry publication.

Trader Joe's, with 106 stores, has 5.4% of the market. Smart & Final, Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Whole Foods combined control another 5.4%, according to the report.

Although these companies all target different consumers, they have one thing in common: They are, for the most part, non-union shops. And like the airline and auto industries, the three big unionized retailers all have legacy health, pension and payroll costs that put them at an economic disadvantage.

Smaller chains can also tailor individual stores to the tastes of the neighborhood.

For independent grocer Jax Markets in Anaheim, that means packaging meat in smaller containers and wooing customers with personalized service. The four-store chain caters to predominantly Latino shoppers. A number of its customers don't have cars, so the grocer offers a free shuttle service for anyone who lives within a five-mile radius of a store and is willing to spend a minimum of $30 in their trip to the grocery store.

"When the gas prices were going up, I wondered, 'Is it really worth it?' But it is," said W. Bill MacAloney, chief executive of Jax Markets. "People are shopping around, and that gives us an opportunity. So we need to do what we can to help our customers."

Serving ethnic shoppers can go beyond carrying brands they like. A number of economic factors persuaded Vons to close one of its locations in a working-class Latino neighborhood of Long Beach. Superior Grocers snapped up the outlet in 2003, before the strike, and transformed it into a mid-size store with bargain-priced produce and fast-moving register lines.

On a recent Monday afternoon, a mostly Latino crowd jammed the produce section, plucking up bags of mangoes the size of softballs for 99 cents each. Customers reached for fresh tortillas made in the store, freshly baked French rolls and loaves of Mexican sweet bread. Flat-panel TVs played Spanish-language news clips. On the overhead speakers, daily specials rang out in English and Spanish.

Four miles to the southeast, in the upscale Belmont Shore neighborhood, Vons operates one of its smaller specialty stores, known as the Market by Vons. Sparkling clean and quiet as a library, the store features a bounty of wine and a limited produce selection. Mangoes there cost $1 more than at Superior Grocers and were half the size.

"I love this Vons, but I don't shop here all the time," said Patty Barnett, 38, an artist who lives in downtown Long Beach. "I shop where there are sales."

Boy, You're Gonna Carry That Weight...

I"m always good for another Beatles clip, via American Digest: "Something Wonderful: The Beatles in 5 Minutes and 3 Songs."

Obama Calls for $1.5 Trillion in New Taxes

On the "wealthy," of course.

At Washington Post, "Obama sharpens contrast with GOP, issues forceful call for new tax revenue."

President Obama made a defiant call on Monday for $1.5 trillion in new taxes as part of a plan to find $3.2 trillion in budget savings over the next decade, issuing his most detailed proposal yet to tame the soaring federal debt.

Abandoning earlier compromises, Obama adopted a posture that cedes far less ground in cutting the nation’s social safety net and demands much more in terms of new levies on millionaires, other wealthy Americans and some industries.

The proposal drew an angry response from key Republicans, underscoring the considerable opposition to his plan on Capitol Hill as a special bipartisan committee on deficit reduction ramps up its work in coming weeks.

Also at Chicago Sun-Times, "Tax the rich, Obama says; class warfare, says GOP."

Progressives are all energized about how Obama is supposedly throwing the "class warfare" attack back in the GOP's face. But all day I've been reading post after post from progressives just mercilessly demonizing the so-called corporate rich. Think Progress is seriously on the warpath, for example, "While Lobbying For Huge Tax Giveaways, Corporations Hoard Record Amounts of Cash Instead of Hiring," and "Multi-Millionaire Rep. Says He Can’t Afford a Tax Hike Because He Only Has $400K a Year After Feeding Family."

These are Marxist attacks, in essence. High earners or the wealthy don't deserve to keep their money. Repeatedly we hear Democrats speaking in terms of "shared sacrifice" and "fairness," but such appeals, nice sounding at first, are cancelled out by vicious attacks on those who aren't poor or unemployed. It's ridiculous. Indeed, it's un-American.

RELATED: "Anti-American Graffiti: Marxist Scribblings Sighted in Suburban Orange County."

Kathia Maria Davis, Laguna Niguel Hockey Mom, Accused of Sex With Son's Teammates

Some of the boys were as young as fourteen. The investigation arose initially out of suspicion that Ms. Davis threw parties serving alcohol for the boys. One of the victims told his mom, who, strangely, contacted the woman's ex-husband. Seems to me you'd go straight to the police. Either way, this is sickening.

At Los Angeles Times, "Hockey mom accused of having sex with son's underage teammates."

The Buffett Tax

At Wall Street Journal, "The Buffett Alternative Tax."

And a great Gerry Willis interview with House Speaker John Boehner:

Greta Van Susteren: Tucker Carlson Neglected to Tell Politico That Mike Tyson's a Convicted Rapist

Yeah, that does seem to be a significant omission.

See Greta, "Journalism and Judgment – filling in the blanks for Tucker Carlson to Politico":

Tucker neglected to include in his remarks to Politico this am – and which I am now completing for him – is that it is a convicted rapist (not Peyton Manning!) who is spewing the most vile violence against women. Maybe Tucker wants to troll the prison to see what pretty things they have to say about women? And he can call that news? I am sure he can find some really, really, really famous rapist in prison to get a quote or two about women.

And Tucker's a friend of Greta's! Who needs enemies??!!

And Josh Painter has a huge roundup of reactions, at Texans for Sarah Palin.

The Politico story's at Memeorandum.

Floyd Mayweather Knockout of Victor Ortiz

YouTube's taking down the videos after copyright claims from HBO Entertainment, but this one's still pretty good. And if it gets pulled, check The Blog Prof, who has footage from TMZ: "Video: Mayweather Wins On ‘Cheap Shot’ KO; HBO's Larry Merchant: ‘I Wish I Was 50 Years Younger I’d Kick Your Ass’."

VIDEO PULLED

Also, at Los Angeles Times, "Floyd Mayweather basks in aftermath of knockout of Victor Ortiz."

Alisha Smith, Lawyer for New York State Attorney General's Office, Suspended for Moonlighting as Dominatrix

Well, it's a tough economy, so you gotta scratch together a living. But the lady's basically an assistant state attorney general. See New York Post, "Manhattan AG's office suspends lawyer who moonlights as a dominatrix." Also at Daily Mail, "Pictured: Prosecution lawyer suspended after 'moonlighting as dominatrix at S&M events'."

RELATED: At Daily Mail, "Strip or starve: Cash-strapped lawyer turns to exotic dancing to pay her debts."

It's hard out there.

Mike Tyson's 'Disgusting' Comments Violently Sexualizing Sarah Palin on ESPN Radio

Well, I'm definitely late to this story.

Greta Van Susteren has the headline, "Tucker Carlson’s THE DAILY CALLER’s DISGUSTING POST." And the entry's still up at Daily Caller, with a disclaimer, "Mike Tyson: Sarah Palin met ‘the wombshifter’." I'd rather not link, only because I agree with Greta that Daily Caller's probably circling the drain and no need to prolong the agony at this point. This is the kind of stuff you'd see from TMZ types or folks like A.J. Daulerio at Deadspin.

Anyway, R.S. McCain's on the story, "HOLY. FREAKING. CRAP."

And Dan Riehl's in the thick of things with a number of posts, but read this first: "Link and Post Removal Notice." Also, "Daily Caller Runs For Cover Over Vile Palin Smear, Threatens Blogger With Lawsuit For Exposing It."

There's a Memeorandum thread, although this should be a bigger story than it is so far. Mike Tyson grotesquely and viciously attacks Sarah Palin. I don't even have the vocabulary to describe it.

More from Sissy Willis, "Greta Van Susteren takes Tucker Carlson to the woodshed."

Original Ray's Pizza Serving its Last Slice in New York's Little Italy

I wrote about it at my old blog, and it's the funniest thing, but when my mom came to visit a few weeks back, she brought back a couple of the business cards we picked up in New York in 2007. She was using them for bookmarks. My son and I loved Airways Pizza in Queens. My mom also had a card for Dean's Pizzeria, in Manhattan, not far from the U.N. My son really liked that one. It was a little upscale and we were dressed casually. I asked my son if he wanted to go somewhere else and he said no, he liked Dean's and wanted to eat there. Anyway, I'm thinking of New York pizza again after reading the front-page story at NYT, "Ray’s Pizza, the First of Many, Counts Down to Its Last Slice":

It did not call itself the flagship Ray’s Pizza because it never really had a fleet. It was not Original Ray’s or Famous Ray’s or Original Famous Ray’s or Real Ray’s or Ray’s on Ice or any of the other cloned shops sprinkled like shredded mozzarella all over town. It was simply Ray’s Pizza, and in the great pizza wars of New York City, it was respected as having been the first, standing more or less above the fray at 27 Prince Street in Little Italy, with tree limbs holding up the basement ceiling and an owner whose name wasn’t even Ray.

And now, it seems, barring any surprises, Ray’s Pizza — the original that was so original it did not have the word “original” in its name — appears doomed to close at the end of the month.

This is not a popular topic at Ray’s right now.

“I don’t want you to put that this is the end,” said Helen Mistretta, the manager who, seven months before her 80th birthday, is in no mood for weepy nostalgia. “It’s the end of 27 Prince, not the end of Ray’s of Prince Street.”

The closing, long story short, follows a legal dispute among heirs with various interests in the building at 27 Prince, which includes apartments and the two sides of Ray’s: the pizzeria and an Italian restaurant, each with its separate entrance, but sharing a kitchen and the corporation name, Ray’s of Prince Street. When the Ray in Ray’s, one of the owners of the building, died in 2008, a row arose over whether the restaurant’s lease was valid and whether it should pay rent. A lawsuit was filed in 2009 and settled this year.

Now Ray’s Pizza is moving out amid a lot of head-shakes and shrugs and what-are-you-gonna-do Little Italy resignation.

You could say Ray’s on Prince Street kept to itself, perfectly content with its place in the constellation where others burned brighter. Just a block away, tourists line up on the sidewalk for a seat in Lombardi’s, waiting for a hostess wearing a microphone headset to call their names from loudspeakers. Wait for a pizza? This was not the Ray’s way, where pies come whole or by the slice, hot from the oven, enjoyed without hurry in a humble booth beneath a hand-painted “Ray’s Gourmet Pizza” board.

The closing of Ray’s would seem to remove from the neighborhood any vestige of the late Ralph Cuomo, its first owner, who once loomed large.

Keep reading.

My wife just walked in with pizza for dinner, from the local Lamppost, which is good, but nothing like New York pizza.

RELATED: At NYT, "New York’s Little Italy, Littler by the Year."

P.S. Checking the link to the old blog, turns out Repsac3 was commenting way back then. He wasn't banned. He might still be a commenter here had he not freaked out and turned stalker. I'll welcome progressives if they're cool. Repsac3 once was, but no longer. Too bad too. I had to go to moderation and all that.

Spectators' Deaths Highlight Risks of Popular Aerial Racing

The story's at New York Times, "Seeking Answers to What Turned a Nevada Airshow Deadly." But here's another video, which I just saw broadcast on the local news. The force of impact is overwhelming:

Also available here if this clip is pulled.

Day of Rage on Wall Street Fizzles

UPDATE: Zombie reports: "Day of FAIL: Nationwide anti-capitalist revolution flops."

*****

According to one source, only about 300 people showed up.

But see MyFoxNY, "'Day Of Rage' Protest On Wall Street."

And there's a big write-up at New York Times, "Wall Street Protest Begins, With Demonstrators Blocked," and Daily Mail, "'We won't put up with their greed any more': Demonstrators try to take over Wall Street in protest against corruption and budget cuts."

BONUS: At Michelle's, "“Day of Rage:” Alinskyites call for pointless mass sleepover on Wall Street."

Jennifer Lopez Hot New Fiat Ad

I'm watching Oakland at Buffalo, which features a major ad buy from Fiat.

See: "Jennifer Lopez Previews New Single In Fiat Commercial (Video)."

P.S. The Raiders just went up 21-3 with a little over a minute to go before the half.

Anti-American Graffiti: Marxist Scribblings Sighted in Suburban Orange County

Here's the writing on the restroom wall at Barnes and Nobles at the Irvine Spectrum, found this weekend. Recall last year Gallup found that a 61 percent majority of progressives had a positive image of socialism. And here's another example in real life. Remember Marx's exhortation: "Workers of the world unite." The Marxian system is built on the increasing immiseration of labor. The graffiti implies that no one can get rich without exploiting workers, that is, it's impossible to be entrepreneurial without exploitation, and hence the rejection of the foundation of the capitalist free-enterprise system. It's fundamentally anti-American, as is all progressivism, for as an ideology it rejects the exceptionalism that built the nation to world preponderance, instead invoking the state-socialist model of the stagnant European welfare states, if not the murderous totalitarianism of Stalin. Either way, the Democrat Party's 20th-century socialist model is dragging us down, which is exactly what progressives want.

RELATED: At New York Times, "Obama Tax Plan Would Ask More of Millionaires" (via Digby and Memorandum), and Washington Post, "Vast majority of tax breaks go to households."

Unemployment Rate Hits 12.1 Percent in California

At Los Angeles Times, "California unemployment rate rises to 12.1% in August." Another sign that things might not turn out badly for the Democrats in California 2012, but we'll see.

RELATED: "Another summer closure: Pat & Oscar’s." My family really enjoyed the food there. But when we were moving a few weeks back my wife went out to get dinner for everyone and she comes home with some fried chicken from Ralphs and says, "Pat & Oscar's is closed." So, I cruised by there to see for myself. A great location, right next to a movie theater and a Barnes and Noble. The restaurant always seemed busy. It's gone now:

Michele Bachmann Predicts Republican Victory in California Presidential Vote

I'm still not convinced, but Obama's losing his base even in the Golden State, so we'll see.

At LAT: "Bachmann predicts a GOP win in California in 2012."

The Harvard College Freshman Pledge

This is a fascinating report, from Virginia Postrel, "Harvard Now Values ‘Kindness’ Not Learning." For example:

Kindness isn’t a public or intellectual virtue, but a personal one. It is a form of love. Kindness seeks, above all, to avoid hurt. Criticism -- even objective, impersonal, well- intended, constructive criticism -- isn’t kind. Criticism hurts people’s feelings, and it hurts most when the recipient realizes it’s accurate. Treating “kindness” as the way to civil discourse doesn’t show students how to argue with accuracy and respect. It teaches them instead to neither give criticism nor tolerate it.

And at Bits and Pieces (the blog of Harvard Professor Harry Lewis, "The Freshman Pledge":

Its purpose is to make people think and to induce conversation on the important matter of civility and generosity. I am assured that the intention is not to make anyone feel compelled to sign the pledge.

In this case, alas, the line between an invitation and a compulsion is exceedingly narrow, and I doubt those who explain it to students can consistently do so with the required nuance. The pledge is delivered to students for signing by their proctors, the officers of the College who monitor their compliance with Harvard rules and report their malfeasances to the College's disciplinary board. Nonconformists would have good reason to fear that they will be singled out for extra scrutiny. And their unsigned signature lines are hung for all to see, in an act of public shaming. Few students, in their first week at Harvard, would have the courage to refuse this invitation. I am not sure I would advise any student to do so.

The substance of the pledge is critically important. This is not a pledge to refrain from cheating, or to take out the garbage. It is not a pledge to act in a certain way. It is a pledge to think about the world a certain way, to hold precious the exercise of kindness. It is a promise to control one's thoughts. Though it refers to sound institutional values affirmed at Commencement, the pledge pretends to affirm them not through the educational process to which the Dean testifies, but through a prior restraint on students' freedom of thought. A student would be breaking the pledge if she woke up one morning and decided it was more important to achieve intellectually than to be kind.

Chilling. Our very highest institution of learning, once again seen as among the most totalitarian.

Via Maggie's Farm.

How to Save the Euro

At The Economist, "It requires urgent action on a huge scale. Unless Germany rises to the challenge, disaster looms":

SO GRAVE, so menacing, so unstoppable has the euro crisis become that even rescue talk only fuels ever-rising panic. Investors have sniffed out that Europe’s leaders seem unwilling ever to do enough. Yet unless politicians act fast to persuade the world that their desire to preserve the euro is greater than the markets’ ability to bet against it, the single currency faces ruin. As credit lines gum up and outsiders plead for action, it is not just the euro that is at risk, but the future of the European Union and the health of the world economy.

Keep reading. The piece keeps mentioning the "restructuring of debt," which follows from the fact that some European states simply can't make good on their obligations, and sovereign default would hammer commercial banks and cause even deeper economic turmoil. But the larger issue is whether EU members deal with the crisis in multilateral fashion or retreat to narrower self-interest, casting off Greece to its own misfortunes, and so forth...

RELATED: At New York Times, "Suddenly, Over There Is Over Here" (via Memeorandum).

Tyndale University Buckles to Pressure From 'Social Justice' Activists, Cancels George W. Bush Speech

All someone has to do is scream "war criminal," and university administrators will cave. And this is a Christian institution.

At The Blaze, "CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY CANCELS GEORGE W. BUSH SPEECH AMID STUDENT & FACULTY PROTESTS." And Blazing Cat Fur, "Michael Coren: Tyndale University Caves to Cultural Marxists Cancels George W Bush Speech":

Meetings on European Debt Crisis End in Debate, but Little Progress

This story's interesting beyond the financial crisis itself. Europeans snubbed Tim Geithner, but why? They think he's a clown? They think the Obama administration's a joke? Or America's weakened structurally, and it wouldn't have mattered who was Treasury Secretary?

See New York Times:

WROCLAW, Poland — European finance ministers ended a two-day meeting here Saturday without making substantial progress toward solving the region’s debt crisis, or any pledge to recapitalize Europe’s banks.

The meetings were highlighted by the appearance by Timothy F. Geithner, the United States treasury secretary, whose advice, and warnings, drew a tepid reaction from the euro zone’s finance ministers. And Mr. Geithner’s rejection Friday of a European idea for a global tax on financial transactions prompted a debate about whether Europe should go ahead on its own.

Meanwhile, with an October deadline looming for international lenders to agree to the release of around 8 billion euros, or $11 billion, of aid to Greece, without which it could default on its debt, George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, canceled a trip to the United States.

“The coming week is particularly critical for the implementation of the July 21 decisions in the euro area and the initiatives which the country must undertake,” Mr. Papandreou said in a statement on Saturday.

The attendance of an American official at Friday’s meeting was unusual, and Jacek Rostowski, the finance minister of Poland who invited Mr. Geithner, said it showed “unity within the transatlantic family.”

That glossed over the grumbling about Mr. Geithner’s comments from several European ministers Friday, including Maria Fekter of Austria, who publicly said she was unimpressed with Mr. Geithner’s contribution.

Yet the American plea for urgent decisions to shore up the euro zone was echoed Saturday by two European ministers whose nations have stayed outside the single currency.