Porterville Recorder

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ANAHEIM Hotel workers at California’s Disneyland Resort OK contract

Hotel workers at Southern California's Disneyland Resort have approved a contract that raises hourly salaries by at least 40 percent over two years and allows staff to get bonuses that were promised last year.

The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that the five-year contract establishe­s wages and benefits for about 2,700 workers. They include housekeepe­rs, valets, cooks, bellhops, servers and other staff at the resort's three hotels. Terms are retroactiv­e to February 2017.

The agreement voted on over the weekend raises the starting salary to a minimum of $15 an hour, up from $13.25. It also pays workers a $1,000 bonus that was promised after the Republican tax plan was approved last year.

The newspaper says members of Unite Here Local 11 voted 96 percent in favor of the contract.

SACRAMENTO High-speed rail project sees temporary leadership change

California's high-speed rail authority is temporaril­y getting new leadership.

State transporta­tion officials say Chief Executive Officer Brian Kelly is taking a leave of absence for unexpected health reasons.

Chief Operating Officer Joe Hedges and Chief Deputy Director Pam Mizukami will assume leadership of the project. Both were appointed to their jobs in January by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Hedges previously led a $3 billion tunnel project in Seattle. Mizukami was deputy director of administra­tive services at the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

California's high-speed rail project between Los Angeles and San Francisco is projected to cost $77 billion and be completed by 2033. It has faced significan­t cost overruns and setbacks.

Rail board chairman Dan Richards and state transporta­tion Secretary Brian Annis told rail staff about the leadership change Monday.

PLACENTIA Off-duty police officer stabbed in

Authoritie­s are again searching for a suspect in the stabbing of a Southern California police officer after a man detained after the attack was released from custody.

Officials say the off-duty Fullerton police officer was stabbed with a sharp object Saturday afternoon at a strip mall in Placentia.

The attacker ran from the scene.

Police detained a 19-year-old man, but later cleared and released him.

The officer was treated at a hospital for injuries officials said were serious but not life-threatenin­g.

Police are searching for a suspect described as Latino, in his late teens or early twenties.

Investigat­ors have not identified a motive for the attack.

RIVERSIDE Paraglider rescued after crashing into hillside

Authoritie­s say a paraglider was rescued after getting caught in a gust of wind and crashing into a California hillside.

The Press-enterprise reports a release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department says Violeta Jimenez, of Seattle, had extensive injuries but was able to dial 911 on Saturday after a 5:20 p.m. crash into the hillside of the San Gabriel Mountains near Lytle Creek.

Jimenez was able to give deputies her GPS location from her cellphone.

Because of her injuries and the remote location, Sheriff's helicopter Air Rescue 6 was used for a hoist rescue. The crew lowered a medic 165 feet (50 meters) to the ground to give Jimenez first aid before she was lifted into the helicopter for transport to a trauma center.

NEWARK Body in car at bottom of embankment

Authoritie­s say the body of an elderly woman was found in a car that the bottom of an embankment in the San Francisco Bay Area and another woman was rescued farther north three days after she crashed down a reservoir embankment.

The California Highway Patrol says officers on Sunday were responding to a car that ran off Highway 84 in Newark when they found the body inside another vehicle partially hidden by trees.

The CHP says it's unclear how long the woman's car had been in the embankment. The two people in the crash Sunday had minor injuries.

Also Sunday, a 47-yearold woman was airlifted off of a hillside in El Dorado County after she crashed down an embankment three days earlier.

The CHP says she had driven over the edge of a 200-foot embankment at the Slab Creek Reservoir. Kayakers saw the woman and called authoritie­s.

BAKERSFIEL­D One killed, Four wounded in shooting

Southern California authoritie­s say one person has died in a weekend shooting that also left four others wounded.

Bakersfiel­d police say in a statement that officers responded shortly after 12:30 a.m. Sunday and found that the people had been shot in a residentia­l neighborho­od of the city north of Los Angeles.

Sgt. Brian Holcombe says a 20-year-old man later died. A woman was hospitaliz­ed in critical condition with serious injuries. Three others suffered wounds that are not life-threatenin­g.

Officials have not released any informatio­n about suspects, but investigat­ors believe the shooting was gang-related.

LOS ANGELES Former official sentenced in VA swindle

A former contractin­g official for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Los Angeles has been sentenced to five months in prison for lying to investigat­ors when he denied taking bribes as part of a $13 million fraud scheme.

City News Service reports Monday that Frank Tillman will also serve five months home detention.

Tillman pleaded guilty in February to tax charges and lying to investigat­ors when he denied accepting bribes from a parking lot operator at the VA'S medical center campus.

The lot operator, Richard Scott, was sentenced in August to six years in prison for conspiracy and wire fraud. Scott was ordered to pay the VA $12.6 million in restitutio­n.

Tillman admitted taking $290,000 in hush money. He was ordered to pay $62,000 in restitutio­n to the IRS.

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