Ralphs baby food

Despite Petitions, Protests and Pleas, Pico-Robertson Ralphs to Close May 15

Harvey Farr

Harvey Farr is a local community reporter for the Jewish Journal.

April 13, 2021

Ralphs shopper leaves market on a Sunday morning (Photo by Harvey Farr)

The near-empty grocery shelves and parking structures say it all. Come May 15, barring unforeseen and unlikely circumstances, the Ralphs on Pico Boulevard and Beverwil Drive, will shutter for good.

For close to two months, the Pico-Robertson community has mobilized to convince The Kroger Co., which owns and operates Ralphs and Food 4 Less, to keep the store open. A Change.org petition was created and garnered over 4,700 signatures in days. Community representatives met with local politicians and Ralphs executives. Social media lit up, reminding Kroger that the Ralphs on Pico, which houses the Kosher Experience, serves a vibrant Jewish community and will be sorely missed. But to no avail.

On March 3, 2021, the L.A. City Council passed an ordinance that requires grocery stores to pay its workers an additional $5 per hour “hero pay.” In response, Kroger announced that it will close the Ralphs on Pico, a Ralphs in South Los Angeles and a Food 4 Less in East Hollywood on May 15. Ralphs claims the “hero pay” will result in $20 million in operating losses for stores that are already losing money. Ralphs has promised to relocate all employees to other Ralphs stores. The Pico Ralphs employs 108 associates; nine work at the Kosher Experience.

Ralphs operates 68 stores in the Los Angeles area. After the closures, 65 stores will remain, with three continuing to house the Kosher Experience — La Brea Avenue near 3rd Street, Sherman Oaks and La Jolla.

“Don’t get me wrong,” said Pico-Robertson resident Zev Hurwitz, 27, who created the Change.org petition. “For us in the neighborhood, it is an inconvenience. The real tragedy are the workers who are not getting the ‘hero pay’ they so well deserve and now have to relocate. ”

Photo by Harvey Farr

Hurwitz said he buys flowers for his wife at the Ralphs every Friday for Shabbat. He also said when his kids were born, he bought their first baby food at Ralphs. “Yes, there are other kosher shopping options in the neighborhood, but I’m going to miss the convenience and selection of foods that Ralphs offered,” Hurwitz said.

David Louie, 58, who manages the dairy department, has worked at the Ralphs Pico location since it opened in November, 1996. “Goodbye and good luck,” a shopper sadly said as she spotted Louie arranging the dairy display. “Thank you,” Louie responded with a wave. If not for pandemic protocols, the brief interaction may have included hugs and tears. “I live 30 miles away from work now, so I am used to commuting to work,” he said. “I still have a mortgage to pay so wherever they transfer me, I’ll go.”

A recent visit saw shelves partially empty with no obvious intentions to restock. According to John Votava, director of corporate affairs at Ralphs, when a store closes the standard practice is to sell off existing merchandise so it doesn’t have to be transferred to another store. The only restocking that was witnessed was for perishables — produce, dairy, meats, fish and the cooked foods on display at the Kosher Experience.

“It’s sad and it’s scary for my co-workers,” Benyamin Solomon, 27, one of the kosher supervisors at the Kosher Experience said. “I will be okay since I work for the Orthodox Union, and I am not subject to ‘hero pay’ anyway. I know I will be transferred to a local kosher restaurant as their mashgiach (kosher supervisor), but I feel for the other workers who don’t know what the future holds for them.”

“It’s sad and it’s scary for my co-workers.”

Azalia Herrera, 37, who works alongside Solomon at the Kosher Experience department, tried her best to put a positive spin on the situation. “They have talked to me about relocation but I have no details. It’s hard being in limbo but I believe it will work out.”

Jose Castro, 35, oversees the produce department and has a similar attitude. A five-year Ralphs employee, Castro says he enjoys his work and feels confident he will find himself stocking fresh produce at another Ralphs in the near future. “I think it will be fine,” he said. “I just hope for the best.”

For years the Ralphs complex, which includes a CVS, One West Bank and Fish Grill, faced structural challenges. Navigating the parking levels, escalators that are typically non-functioning and long waits for the elevator have been an ongoing source of neighborhood complaints and frustrations.

Votava confirmed that in 2018 the shopping center was sold to Asana Partners, a Charlotte, North Carolina real estate investment company. Calls to Asana to determine plans for the property were not returned.

When asked whether it is possible the Kosher Experience would relocate to a nearby Ralphs (the most likely being on Beverly Boulevard and Doheny Drive), Votava was not optimistic. “We would love to, but it is a matter of space. The Ralphs on Pico is about 40,000 square feet. The Beverly / Doheny store is much smaller and simply not large enough,” he said.

“I have a hard time believing the ‘hero pay’ issue caused this,” Hurwitz said. “It just seems like there were also other problems perhaps with the landlord and the physical structure. Who knows.”

“Maintaining stores that are unprofitable is simply not sustainable,” Votava said. “We are as sorry as anyone that this had to happen.”

Harvey Farr is a community writer for the Jewish Journal.

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Baby Food With Threat Notes Also Contained Ricin

Pieces of mashed castor bean containing tiny amounts of the deadly poison ricin were found in baby food that Orange County parents turned in earlier this year after discovering threatening notes tucked inside the containers, authorities said Wednesday.

Officials with the federal Food and Drug Administration said the bean particles had been placed in the Gerber’s banana yogurt dessert bought at an Irvine supermarket. All castor beans contain trace amounts of ricin. No concentrated form of the poison was found.

Neither of the two babies who ate the food became ill. If the children had eaten an entire jarful, they probably would have suffered intestinal problems, such as diarrhea, an FDA physician said. He said it was unlikely that either child would have died.

The notes said the food was contaminated and that the person who ate it would die, Irvine Police Chief David Maggard said. They also referred by name to an Irvine police officer and implied that he placed the notes in the jars, Maggard said.

Authorities said they want to talk to Charles Dewey Cage, 47, but offered little information about him or his connection to the case.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said Cage was in the Ralphs on Alton Parkway “at a relevant time.” Rackauckas said he “wouldn’t characterize him as a suspect or a person of interest”; a news release called him a witness.

Rackauckas described Cage as a transient and said his last known residence was Irvine. Cage is black, 5 feet 9, 190 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.

Maggard said Cage was “known to the Irvine Police Department,” but he declined to offer specifics.

Cage has had previous run-ins with the law. In 1996, he was found guilty in Orange County of inflicting corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant. Records also show he twice faced criminal charges in San Diego County. The results of those cases were unclear.

Cage’s cousin, William Molson of Placentia, said Cage had served time in state prison and had recently completed parole. He would not say what Cage had been convicted of.

Molson said his cousin had worked at another Ralphs store in Irvine as a stocker during the grocery strike that ended this year. Cage had hoped to obtain a permanent job there but was let go shortly after the baby food tampering was discovered, he said.

Molson did not know why his cousin lost his job.

He said that Cage had told him that when he was walking home from work one night, a police officer stopped him for questioning, angering Cage.

“He was a parolee. He was black. He was walking in Irvine at night,” Molson said. “He wasn’t doing anything wrong, and he felt the officer was giving him a hard time. He felt threatened.”

Molson said he couldn’t imagine that Cage was involved in the food tampering. “It’s very hard to get a job once you’ve had a history in prison, but he was trying to change his life. Dewey has a heart. He’s a good person.... Dewey ain’t trying to hurt nobody.”

Marsha Palmer, one of the managers at the Ralphs store where Molson said his cousin worked, said Wednesday that she could not recall Cage ever having worked there. “I remember him as a customer,” she said, “but not as a regular customer. I remember he was shopping [a couple of months ago]. I remember because he was tall and big, and I know he bought a whole shopping cart of stuff.”

Ricin, one of the deadliest of poisons, comes from the bean that produces castor oil, the viscous liquid that generations of children came to detest.

The poison is extracted from crushed castor beans or from the leftover mash. A pinhead-sized dose can kill if it is injected, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Greater amounts are required to kill someone through ingestion or inhalation.

Eating castor beans can be toxic, said Dr. David Acheson, director and chief medical officer of the FDA’s Food Safety and Security Staff.

The castor bean plant, an ornamental woody herb that gardeners prize, is legal to grow. The oil from the beans is used in such products as laxatives and lubricants.

Instructions for making the poison are easily available on the Internet.

Perhaps the most notorious case of ricin poisoning occurred in 1978, when an unknown assailant fatally stabbed a Bulgarian dissident in London with a spring-loaded umbrella tipped with the poison.

London police last year raided a suspected ricin lab operated by a group linked to Al Qaeda. And Paris police found traces of the poison in a train station locker connected to militant Islamists.

The first baby food tampering in Orange County occurred May 31. An Irvine couple had fed their 9-month-old daughter a couple of spoonfuls of the yogurt when they found the note wrapped in cellophane inside the jar.

The second incident occurred June 16. An Irvine man had finished feeding his 11-month-old son and was cleaning the jar when he found a similar note, also wrapped in cellophane. Police found a third note in an unopened baby food jar in the pantry.

The yogurt jars were first sent to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department crime lab to check for fingerprints, DNA and other forensic evidence.

The FDA lab received the food four weeks after the May 31 incident, said Dan Hansen, the agency’s assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office.

The FDA told Orange County authorities on Tuesday that its lab had found mashed castor beans in the jar from the May incident and in the unopened jar found in June. The lab was unable to test the other jar found in June because the parents had emptied it before finding the note.

Sheriff’s officials could not be reached to explain why it took so long to send the yogurt to the FDA.

Contaminating food is a violation of state and federal law. Conviction under the federal Anti-Tampering Act could result in one year to life in prison.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Orange County district attorney’s office at (714) 347-8736, or the Irvine Police Department at (949) 724-7200.

Times staff writer Erin Ailworth contributed to this report.

Men's leather shoes Ralf Ringer (shoes) - rating 2 according to expert reviews ☑ Examination of the composition and manufacturer

Men's low shoes Ralf Ringer

Overall rating

2.0000

Reliability of marking

5. 000

Color fastness

0.000

Strength characteristics

3.650

Shoe defects

5. 000

Safety

5.000

Quality

0.000

Advantages

Reliable marking
Non-toxic
No strong odor
Firmly attached sole
Do not deform during wear
Outsole is flexible
Lining well sewn
The same size and weight of the right and left low shoes

Flaws

Upper parts are loose
Lining can be painted

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Reviews of Ralf Ringer Men's Low Shoes

In our evaluation of products, we only use expert reviews, which are based on laboratory tests. We do not collect user reviews as they are easy to manipulate. However, you can leave feedback about our study.

Low shoes for men under the trademark Ralf Ringer are produced by CJSC Ralf Ringer in Russia. The sample was purchased in the online store "Excellent move". According to the results of laboratory tests, this product was recognized as potentially unsafe, since it violated the mandatory requirements of the law. A sample under the Ralf Ringer trademark is everyday low shoes in black, with decor, with open lacing. The upper and insoles are made of leather, while the lining is made of textile and leather. The manufacturer indicated on the label reliable information about the materials from which the boots are made. Both low shoes in a pair weigh the same, have the same size. No hazardous and toxic substances, including formaldehyde, were found in the composition of the product. There is no pronounced odor. The outsole of the boots is made of porous rubber and glued on. The sole of the boots is securely attached, but the strength of the heel attachment cannot be determined due to the design features of the sole. The details of the top are fastened together with fragile seams. Boots can break quickly. The front and back parts of low shoes are not deformed in the process of wearing shoes. The sole is quite flexible. The lining of the low shoes is not wrinkled, well elongated and stitched, without folds, the heel does not lag behind the lining. The leather of the shoe lining is resistant to dry friction, however, if you get wet or sweaty, the lining can stain your socks. The tongues of the shoes are evenly stitched. The lines do not fall off, the threads are well taut, without skipping stitches. Parallel lines are at the same distance from each other. The length of socks, vamps, berets, toe caps, back wings in a pair is the same. Defects in the height of the berets and backs in the pair were also not found. There are no adhesive burrs on the shoes. Information about the revealed violations was transferred to the bodies exercising state control (supervision).

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Ralph's Adventures on Disney Channel | Motherhood

Disney Channel invites viewers to take an exciting journey into the virtual world! 9April in the heading "Big Animation at 19:30" will premiere a fascinating animated film "Ralph" about the incredible adventures of video game characters.

The story of a brute with a heavy fist and a good heart unfolded in the vastness of the game "Master Felix Junior". The secondary character Ralph always wanted to prove to his friends that he was capable of accomplishing a real feat. A good chance was not long in coming: one day, the former destroyer met the charming racer Vanelope von Keks, who was in trouble. Of course, Ralph could not pass by and agreed to help the little one!

According to executive producer John Lasseter, Ralph is one of the most amazing projects he has ever worked on. “He's funny, handsome, with a good story. The soulfulness of the picture will literally fascinate you” , Lasseter shared his impressions.

Every evening in the Big Animation at 19:30 heading, viewers will enjoy a magical family viewing of kind and inspiring full-length cartoons that will appeal not only to children, but also to their parents.

Interesting facts about the animated film "Ralph":