Other news items of interest from the Orange County Business Journal
Australia-based Billabong International Ltd. is looking to sell its Canadian retail chain West 49 separately from the rest of its operations, according to a report. The deal would include West 49, which has 70 stores, along with six stores operating under the Amnesia and Element brands, according to The Australian.
California State University, Fullerton, again ranked No. 1 statewide for awarding the highest number of undergraduate and graduate degrees to Latino students. More than 2,100 degrees went to Latino students in 2011, about a quarter of the degrees the school awarded. The university ranked No. 8 nationally.
Irvine-based Opus Bank will open new offices in Rancho Santa Margarita and San Rafael in the third quarter. Opus is the largest bank based in Orange County, with about $3 billion in assets. It had $2.3 billion in loans and $2.1 billion in deposits at the end of March.
Chase Bank has promoted Paul Kaufman to manager of the bank’s middle-market business in eight states in the Western region. Kaufman will remain in Irvine, where he had been serving as the head of Chase’s middle-market group in California, focusing on the Orange County, Inland Empire and San Diego markets.
Orange County’s Transportation Corridor Agencies has chosen Neil Peterson as its chief executive. Peterson, formerly with consulting firm CH2M Hill, accepted a $240,000 annual salary, plus benefits, a car and $50,000 toward moving expenses from Seattle. He’s scheduled to start June 3, succeeding Tom Margro, who retired last year. The agencies’ chief communications officer, Lisa Telles, has been serving as interim chief executive.
The County of Orange will pay almost $2 million to settle a lawsuit by former sheriff’s Lt. Bill Hunt, who was demoted to patrol deputy following his 2006 election loss to former Sheriff Mike Carona. A judge in December awarded Hunt reinstatement to his old rank, along with back pay.
Workers at five University of California hospitals, including UC Irvine Medical Center, walked off the job for two days last week. A union of nurses, respiratory therapists and radiology technicians called the two-day strike over what union officials called staff shortages that threaten patient care. University officials said the union hadn’t accepted retirement benefit changes that most university employees had agreed to.
UCI said last week that research done by its chemistry faculty could lead to the development of an early-detection test for prostate cancer. UCI said a team led by professor Reginald Penner created a way to clearly identify clinically usable markers for prostate cancer in urine. Penner said that the research’s goal is to create a device the size of a home pregnancy test that would cost about $10.
The Automobile Club of Southern California agreed to a rate change for its auto insurance policyholders that would amount to about $70 million in cuts. The nonprofit mutual-benefit corporation has core operations in Costa Mesa, while its on-the-books headquarters is in Los Angeles. The 4.1% rate cut, which state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones approved, takes effect for new or renewed policies after July 1. About 1 million customers of the Auto Club are expected to see an average reduction of $65 in their annual car insurance premiums.
Irvine is among the country’s 10 fastest-growing large cities, defined as those with 50,000 or more residents. U.S. Census Bureau figures show it’s the eighth fastest-growing such city in the U.S. The bureau put Irvine’s July 2012 population at nearly 230,000, a 4.2% jump from a year earlier. Irvine is by far the biggest city on the list, and the only entry from California.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
UP: Orange County’s workforce, which totaled 1.63 million in April, a 1% gain from a year earlier and on par with a record high logged in July 2008, according to the state Employment Development Department. The workforce is defined as residents with jobs plus those looking for jobs. OC had a workforce of about 1.4 million in April, when the jobless rate fell to 5.7%.
UP: The outlook on home foreclosures in Orange County in April, which saw 256 such sales. Foreclosures accounted for 7.7% of overall sales here, the lowest monthly share since November 2007, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
