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Judges block controversial grocery merger of Kroger, Albertsons
VOL. 8,
NO. 202
DHS councilman pleads not guilty to road rage charges By City News Service
By Joe Taglieri
D
joet@beaconmedianews.com
esert Hot Springs City Councilman and recent mayoral candidate Russell Betts entered not guilty pleas to a pair of charges Thursday following an alleged road rage incident. Betts pleaded not guilty to a felony count of vandalism and a misdemeanor count of false imprisonment at the Riverside Hall of Justice on Thursday, according to case records. The defendant is due back in court for a felony settlement conference on March 6. He is accused of trapping and damaging another motorist’s vehicle at a 7-Eleven in charges that were filed one day before the election. Betts allegedly followed a driver whom he believed cut him off in traffic on Aug. 4, parking in a way that prevented the person’s escape and striking the other car, according to a declaration in support of arrest first obtained by the Uken Report. According to the declaration, Betts followed the other driver shortly before 9 a.m. that day, parking behind him when only one other vehicle was in the lot. He allegedly popped the hood of his car, “pretending to have an inoperable vehicle” and confronting the other driver when the person left the convenience store. The other driver “could not get out of the situation, except to back out of the parking
See Councilman Page 28
A Ralphs supermarket in Porter Ranch. | Photo courtesy of Coolcaesar/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A
lbertsons Cos. Inc. has canceled merger plans with The Kroger Co. after two judges on Tuesday sided with federal regulators who argued the deal would hinder competition, result in higher prices and be bad for grocery workers. Albertsons then filed a multibillion-dollar lawsuit Wednesday against Kroger, alleging breach of the merger agreement for not doing enough to secure regulatory approval for the $24.6 billion deal. Judges in Oregon and Washington issued decisions within hours of each other Tuesday that were unfavorable to the merger. The judge in Oregon agreed with Federal Trade Commission regulators who said a combined Albertsons-Kroger supermarket chain was a violation of consumer protection laws. The judge in Washington
blocked the merger hours after the Oregon decision. The FTC, California and seven other states sued in February in an attempt to block the proposed merger. Kroger officials countered that the alliance would enable the newly combined company to compete more effectively with large retail conglomerates such as Walmart and Amazon. Kroger claimed the merger would not cause higher prices for consumers or widespread store closures and job cuts. To ensure existing stores continue operating postmerger, the company said it would transfer 579 stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers. At the conclusion of a three-week trial, however, U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson sided with the FTC. The Portland, Oregon-based judge ruled that the merger would eliminate competition
between two of the largest grocery chains in the U.S., resulting in higher prices, the possibility of fewer jobs and negative impacts on unionized grocery workers. Separately on Tuesday, a Washington state court judge in Seattle ruled against the merger. The FTC issued a prepared statement by Bureau of Competition Director Henry Liu following the rulings Tuesday: “The FTC, along with our state partners, scored a major victory for the American people, successfully blocking Kroger’s acquisition of Albertsons,” Liu said. “This historic win protects millions of Americans across the country from higher prices for essential groceries — from milk, to See Grocery merger Page 27
bread, to eggs — ultimately allowing consumers to keep more money in their pockets. This victory has a direct, tangible impact on the lives of millions of Americans who shop at Kroger or Albertsonsowned grocery stores for their everyday needs, whether that’s a Fry’s in Arizona, a Vons in Southern California, or a Jewel-Osco in Illinois,” the statement continued. “This is also a victory for thousands of hardworking union employees, protecting their hard-earned paychecks by ensuring Kroger and Albertsons continue to compete for workers through higher wages, better benefits, and improved working conditions,” Liu said. An Albertsons spokesperson told Reuters, “We believe we clearly outlined
School district sued over alleged actions of former math teacher By City News Service
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ight young women who say they were sexually harassed and inappropriately touched by a former Hemet High School teacher ultimately convicted of felony charges are suing the Hemet Unified School District for what they say was a failure by administrators to protect them from the defendant. The suit, filed Friday in Riverside County Superior Court, stems from the alleged actions of 33-year-old Miguel Angel Chavez Lopez of Riverside between 2016 and 2018, while he was employed as a mathematics instructor at the high school. Lopez, who is also a named defendant in the civil complaint, was arrested in August 2018 following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation. He pleaded guilty six months later to oral copulation of a minor and penetration of a minor with a foreign object and was sentenced to 16 months in state prison. Most of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit came forward after the criminal case was settled.
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