Stories by Madison Aument

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.