EDUCATION
University of California-Irvine’s Gavin Herbert Eye Institute got a $2 million gift from Discovery Eye Foundation in Los Angeles. The foundation supports research, education, advocacy and treatment related to eye diseases. The money will go toward establishing campus cornea and retina research centers and outreach programs, the foundation said. The programs will offer information about causes, treatments and potential cures for keratoconus, macular degeneration and other sight-threatening diseases.
HEALTHCARE
Mission Hospital named Michael Beck chief administrative officer of its Laguna Beach campus, a new position. Mission is part of Irvine-based St. Joseph Health and has its main campus in Mission Viejo. Beck will oversee planning, development, coordination, implementation and management of all administrative functions, services and business development at the Laguna Beach location. He has served in various roles at Mission since 1992.
RESTAURANTS
Taco Bell is trying out four new restaurant designs that will be chosen based on the community a particular location opens in. The designs will be unveiled this summer in Newport Beach, Tustin, Santa Ana and Brea. Franchise locations due for remodeling will get one of the new styles at that point. The designs feature modern styling, exposed wood beams and fashionable light fixtures in place of fluorescent ones. The idea behind the changes is to attract more dinner business.
OTHER
The U.S. Department of Labor fined another local recycling company over wage violations. Sanchez Recycling in Placentia was ordered to pay $113,000 in back wages and damages. The department said the company denied seven workers over-time pay, paid them in cash, and didn’t keep records. Sanchez was the second recycling company fined over such violations in the past few months.
The difference between OC’s highest and lowest wage earners has widened, according to data released by nonpartisan think tank Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco. It says that the top 10% of households in OC averaged about $220,000 in annual income as of 2014, about 11 times the average of $20,000 per household for the bottom 10%. The gap is 16.7% wider than that measured in 2007.
