Leave San Francisco Behind. 3 Great Day Trips to Take This Summer.
Part surf city, part college town, it gave birth to California surfing and is home to a memorable mascot, the University of California Banana Slugs.
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Go to the beach, just don't get wet. Bacteria warnings issued ahead of July 4th at 8 beaches
With the Fourth of July weekend, local beach lovers are ready to hit the shores. Authorities, however, are warning visitors to avoid any beach activities that involve getting wet at eight beaches. The warnings have been issued ahead of the holiday weekend due to excessive bacterial levels, county officials said. The Los Angeles County Public Health Department released a statement on Wednesday warning residents to avoid surfing, swimming and any other ocean-water activity after tests indicated that street runoff had increased bacterial levels at certain beaches. 'Swimming in water with bacteria can make you sick or cause skin infections,' the department said in astatement. 'Children, the elderly, and those who have weak immune systems are at higher risk of getting sick or infected.' The department could not estimate when the warnings would be lifted, but state law requires weekly tests be conducted on the waters. The following beaches were affected: · Avalon Beach at Catalina Island: the swimming area 50 feet west of Green Pleasure Pier and the Step Beach swim area east of the Casino arch. · Santa Monica Beach: Santa Monica North Lifeguard Tower 12 and 100 yards up and down the coast from the Wilshire Boulevard storm drain. · Ramirez Creek at Paradise Cove in Malibu: 100 yards up and down the coast from the pier. · Will Rogers State Beach: 100 yards up and down coast from the Bel Air Bay Club border fence. · Mothers Beach in Marina Del Rey: the entire swim area. · Topanga Beach: 100 yards up and down the coast from the Castlerock storm drain. · Santa Monica Beach: 100 yards up and down the coast from the Santa Monica Pier. · Inner Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro: the entire swim area. The health department will issue updates as they become available. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
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Bolt's millennial founder has just ‘killed' its unlimited PTO perk because it was actually causing burnout
As companies like double down on unlimited PTO benefits, the boss of $11 billion fintech company, Bolt has just axed the policy altogether. Its millennial founder and CEO Ryan Breslow says instead of encouraging flexibility, it bred burnout and unfairness. Now, he's capping vacations because the 'bad ones' were taking too much time off. On paper, unlimited PTO sounds like the holy grail of benefits a company can offer its employees—the ability to take endless vacations and avoid burnout. But for the $11 billion fintech startup Bolt, (not to be confused with the Uber rival, also called Bolt), unlimited PTO has been a double-edged sword that has caused more problems than solutions. 'We just killed unlimited PTO at Bolt,' its founder and CEO, Ryan Breslow has just revealed on LinkedIn. 'It sounds progressive, but it's totally broken. When time off is undefined, the good ones don't take PTO. The bad ones take too much.' While this is contrary to research from financial services firm Empower, which found that employees with unlimited PTO take on average 16 days off versus 14 days for those with limited policies, Breslow said much of that time was taken off by 'b performers'—leaving high performers to pick up the slack. 'This leads to A-performer burnout. B-performer luxuries. And feelings of unfairness across the board,' the millennial boss explained. 'So we're flipping the script: no more confusion. Every Bolter now gets four weeks of paid vacation (yes, the traditional corporate standard), with the opportunity to accrue more with tenure. Not optional,' Breslow added. 'We mandate everyone take all four weeks off.' Now, the company is capping annual leave at around four weeks—but Bolt workers can accrue a maximum of 25 days leave with tenure. 'We believe a team executing at the pace and scale we do deserves real, protected time off, not vague promises,' a Bolt spokesperson echoed in a statement to Fortune. 'When we saw in our own data that our A-players weren't taking enough time away, we knew we had to fix it.' Breslow rejoined Bolt this year after a rocky few months that included rounds of layoffs and a failed fundraising attempt that carried a $14 billion valuation. It was last valued at $11 billion in 2022, with investment coming from top firms like BlackRock. Reshaping Bolt's culture has been a centrepiece of the 31-year-old's changes since retaking the helm in March. On top of the PTO change, Breslow also publicly announced the company was doing away with its HR department in favor of 'people ops'—which is more focused on efficiency over fluff, he wrote on LinkedIn. 'HR is the wrong energy, format, and approach,' he said. 'People ops empowers managers, streamlines decision making, and keeps the company moving at lightning speed.' The company also had some wins in recent weeks, including securing partnerships with Klarna and Palantir, but the only way to make sure that continues to happen, Breslow said, is to ensure top talent can thrive. 'If we're asking people to move fast, build hard, and operate at the highest level, we need to protect their recovery time with the same intensity,' Breslow said. 'Execution requires clarity. That applies to PTO, too.' Despite growing calls from workers for better work-life balance and indications that unlimited PTO could lead to outperforming the S&P 500, the policy remains embraced by just 7% of employers, according to SHRM. Netflix is considered to be an early pioneer of the policy. Reed Hastings, the billionaire cofounder of the streaming service, has said he takes six weeks of vacation each year—and encourages his employees to do the same. 'I take a lot of vacation and I'm hoping that certainly sets an example,' the former Netflix CEO said in 2015. 'It is helpful. You often do your best thinking when you're off hiking in some mountain or something. You get a different perspective on things.' Today, the company claims to not have a strict 9-to-5 workday–or even holiday schedule—and encourages workers to take time off to observe what's important and when their mind and body need a break. More than a quarter of workers, or 26%, say they would consider a lower-paying job if it offered the unlimited option. At the same time, shifting to the policy has sometimes backfired. In 2014, Tribune Publishing—the company behind the Chicago Tribune and formerly the Los Angeles Times—attempted to transition from limited to unlimited PTO, but faced backlash from its employees. Less than two weeks later, the publisher reversed course after receiving 'valuable input from employees,' citing that the new policy actually just 'created confusion and concern within the company.' This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
7 hours ago
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Hidden gem: Angola opens up to tourists in a pivot from oil
When Feliesiano Muteca started surfing a decade ago, he had the waves at Cabo Ledo on Angola's long Atlantic coastline pretty much to himself. Now, the unspoilt and sandy beach about 125 kilometres (75 miles) south of the capital Luanda has become a prized destination for international surfers, with a reputation as a hidden gem. The Portuguese-speaking southern African nation is still scarred by a long post-independence civil war that stalled its development, although parts of Luanda flash with oil money. Wary of its dependence on oil and already burned by the market's volatility, Angola is embarking on a drive to lure back foreign tourists by easing access for travellers and boosting its attractions. These include Cabo Ledo, where Muteca is a qualified surfing instructor with the sport's accredited body. "There are two of us, and we give surf lessons," said Muteca, who started out when he was about 10 years old by borrowing boards from other surfers. "Otherwise, we're there to help out on the beach," he said, pointing to thatched cabanas being assembled on the sand. Further along, a small lodge has set up a beachside bar and cafe, with cabins on the hillside overlooking the Atlantic. It is filled with a group of Germans enjoying the shade between waves. The same company, Carpe Diem, has a larger resort just up the coast. Nearby tourist sites like the dramatic seaside Miradouro da Lua cliffs once had little more than a dusty road to a lookout point. Now there's a smoothie hut and a cocktail bar, with a branded wooden frame showing the best angles for photos and selfies. - Cruises and cuisine - After five decades of war that ended in 2002, the vast country had a Stalinist government suspicious of the outside world. Oil fuelled a post-war boom but an oil crash sent the kwanza currency tumbling. In 2014, it traded at around 100 to the US dollar. It is now trading around 900 to one dollar. The oil boom days sent tourism to a high of nearly $1.6 billion in 2014, with the yacht crowd filling Luanda Bay and splashing huge sums on lavish beach parties. That plunged to just $14.8 million last year, according to the National Bank. It led the government to adopt a new tourism strategy. Since last year, dozens of countries have visa-free entry. An airport where soldiers once patrolled with AK-47s is now staffed with smiling young travel ambassadors wearing denim overalls with bibs that read: "Can I help you?". The yacht club remains busy but Luanda has also become a stop for cruise liners. Local tour companies are opening to guide visitors through the less developed interior. And high-end international companies are adding Angola to their itineraries. Luanda-born writer Claudio Silva in June co-hosted a week-long journey for foodies, travelling with a top Angolan chef to visit new wineries and explore pre-colonial cuisine and heritage farming. "Deep-dive gastronomic tours like the one we're doing with Roads and Kingdoms are an opportunity for us to tell our own stories, through food and culture, in urban and rural settings, where our journey is guided by the experiences of the people who live here," he said. South African luxury train operator Rovos Rail has also added the Angolan port city of Lobito to its routes, creating overland treks that can run across the continent from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. Those journeys pass through inland areas largely unseen by outsiders for decades. That means accommodation can be basic or require camping. The once-rich wildlife population was decimated by the years of war but government-sponsored repopulation efforts are under way, said Pedro Monterroso of African Parks, a non-profit conservation group. Local rangers and communities are also being trained to become involved in the safari sector, said Monterroso, whose organisation has been hired by Angola to run Iona National Park along the Namibian border in the ancient Namib desert. "The vision is they want to be Namibia or Botswana in 10 or 15 years," Monterroso said, referring to Angola's neighbours that draw tens of thousands of foreign tourists every year to their unspoiled natural riches. gs/br/kjm
