The Grapevine: 2/10/23
Good afternoon. Walt Disney Co. lays off 7,000 amid weak streaming numbers, California stands to lose $500 million in extra food stamp aid, and the Bay Area's housing market finally starts to cool off. Here's what you need to know:
- Bob Iger, the CEO of Walt Disney Co., announced that the company would lay off 7,000 workers as its streaming business falls short of expectations. (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-02-08/bob-iger-first-disney-earnings-since-returning-nelson-peltz)
- CalFresh, California's food stamp program, is poised to lose over $500 million a month in extra benefits when a pandemic-era program that boosted funding for state food aid ends in April. Experts fear the abrupt loss of funding may lead to a dramatic hunger spike in the state. (https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2023/02/calfresh-emergency-allotments-ending/)
- Many of the buildings that collapsed during the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria share a design flaw that is common across California: the use of non-ductile concrete, which engineers say is "extremely vulnerable to the shaking caused by earthquakes." (https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-10/california-buildings-share-deadly-flaw-as-those-in-turkey-quake)
- The average home in the Bay Area is now going for below asking price, a sign that the Bay's famously hot housing market is softening amid an increase in interest rates and a decrease in the number of buyers able to afford homes in the area. (https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/bay-area-housing-list-prices-17770050.php)
- The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has installed a new crosswalk at a busy East Hollywood intersection, formalizing a DIY crossing painted by an advocacy group that has created crosswalks at unmarked intersections across the city. (https://laist.com/news/transportation/diy-crosswalk-los-angeles-hollywood-collective-la-street-safety-ladot)
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