• Associated Press Finance

    California Disney characters are unionizing decades after Florida peers. Hollywood plays a role

    During three years of working as a parade performer at the Disneyland Resort in Southern California, Zach Elefante always has had a second or third job to help him earn a living. Unlike the experiences of his peers at Disney's parks in Orlando, Florida, where there is a much smaller talent pool, the performers who play Mickey Mouse, Goofy and other beloved Disney characters at the California parks aren't always provided a consistent work schedule by the company. It's among the reasons the California performers are organizing to be represented by a union now, more than four decades after their Florida counterparts did so.

  • Associated Press

    Pope visits Venice to speak to artists and inmates and finds a city taxing day-trippers like him

    Venice has always been a place of contrasts, of breathtaking beauty and devastating fragility, where history, religion, art and nature have collided over the centuries to produce an otherworldly gem of a city. Francis is traveling to Venice to check out the Holy See’s pavilion for this year’s Venice Biennale. It’s a first for a pope, and has given the 60th edition of the world’s longest running international art exhibit reason for another round of headlines.

  • Associated Press

    College protesters seek amnesty to keep arrests and suspensions from trailing them

    Maryam Alwan figured the worst was over after New York City police in riot gear arrested her and other protesters on the Columbia University campus, loaded them onto buses and held them in custody for hours. The students' plight has become a central part of protests, with students and a growing number of faculty demanding their amnesty. At issue is whether universities and law enforcement will clear the charges and withhold other consequences, or whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students into their adult lives.