California Dolphin

With the holiday season in full swing and an alarming surge in coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County, an area labor union teamed up with local charitable organizations to distribute food and toys to truck drivers struggling to support their families during the pandemic. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing the drivers who deliver loads to and from the Los Angeles and Long Beach seaports, organized a toy and food giveaway from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday to support the essential workers. Union representatives say that drivers have been working through their holiday shifts, sometimes without proper protective equipment and workplace safety measures. Union members say that happens because trucking companies often classify their truck as independent contractors, which can deny truckers of fairer wages and benefits. “This is the biggest economic engine in the country, the Los Angeles harbor,” said Ron Herrera, director of the Teamsters’ port division. “14,000 port truck drivers here and hundreds of thousands of warehouses — it’s time the general public understands how essential they really are. 40% of the imports that come into the U.S. come in through this harbor. The warehouse portion of this…

The Pentagon has authorized nearly 50 top civilian and military leaders to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the coming weeks to prove the shots are safe and effective. In a memo to senior leaders, Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist laid out specific vaccine allowances for the heads of the military services and combatant commands around the world. “It is critical that leaders play an active role in promoting the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination to ensure maximum voluntary participation in the vaccination effort,” said Norquist in the memo obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The memo signed Thursday said department leaders may receive what he called “show of confidence” vaccines as a “strategic messaging tool” between now and Jan. 15. Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller got his vaccine on Monday, the day it was first rolled out. Frontline healthcare workers at military installations have started getting vaccines. Other senior leaders who will get the vaccine are Norquist, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as his vice chairman, Gen. John Hyten, and Senior Enlisted Advisor Ramón Colón-López.

The FBI and local police are investigating the 2019 disappearance of an Irvine teenager and mother, whose husband says he was “rendered unconscious by an unknown substance” and woke up to find them gone, officials said Friday. The Irvine Police Department said the case is being investigated as a possible kidnapping and the FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information. Amber Aiaz, 35, and her daughter, Melissa Fu, 13, were last seen around 6 p.m. Nov. 22, 2019 at their apartment in the area of Michelson and University drives in Irvine. According to Aiaz’ husband, two people knocked on the door that day. “When he opened the door, he saw a male and female of Chinese descent standing at the door and he was immediately rendered unconscious by an unknown substance,” he told police. He woke up to find that his wife and her daughter were missing, police said he told them. “The male and female were not known to him and it is possible they were seen by others in the complex,” Irvine police said. The two strangers were described as being in…

The U.S. stood on the verge of adding a second COVID-19 vaccine to its arsenal Friday as the outbreak descended deeper into its most lethal phase yet, with the nation regularly recording over 3,000 deaths per day. The Food and Drug Administration was evaluating a shot developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health and was expected to give it the green light soon, clearing the way for its use to begin as early as Monday. That would give the U.S. a critical new weapon against the coronavirus in addition to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine now being dispensed to millions of health care workers and nursing home patients as part of the biggest vaccination drive in U.S. history. The go-ahead from the FDA would mark the world’s first authorization of Moderna’s shots. Large but unfinished studies show that both vaccines appear safe and strongly protective, though Moderna’s is easier to handle, since it does not need to be kept at ultra-frozen temperatures like the Pfizer-BioNTech shot. Both require two doses for full protection. A second vaccine represents a ray of hope amid despair as…