How much are Magic Key annual passholders worth to Disneyland?

• October 17, 2023

The $9.5 million Magic Key class action settlement offers a glimpse behind the curtain that Disneyland rarely shares with the public and provides a rough estimate of what annual passholders are worth to the Anaheim theme park.

Disney agreed in September to settle a federal lawsuit alleging that annual passholders who purchased the $1,399 Dream Key in 2021 were unable to make theme park reservations at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure despite the promise of “no blockout dates.”

SEE ALSO: Disneyland fight breaks out in Fantasyland with kids and strollers stuck in the middle

As a result of the class action suit, each of the 103,435 Dream Key annual passholders will get $67.41.

With a little back-of-the-napkin math, those few numbers offer surprising insight into the billions Disneyland takes in annually from Magic Key passholders and daily visitors.

While $67 won’t even pay for a ticket to Disneyland on the cheapest day of the year, the $9.5 million Magic Key class action settlement represents a refund of nearly three weeks of theme park access for annual passholders.

SEE ALSO: The biggest winners in the Disneyland Magic Key settlement aren’t annual passholders

Crunching the numbers, the Dream Key cost passholders about $3.83 per day — an amazing bargain compared to the $104 to $194 visitors pay for daily admission.

Disneyland’s lawyers basically agreed to pay Dream Key passholders for about 18 days of access to the Anaheim theme parks in the class action lawsuit.

The $67 payout works out to just under 5% of the cost of a $1,399 Dream Key annual pass.

SEE ALSO: How to get your Disneyland Magic Key class action settlement

The $9.5 million settlement represents just under 7% of the $144.7 million Disneyland raked in from 103,435 Dream Key passholders in 2021.

The settlement offers the first official headcount of Magic Key annual passholders — a number that Disneyland has carefully guarded for decades.

Disneyland has raised prices on annual passes since 2021 and recast the Dream Key as the Inspire Key. There’s no way of knowing if there are still just over 100,000 Inspire keyholders today — but the number serves as a good estimate.

SEE ALSO: Why Disneyland raised ticket prices while Disney World didn’t

What the settlement doesn’t reveal is the full size of the annual passholder army. Disneyland breaks the Magic Key passes into four tiers: $1,649 Inspire Key, $1,249 Believe Key, $849 Enchant Key and $499 Imagine Key.

If the four Magic Key tiers were divided equally, Disneyland’s annual take would be $439.2 million from 413,740 passholders.

Disneyland’s yearly haul grows much larger if the Inspire keyholders represent roughly 10% of 1 million passholders — the long-held and widely accepted estimate.

If the three lowest Magic Key tiers were divided equally, Disneyland’s 1 million passholders would drop $949.7 million annually into Disney’s coffers.

SEE ALSO: Disneyland playtests cute droid trio in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

Passholders make up only a portion of the total attendance for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.

Disneyland’s 16.9 million visitors in 2022 was 90% of the 18.7 million that came to the park in 2019, according to the TEA/AECOM report. Disney California Adventure did slightly better at 91% — tallying 9 million visitors in 2022 compared to 9.9 million in 2019.

Annual passholders comprise an estimated 50% of Disneyland attendance, according to UBS financial analysts.

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Disneyland and DCA daily visitors pay an average of $149 per day to get into the parks. That’s probably on the low side when you factor in parkhoppers, after-hour events and multi-day tickets.

If 12.95 million daily visitors came to the parks in 2022, that works out to $1.9 billion walking through the front gates. With the slightly higher 14.3 million daily visitors in 2019, Disneyland’s annual gate revenue jumps to $2.1 billion.

Adding up the back-of-the-napkin math, Disneyland brings in a staggering $2.3 billion to $3 billion annually from Magic Key passholders and daily visitors.

​ Orange County Register 

The new vaccines and you: Americans better armed than ever against the winter blechs

• October 17, 2023

Amy Maxmen | (TNS) KFF Health News

Last year’s “triple-demic” marked the beginning of what may be a new normal: a confluence of respiratory infections — RSV, influenza, and COVID-19 — will surge as the weather cools each year.

Like blizzards, the specific timing and severity of these outbreaks are hard to forecast. But their damage can be limited in more ways than ever before. More protective vaccines against influenza are on the horizon. And new vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, were approved this year, as were updated COVID vaccines. Although the first days of rollout for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines saw hiccups, with short supplies at some pharmacies and billing confusion with some insurers, the shots now are generally available at no cost.

What’s more, after enduring the worst pandemic in a century, people are more attuned to protecting themselves and those around them. Wearing face masks and staying home when sick can stop the spread of most respiratory infections. The rate of flu vaccinations has climbed over the past five years.

“It seems like the pandemic reminded them of how important vaccination is,” said Brian Poole, a microbiologist at Brigham Young University in Utah. In a study of college students, Poole and other researchers found that flu vaccination rates have nearly tripled since 2007, from 12% to 31% in the respiratory infection season of 2022-23. Only a minority of students expressed “vaccine fatigue.”

There is, however, one dangerous departure from the past. Vaccination has become politicized, with college students and older adults who identify as Republican or conservative being less likely to get COVID vaccines, as well as vaccinations against flu. Before 2018, studies found that political affiliation had no influence on vaccine uptake. But as measures to limit COVID, such as school and church closures, became controversial, some political leaders downplayed the effects of COVID — even as the pandemic’s U.S. death toll soared above 1 million.

That messaging has led to a disbelief in public health information. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports data showing that COVID hospitalizations nearly tripled in the latest surge, with more than 40,000 hospitalizations in the first two weeks of September compared with about 13,600 in the same period of July. But in a recent KFF poll, half of Republicans did not believe in the surge, compared with just 23% of Democrats.

Messaging to minimize the toll of COVID also makes vaccines seem unnecessary, with 24% of Republicans leaning toward getting the updated COVID shot versus 70% of Democrats in the KFF poll. A larger share of vaccine-eligible adults said they planned to get, or have gotten, the flu shot and a new RSV vaccine.

“It’s important to recognize that the flu, COVID, and respiratory viruses still kill a lot of people, and that the vaccines against those viruses save lives,” said David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Flu vaccines prevent up to 87,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths each year in the United States. “I like to highlight that,” Dowdy added, “as opposed to making up terms like ‘triple-demic’ to make people cower in fear.”

Dowdy predicted this fall and winter will be better than the past few, when patients with COVID, influenza, or RSV filled hospitals. Even so, he estimated that more people will die than in the seasons before COVID appeared. About 58,000 people died from the flu last season, and hundreds of thousands more were sickened, staying home from school and work. This year, the flu doesn’t appear to be kicking off unusually early, as it did last year with cases picking up in November, rather than in January. And more people are partially immune to COVID due to vaccines and prior infections.

The effectiveness of flu vaccines varies depending on how well its formula matches the virus circulating. This year’s vaccine appears more protective than last year’s, which reduced the risk of hospitalization from the flu by about 44% among adults. This year, researchers expect an effectiveness of about 52%, based on data collected during South America’s earlier flu season. Its benefit was higher for children, reducing hospitalizations by 70%.

The flu’s toll tends to be uneven among demographic groups. Over the past decade, hospitalization rates due to the flu were 1.8 times as high among Black people in the United States as among white individuals. Just 42% of Black adults were vaccinated against the flu during that period, compared with 54% of white or Asian adults. Other issues, ranging from a lack of paid sick leave and medical care to a prevalence of underlying conditions, probably contribute to this disparity. People who have asthma, diabetes, or cardiovascular issues or are immunocompromised are at higher risk of a severe case of flu.

Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease pediatrician and the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases, urges parents to vaccinate their kids against influenza and COVID. Children hospitalized with co-infections of the two viruses last year were put on ventilators — an intense form of life support to allow them to breathe — far more often than those hospitalized for the flu alone. And COVID is surging now, O’Leary said. Hospitalizations among children under age 18 increased nearly fivefold from June to September. “Almost all of our kids who have died have been completely unvaccinated” against COVID, he said.

The FDA greenlighted new RSV vaccines from the pharmaceutical companies GSK and Pfizer this year. On Sept. 22, the CDC recommended that pregnant mothers get vaccinated to protect their newborns from RSV, as well as infants under 8 months old. The disease is the leading cause of hospitalization for infants in the United States. The agency also advises people age 60 and older to get the vaccine because RSV kills between 6,000 to 10,000 older adults each year.

Rather than vaccination, the CDC advised a new long-acting antibody treatment, nirsevimab, for children between 8 to 19 months old who are at risk of RSV. However, the price could be cost-prohibitive — anticipated at $300 to $500 a dose — and many hospitals lack the staff needed to administer it. Although insurers cover it, the American Academy of Pediatrics warns that reimbursement often lags for a year. “We don’t have the infrastructure in place to ensure all children can access the product,” said its president, Sandy Chung, in a statement. “And that is alarming.”

If the wrinkles can be ironed out, said Helen Chu, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Washington in Seattle, better tools could arrive as early as next year. Pfizer, Moderna, and other pharmaceutical companies are developing mRNA vaccines against influenza and RSV that may more precisely target each year’s circulating virus.

Today’s flu and RSV vaccines are produced using traditional vaccine platforms, such as within chicken eggs, that are more cumbersome to handle, and therefore the vaccines take longer to develop each year. And President Joe Biden has awarded companies $1 billion to develop COVID vaccines that provide longer protection.

“The future is going to be all three vaccines together,” Chu said, “but that will be a while yet.”

___

(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Doug McIntyre: Carnage in the Holy Land, once again

• October 17, 2023

There are no words but that’s all we have — I mean other than bombs and bullets, and those are being deployed in full measure.

The horror the world witnessed in Israel is beyond the capacity of most to comprehend. What could the leaders of Hamas possibly have been thinking? What did they hope to achieve by unleashing a homicidal rampage against unarmed civilians, including babies?

The predictable Israeli response has been swift, deadly and sustained. It is also justified. What nation could not act after a horror like last Saturday’s invasion? Hamas knew before it sent armed paragliders to massacre concert goers at a music festival what would follow. So, what did they hope to achieve other than the death of hundreds, if not thousands, of their co-religionists and a brutal day-to-day existence for the survivors deprived of food, water, shelter, medicine and electricity after Israel flattens Gaza? If they had hoped their legitimate political objections to Israeli hegemony over Gaza would be rectified, those hopes are as dead as the innocents they murdered with a shocking barbarity.

Words, words, words. Words in every language with no end in sight.

This time, history is a hindrance not a help. There are no lessons to be gleaned from the past, only a menu of grievances, an ever-growing catalog of killings and reprisals that fuel more killings and reprisals. It’s pointless to cite the past when the combatants can’t even agree on today. Since Israel’s birth in 1948, the Jewish homeland has experienced tenuous periods of peace, but always at a terrible cost. They have had hardline war governments and courageous peace governments and neither approach has mollified their enemies internal or external. For the duration of the present crisis, the Israelis’ will be governed by a coalition administration with two objectives, security at home and retribution abroad.

Iran is happy.

The reported progress in Saudi-Israeli peace talks have stopped cold. Soon Israeli airstrikes and occupying ground troops will be painted by hostile governments as war crimes. That’s by design. Hamas and Hezbollah are both infamous for firing missiles from crowded neighborhoods and they cry “war crime!” when those batteries are destroyed with the inevitable civilian casualties. In face of images of crumbled Arab neighborhoods, any overt peace deals with Israel are impossible.

Vladimir Putin is happy.

While the West focuses on Israel and Gaza, Vlad continues to kidnap Ukrainian children and kill civilians by the score with no military objective other than arbitrary death and destruction.

China is happy.

Again, while our attention turns to an ally in need, the communist Chinese government continue to play a game of nuclear chicken in the South China Sea and the Straits of Taiwan, pushing their territorial claims to absurd dimensions and threatening global trade in the Pacific.

Hack politicians are happy.

The usual suspects here at home will exploit the attacks in Israel (and the Israeli response) to pin blame on their opponents, hoping to pluck some low hanging fruit next election.

The people who make bullets and bombs are happy.

War is always good for the bottom line.

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The Middle-East is a political and moral Rorschach test for both nations and individuals. Who do you stand with? While it’s perfectly acceptable to blame the Israeli government for inflaming tensions by encouraging settlements in disputed territory — Israelis argue among themselves all the time — equating the only democratic and ecumenical nation with despotic, terror-sponsoring states who deliberately target civilians is fundamentally wrong. Might does not always make right. But neither is the wealthy and powerful nation always wrong. Many of Israel’s critics believe the nation’s success is its original sin.

But these are just words.

Throw my opinion onto the other piles of words spewed by those of us shocked once again at mankind’s endless capacity to invent new horrors.

“Never again?”

“I have a dream.”

Will anything ever change?

In December of 2012, a madman shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut and murdered twenty-six people, including twenty children ages seven and eight. Nothing was done. If a foreign agent had done this, we would have gone to war.

Words. Words. Words.

Doug McIntyre’s column appears Sundays. [email protected]. His novel, “Frank’s Shadow” is available at: www.DougMcIntyre.com   

​ Orange County Register 

Jon Coupal: California’s pension debt remains a serious challenge

• October 17, 2023

This column has covered many scandals in recent weeks including the eye-popping fraud with EDD ($32 billion lost), the rampant abuse in Medi-Cal, and the nation’s highest level (by far) of unemployment insurance debt. All of this, of course, is capped off with our budget crisis when we went from a $100 billion surplus to a $20 billion deficit in a few short months. And if preliminary projections are anywhere close to being accurate, the state will face another huge deficit this coming year. 

But a long term financial problem that California needs to prioritize is our level of pension debt. Unlike other fiscal problems, which can change from year to year, the level of unfunded pension liabilities is a problem that won’t disappear overnight.

Taxpayers hear a lot about how generous California’s pension benefits are, notwithstanding some minor reforms under former Governor Jerry Brown, but the public’s understanding of public sector pension benefits remains elusive because the subject is so complex. The first thing to understand is that California’s major pension funds, both CalSTRS (teachers) and CalPERS (public employees), are defined benefit plans, which guarantee specific payouts to retirees and thus leave taxpayers at risk if promised benefits exceed available funds.

The best solution to reduce risk would be for California to do what other states have done by transitioning to “defined contribution” plans. This would not only reduce the risks to the state and taxpayers, but could also produce better returns for the employees. In defined contribution plans, the employee’s benefit is equal to his or her own contributions, plus those of the employer (in this case, the taxpayers), plus whatever earnings the investments accrue. Regrettably for taxpayers, the political clout of public sector labor organizations makes a significant transition to defined contribution plans virtually impossible. 

It should surprise no one that California has the most pension debt – by far – compared to all other states, at nearly $250 billion. No other state even comes close.

However, in fairness to California, aggregate pension debt is a misleading figure. First, it does not reflect a dollar-to-dollar amount of what taxpayers owe directly, as is the case with general obligation bonds. Second, the amount of debt is less important than the percentage of funding necessary to meet the obligations to current and future retirees. A funding ratio of 100% has sufficient funds to meet all future obligations barring unforeseen events.  

The best explanation of defined benefit pension systems comes from our friends at the Reason Foundation. Reason’s Pension Integrity Project looks at 118 state pension systems and provides a good comparison of where California stands relative to other states. Among all states’ systems, the 118 state pension systems have $1.3 trillion in total unfunded liabilities at the end of the 2023 fiscal year. 

Nationally, funding ratios have slowly improved over the years. State pension plans’ funded ratios hit a low of 63.5% funded in 2009 but are projected to be 76% for 2023. According to Reason, “This means that after 15 years of trying to recover from massive financial losses suffered in 2008 and 2009, state pension plans can only pay 76 cents of every dollar of retirement promises already made to teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other public workers.” 

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If states were judged based solely on their funding ratios, it may surprise people that some progressive states do better than many conservative states. For example, depending on estimated rates of investment returns, the state with the best pension funding is Washington, which sits at around 107% funded. (California is at about 78%). More conservative Kentucky’s funding ratio is below 50%, which leaves that state’s taxpayers at very high risk. 

When dealing with pension debt, taxpayers may be overwhelmed with “MEGO” numbers (My Eyes Glaze Over). But pension obligations are a huge part of public employees’ total compensation and thus constitute a big cost to taxpayers. So it is incumbent on all citizens to be aware of how their respective states manage their public sector retirement programs.

Readers may want to check out Reason Foundation’s State Pension Tracker website, which helpfully gives everyone access to important pension information in an easy to understand format. It is worth checking out. 

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

​ Orange County Register 

JetBlue, Uber to offer free rides to passengers facing certain travel disruptions

• October 17, 2023

Donald Wood | TravelPulse (TNS)

Uber for Business and JetBlue announced a new partnership designed to benefit airline passengers impacted by qualifying travel disruptions.

As part of the deal, JetBlue would offer complimentary Uber vouchers to its passengers who experience a qualified flight delay or cancellation, with the program currently available across the United States in every city where the carrier operates.

Uber and JetBlue also revealed plans to expand the service internationally, beginning with major airports in Paris, London, and Amsterdam.

“We always work to give our customers a great onboard experience and get them to their destination safely and on time,” JetBlue President and COO Joanna Geraghty said. “Sometimes travel doesn’t go as planned, and flights can get delayed or cancelled.”

“In those cases, when the disruption is due to something in our control, our partnership with Uber for Business will make options for our customers more seamless,” Geraghty continued.

For passengers to qualify for the service, a delay or cancellation must be within JetBlue’s control and meet the following criteria:

— If a JetBlue flight is delayed three hours or more from scheduled departure time and the delay is due to a Controllable Irregularity which results in the customer not being accommodated until the following day, JetBlue will offer ground transportation from the airport to/from a local airport area hotel.

— If JetBlue cancels a flight due to a Controllable Irregularity, and it results in the customer not being accommodated until the following day, JetBlue will offer ground transportation from the airport to/from a local airport area hotel.

JetBlue chose to partner with Uber for Business as around 170,000 organizations trust the company’s platforms to improve operations and customer service solutions.

_____

©2023 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Will artificial intelligence find and cure breast cancer?

• October 17, 2023

Can a machine catch a breast cancer tumor better than a human?

Radiologists at Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute at Boca Regional Hospital have been working to find that answer. They began adding artificial intelligence technology to existing 3D mammography for breast cancer screening in 2020. With three years of results, they discovered AI can make a significant difference in finding cancer.

Both the radiologists at the Institute (part of Baptist Health South Florida) and the machines read thousands of mammogram results each year. In some instances, AI helped catch cancers before they could be detected by the human eye. Since implementing AI, their detection rate has improved 23%.

“In the past, if we found 100 cancers, today with AI we will find 123,” said Dr. Kathy Schilling medical director of Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute.

“This is significant, because finding a cancer earlier could mean that a patient may not require chemotherapy or radiation therapy,” she says. “The types of cancers we are currently finding are smaller and of lower stage, reducing the need for advanced treatments.”

Dr. Louise Morrell, an oncologist at Lynn Cancer Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, said the findings have led Baptist Health to expand the use of AI to all imaging centers across the hospital system.

Artificial intelligence also is being studied for customized treatment. A team at University of Florida is studying whether the right combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy can combat aggressive breast cancer and how AI can help. Mohammed Gbadamosi, a researcher in the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, has secured a $1.25 million grant to launch his own independent academic research laboratory and build a team focused on developing breast cancer treatment strategies. The team will apply artificial intelligence to construct computer models for personalizing treatment based on a patient’s tumor genetics.

Other local research and clinical trials

Medication is evolving to better treat certain types of breast cancer and keep them from spreading. Oncologists at The Michael and Dianne Bienes Comprehensive Cancer Center at Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale are enrolling patients with HR+, HER2-negative breast cancer in a clinical trial for a drug made by Tolmar called TOL2506. The trial is evaluating whether the medication suppresses ovarian estrogen production in premenopausal women who are undergoing chemotherapy. If effective, this would reduce the risk of the breast cancer coming back. It also is evaluating the safety of the drug in men. So far, Holy Cross has one patient participating and is screening three more for the trial.

A chemical compound may help stop breast cancer in the earliest of stages.  A team of University of Florida medicinal chemists and cancer biologists has created a compound that can help cells dispose of proteins that cause cancer cells to grow. In laboratory testing in breast cancer cells, the compound, known as YX968, effectively targeted unwanted proteins in cancer cells and then degrading them —  without harming healthy genes. Only a small amount of the YX968 compound was needed.

“These compounds act like matchmakers, bringing together two proteins so one can destroy the other one,” said Yufeng Xiao, the study’s co-first author. The researchers are refining the compound’s design to make it more of a drug so it can be tested in animal models. The long-term goal is to develop a new therapeutic that is safe and effective.  Xiao said that will require a clinical trial in humans which will take several years.

Race may be affecting the late stages of breast cancer diagnosis. Black women have a 40% higher death rate compared to white women, according to the American Cancer Society. Studies are underway in South Florida to learn more.

Florida Atlantic University Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing researchers recently conducted a study in a sample of about 400 Black women receiving care at its nurse-led FAU/Northwest Community Health Alliance Community Health Center in West Palm Beach. They looked at mammography screening frequency, beliefs about breast cancer including perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits and perceived barriers to screening. Almost half reported having annual mammograms; the remainder reported having mammograms every two to three years, and some women never had a mammogram in their lifetime, despite being age 40 or older. The majority of the women believed their chances of getting breast cancer was “very unlikely” but they did feel that having a mammogram would be beneficial. “Perceived barriers to and beliefs about mammography screening should be taken into consideration when designing interventions to increase breast cancer screening in Black women,” said Karen Wisdom-Chambers, co-author of the study and an assistant professor in FAU’s College of Nursing.

University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers are participating in a clinical trial designed to understand why Black men and women are at higher risk of developing and dying from aggressive prostate and breast cancer. The national trial, called the African Cancer Genome Registry, is recruiting cancer patients to participate. “Please, please do it, if not for yourself, then for the next generation,” said Charinus Johnson-Davis, a Miami breast cancer survivor and one of the first local trial enrollees.

Treatments and interventions

Mindfulness is a technique Dr. Ashwin Mehta, who leads Memorial Cancer Institute’s Integrative Cancer Survivorship Program, sees as a key component to breast cancer treatment. In a new report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, he recommends cancer patients use mind-body techniques to manage their feelings, anxiety and depression during and after treatment as part of integrative medical approach to care.

“Depression and anxiety often emerge when patients complete their treatment and begin to reflect on the trauma they have endured,” Mehta said. “Recognizing that not all patients prefer traditional medication for these symptoms, we’ve achieved remarkable success with mindfulness-based interventions and other integrative therapies in helping patients overcome these challenges.”

Survivors’ groups make a difference, says Isabel Toca, a 59-year-old Miami resident whose breast cancer was detected early. Toca needed lumpectomies for removal, a three-week course of radiation therapy, and a long-term regimen of an oral drug that treats hormone-dependent breast cancer. After her medical treatment, she joined a cancer survivors’ group, which is part of a study at UHealth’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. The study is aimed at helping survivors recognize and combat the many manifestations of cancer-related stress. The members benefit not just from the structured program, complete with exercises and homework, but from talking to and learning from each other.

Reconstruction advances

Nipple Preservation.  UHealth’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center physician-scientist Dr. Crystal Seldon Taswell has a new approach to nipple-preserving therapy for patients with early-stage breast cancer. In a phase 1 clinical trial, enrolled patients were not candidates for a nipple-sparing mastectomy. The approach, which uses delayed radiotherapy after breast surgery, resulted in 100% nipple preservation without compromise of local control, as well as excellent patient-reported satisfaction. Seldon Taswell believes study results support further exploration of this nipple-preservation technique, and she is advocating for a broader group of patients to be included.

Fundraising

CEOs of some of Florida’s large and small businesses have formed a power group called CEOs Against Cancer to share ideas for raising funds and encouraging screenings. The group has about 30 CEO members thus far, and this month the focus is on breast cancer.

For Spero Georgedakis, founder of South Florida’s Good Greek Relocation Systems, participation is personal. Georgedakis lost his mother, Stella, to breast cancer in 2001 when she was only 52.

As a newly committed member of  the CEO group, Georgedakis will be featured in a campaign for early detection. He also is using his company as a platform to encourage donations for breast cancer research and treatments. A pink Good Greek Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Moving Truck has been making rounds in South Florida, and on it is a QR code for people to make donations. “The truck pops and is eye catching. We have the QR code on there, so it is easy to donate right off the truck,” Georgedakis said. The QR code also is on the company website, television ads, and business cards, he said. “It’s a quick and easy way to get donations.”

Another member of CEOs Against Center, Andrew Koenig, CEO of CITY Furniture, also participates in breast cancer awareness, and like Georgedakis, the cause is personal to him too.  Andrew lost his mother, Doreen Koenig, to breast cancer in 2015. During October, CITY Furniture gives out pink pumpkins to spread awareness and hosts a Test Rest Program. When shoppers visit a CITY showroom and complete a mattress test, they get a $25 gift card and trigger a $25 donation to the American Cancer Society on their behalf.

​ Orange County Register 

US work-from-home rates drop to lowest since pandemic

• October 17, 2023

By Zachary Fleming, Redd Brown and Ignacio Gonzalez | Bloomberg

The push by employers to get American workers back into the office appears to be working.

Fewer than 26% of US households still have someone working remotely at least one day a week, a sharp decline from the early 2021 peak of 37%, according to the two latest Census Bureau Household Pulse Surveys. Only seven states plus Washington, DC, have a remote-work rate above 33%, the data shows, down from 31 states and DC mid-pandemic.

The reversal reflects the continued push by many employers to get staff to return to offices. Remote employees have been blamed for dwindling profits and costing cities billions, and fears of a recession have eroded their ability to demand the telework perks they won early in the pandemic when the labor market sat squarely in their favor.

Also see: Employers would gladly replace workers with AI technology

Some companies, like Goldman Sachs Group Inc., now expect a return to five days in the office, though boardroom disagreement abounds — nearly three of out four organizations see RTO as the topic most likely to foment leadership conflict.

At the state level, the data shows all 50 have seen work-from-home rates drop from their pandemic highs. But the unevenness in their rates of decline suggests the trend doesn’t have one cohesive explanation, and is instead the result of a hodgepodge of migration, socio-economic, gender and race factors, and possibly even politics — Democratic states tend to have higher remote-work rates than Republican ones.

Illustrating the complexity: States whose remote-work rates have fallen by as much as half to around post-pandemic lows include Mississippi and Louisiana, which weren’t able to widely embrace remote work due to a reliance on in-person industries like manufacturing and oil and gas, but also more white-collar states that did welcome it, like California and Connecticut.

Also see: CEOs still make more annually than a typical worker does in 186 years

New York City workers fled during the pandemic to towns like Greenwich, Connecticut, driving a boom in home sales and remote work rates. Now, they may not be moving back, but they’re commuting to the city. As Connecticut’s work-from-home rate has fallen — to 28% from its early-2021 peak of 46% — average ridership along the Metro-North train lines that link the state to New York City and its offices has risen — to a peak of about 70% versus pre-pandemic levels, up from just 20% in early 2021.

“People exited New York City, they’re not selling their homes to go back,” Bill Raveis, founder of Connecticut-based William Raveis Real Estate Inc., said in an interview. “They’re staying here and they’re making their adjustments to the community.”

Report: Remote-work searches outstrip available supply

The latest Census data also underlines that employees’ demand for remote jobs is outpacing the number of companies offering them.

In 157 of the largest metro areas in the US, more than half of job applications were for fully remote or hybrid roles in August, according to LinkedIn data generated for Bloomberg, but postings for those jobs have been falling since early 2022, data from Indeed Inc. shows. In Colorado — widely seen as a work-from-home haven and one of the few states that has maintained a rate above one third — 76% of job applications in Colorado Springs were for fully remote or hybrid roles in August, the LinkedIn data showed.

Some areas are capitalizing on that scarcity. Alabama, with a work-from-home rate of just 15% according to the Pulse data, offers $10,000 to remote workers who move to the state’s northwest Shoals area. The program has attracted about the same number of applications so far this year as in all of 2021 and 2022 combined, about 3,400.

All 50 states pale in comparison to their largest cities’ metro areas. In Washington, DC, where government bureaucrats are loath to go back to their offices, the remote-work rate is above 50%, the data shows. Similarly, Seattle, Boston and San Francisco all had rates near or above 40%. Average office attendance across ten big US cities remains about 50% of pre-pandemic levels, according to security firm Kastle Systems International LLC, no higher than where it was early in 2023.

​ Orange County Register 

Chargers review: Is Justin Herbert failing to meet expectations?

• October 17, 2023

Here’s what we learned, what we heard and what comes next after the Chargers’ 20-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night, their third defeat in five games in 2023 by three points or less offering further evidence that they haven’t come close to fulfilling their promise:

GREAT(ER) EXPECTATIONS

Among the many burning questions facing the Chargers is whether quarterback Justin Herbert is truly living up to the gargantuan five-year, $262.5 million contract extension he signed back in July, on the eve of training camp. So far, there is plenty of evidence that he’s fallen short.

Way short.

To be clear, he does make some remarkable throws and can be extraordinarily effective creating something from nothing when the pass rushers swarm him and his receivers have to change course and look for new routes through the secondary. He is an elite-level quarterback.

However, and this is where it gets to the heart of the matter, he hasn’t come through in the clutch when handed a late opportunity this season. He failed to guide winning touchdown drives against the Miami Dolphins in Week 1, the Tennessee Titans in Week 2 and against Dallas in Week 6.

Against the Dolphins, Herbert had 75 yards and 1:45 to work with, but he drove the Chargers only as far as their own 33 before he was sacked on a fourth-and-12 and turned the ball over on downs with 55 seconds left. Miami ran out the clock for a 36-34 victory at SoFi Stadium.

Against the Titans, he drove the Chargers down the field for Cameron Dicker’s game-tying 33-yard field goal on the last play of regulation, sending the game to overtime. But once in OT, the visiting Chargers went three-and-out on their lone possession and Tennessee kicked a field goal to win 27-24.

Against the Cowboys, he had 2:19 and 75 yards to negotiate, but his desperation third-and-10 throw intended for rookie Quentin Johnston as he was about to be sacked was picked off by the Cowboys’ Stephon Gilmore. Dallas ran out the final 1:22 for a 20-17 victory at SoFi Stadium.

In the Chargers’ two victories, their defense stopped first the Minnesota Vikings and then the Las Vegas Raiders with red-zone interceptions in the closing minutes. The Chargers held off the Vikings for a 28-24 victory in Week 3 in Minneapolis and the Raiders for a 24-17 win in Week 4 at SoFi.

“I think we can do a lot better on offense, especially at quarterback,” Herbert said late Monday night, after praising the Cowboys’ defensive pressure against him, which limited him to pedestrian totals of 22-of-37 passing for 227 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

“I can play a lot better.”

Indeed.

Herbert declined to fault the fractured left middle finger on his non-throwing hand for some of his misfires Monday, including one possible touchdown and another likely big gain to sure-handed wide receiver Keenan Allen. Herbert wore padding and a white glove on his left hand for protection.

Of his missed connections with Allen, Herbert said, “I missed a couple of receivers and threw some bad passes. There was a lot left out there. There’s a lot to work on and a lot to improve on.” Of his interception, he said, “I threw it and the guy (Gilmore) picked it off. He made a good play on it.”

It all added up to another less-than-stellar showing from Herbert.

COSTLY PENALTIES

Coach Brandon Staley was troubled by two personal fouls called against safety Derwin James Jr., a three-time Pro Bowl selection, including one that followed a 15-yard completion from Dak Prescott to Jake Ferguson that ended up being a 30-yard gain that led to a field goal and a 10-7 halftime deficit.

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“What I know is that we can’t have 30 yards, two defensive penalties like that because it’s worth a lot of yardage and it keeps drives alive,” Staley said. “We have to keep educating, which we do, and we have to make sure that we’re penalty-free because there’s a lot at stake when you make penalties like that.”

 WHAT COMES NEXT

The Chargers face the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. Will a certain pop singer of some renown be on hand to watch her boyfriend play for the reigning Super Bowl champs? Of slightly lesser interest, will visiting reporters find a parking spot among the throngs of early-arriving tailgaters?

​ Orange County Register