Brea Search Continues for Missing 82-Year-Old

Searchers will continue working their way through a Brea landfill today in hopes of discovering what happened to an 82-year-old woman who went missing from an assisted care facility in Laguna Niguel.

Authorities were searching a landfill close to the 1900 block of Valencia Avenue late Thursday afternoon, after Sara Mowry was reported missing by her son on Tuesday. The son reportedly went to visit the woman at the facility, but she was not present. The woman's walker, hearing aid, purse and medications were reportedly left behind.

According to authorities, there are some questions regarding the woman's checking account, but police would not elaborate.

Anyone with information in Mowry's disappearance is asked to call (866) TIP-OCSD.

Employer Fined in Breastfeeding Issue at Work

California Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet announced the issuance of a citation to a Santa Clara-based International Security Services, Inc. for reportedly failing to provide private accommodations for an employee to express breast milk for her newborn. The citation is the first of its kind since the law took effect in 2002. A fine of $4,000 has been assessed.

“Under the law, employers are obligated to accommodate employees who wish to provide breast milk for their infant children,” Bradstreet said. “This employer failed to provide a reasonable amount of break time and a private room for an employee to express milk for her baby as required.”

The labor commissioner received a complaint -- the first lodged as a result of the 2002 legislation -- from the employee on March 7, which prompted an investigation. The investigation revealed that the employee was not provided an appropriate, designated room. Initially the room that was provided was computer server room with security cameras. This offered an inadequate level of privacy needed to perform the milk expressing process.

Labor Code sections1030-1033 became law in 2001 and mandates every employer, regardless of size, to provide a reasonable amount of time to accommodate expressing of breast milk and to make reasonable efforts to provide the employee with the use of a room or other location, other than a bathroom, in close proximity to the employees work area to express milk in private.

Bradstreet urged women who are not being provided appropriate accommodations for milk expressing to contact her office and file a complaint.

“This is not the type of law that we can address with enforcement sweeps and filing a complaint is important so that we can correct the violation and educate the employer,” added Bradstreet.

What do you think about this issue? Do you have a problem with a woman breastfeeding while on a break at work?