Stories by Madison Aument

For 91.9 KVCR News, I'm Madison Aument, and this is Economics IE. Today, I'm speaking with Jonathan Lansner, a business columnist with the Southern California News Group, which publishes The Press-Enterprise and The San Bernardino Sun. We discussed a column he published last week analyzing rent prices across Southern California. Let's just start with how you compiled your data on these rental prices.

For 91.9 KVCR News, I'm Madison Aument. This is Economics IE. Each month, IEGO, a nonprofit focused on economic growth in the Inland Empire, publishes the IE Labor Market Pulse. The newsletter analyzes monthly employment data to give readers insight into the IE labor market. Today, I'm speaking with Matt Mena, who's IEGO's Executive Director, about last month's job numbers.

For 91.9 KVCR News, I'm Madison Aument and this is Economics IE.This week I'm bringing you a rundown of economics stories across the state.

Each month, IEGO, a nonprofit focused on economic growth in the Inland Empire, publishes the IE Labor Market Pulse. The newsletter analyzes monthly employment data to give readers insight into the IE labor market. Today, I'm speaking with Matt Mena, who's IEGO's executive director, about last month's job numbers.

For 91.9 KVCR News, I'm Madison Aument, and this is Economics IE. Daniel McDonald is a professor of economics at Cal State San Bernardino. He also writes a free Substack newsletter called Inland Empire Economic Intelligence.
Every two months, inflation data is published for the Inland Empire. So this week, McDonald joined me to talk about the ways people in the IE are still feeling the sting of inflation.

For 91.9 KVCR News, I'm Madison Aument, and this is Economics IE. Kelley Bader is the former board president at Slow Bloom Coffee Cooperative and is now program manager for co-op development at the Inland Empire Labor Institute. Last week, we talked about Slow Bloom's creation and success as a worker-owned co-op. You can find that episode on our website. In part two of our interview, Bader delves further into cooperatives and what they mean for workers.

For 91.9 KVCR News, I'm Madison Aument, and this is Economics IE.

If you live in Redlands, you may have been to Slow Bloom Coffee. The shop is a worker-owned cooperative that was born out of a failed union drive. Kelley Bader is a founding member of Slow Bloom, the co-op's former board president, and he now manages a program at the Inland Empire Labor Institute to help others form co-ops.

Daniel MacDonald is a professor of economics at Cal State San Bernardino. He also writes a free Substack newsletter called Inland Empire Economic Intelligence. A few weeks ago, he published a response to a report authored by Chris Thornberg with Beacon Economics.

Last year, the FAST Act was passed, which raised the minimum wage for fast food workers in California to $20 an hour. In his report, Thornberg argues that employment in the fast food sector declined since quarter two of 2024, when the Act was passed. MacDonald disagreed and authored a response to this report on his Substack, which he's talking to us about today.

In a small rural town in Riverside County… there's an unexpected predator…packs of stray dogs. In recent months, the dogs have killed dozens of livestock and terrorized many people. Authorities say illegal marijuana farms are to blame.