MetLife Investment Management is working with DSD Renewables to install the 2.2-megawatt solar project and 510 kWh battery storage system at Intersect, on behalf of property owners PGGM and MetLife.

MetLife and DSD estimate the solar project will generate more than 3.5 million kWh of energy annually, which should provide for 74% of Intersect’s required power. The battery system also will store excess electricity generated, supporting the grid by reducing peak demand.

Also see: Get a sneak peek at Irvine Valley College’s $61 million Arts Village

The project at the campus along Von Karman Avenue near John Wayne Airport should be completed in 2025, MetLife said.

Tenants at Intersect include JLL, Xponential Fitness, Spaces and Hangar 24.

Lido retail center gets a new owner-partner

The harbor-side retail center Lido Marina Village has a new ownership partner after a recapitalization of the 3-acre property.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed by JLL, which represented DJM Capital, Arc Capital Partners and Belay Investment Group.

DJM, recapitalized the center in 2020 with a $46.5 million loan from Prime Finance and an additional $24.5 million of new equity from Arc Capital Partners. That capital was used to pay off an existing loan and complete property renovations, DJM said at the time.

In case you missed it: Taiwanese computer maker signs $265M lease for new Tustin headquarters

The reorganization saw the exit of Arc and Belay and the entrance of Redwood West, a commercial real estate investment firm in Newport Beach.

The 52-year-old retail center was substantially updated in 2022 and 2016. The complex includes 77,922 square feet of retail space, 28,694 square feet of offices and a 47-slip marina deck overlooking the bay.

Tenants include Nobu, Zinque, Malibu Farm, Circle Hook Fish Co., Aesop, Warby Parker, Elyse Walker, Faherty, Curl Fitness, Eberjay and LoveShackFancy.

More retail news: Bristol Marketplace in Santa Ana sells for $16.7 million

MCA buys industrial park in Colorado for $9.2 million

MCA Realty Inc. in Santa Ana recently bought Commerce Center I, a three-building 70,301-square-foot industrial business park in Aurora, Colorado for $9.2 million.

MCA Realty said it’s spending an additional $1.2 million to renovate much of the campus.

“Our business plan is to renovate the asset, consistent with improvements that tenants expect for their businesses, and to create a durable asset once the capital investment is made,” says Tyler Mattox, principal at MCA Realty.  “In the current investment environment, we are focused on acquiring properties where we are able to add value to the underlying real estate by addressing operational, aesthetic, and functional inefficiencies.”

Colliers represented MCA Realty and the seller in the transaction.

Camp Build returns to Anaheim on June 1

Students with an interest in construction and engineering can apply for a one-day camp this summer sponsored by The Rosendin Foundation.

TRF Camp Build returns to Anaheim in June. The program is designed “to ignite the joy of building in middle school students,” according to the nonprofit, which looks to make a positive impact on communities.

The program launched in 2023 and will host its second camp on Saturday, June 1.

The free, co-ed electrical mini-day camp is engineered for current sixth- through eighth-graders. It’s hosted at Rosendin’s local headquarters at 1730 S. Anaheim Way.

Students who are accepted into camp will get hands-on experience such as using hand and power tools, bending conduits, virtually building and estimating using Building Information Modeling and wiring lamps that they will get to take home.

The deadline for registration is March 31.

“This camp is a unique opportunity for us to continue building not only structures but also lasting connections with the young minds of the future workforce,” said Jolsna Thomas, president of The Rosendin Foundation.

TRF Camp Build is also seeking sponsors. For more information about the program and the application process, go to therosendinfoundation.org/camp-build.

Employee-owned and San Jose-based Rosendin is one of the nation’s largest electrical contractors. It has at least 7,000 employees.

On the move

Lee A. McCullough has joined Tidemark Real Estate Services in Costa Mesa as a senior vice president. She brings 50-plus years of industrial commercial real estate to the firm. McCullough got her start as an onsite leasing agent in 1973 and rose to first vice president in Colliers’ Irvine office.

The family-run, Torrance-based company leased half the building that once was Tustin Lanes and briefly Orchard Supply Hardware store.

The former OSH at 1091 Irvine Blvd. has been vacant since 2018 when Lowe’s, its parent company, shuttered all 99 hardware stores. The popular bowling alley closed in 2015 after 38 years in business.

Across the street: Tustin’s Googie-style Alta Dena Dairy reopens as a Starbucks

Carlos Mora, Centinela’s general manager in Tustin, and his staff welcomed surprised shoppers Thursday evening during a soft opening ahead of grand opening festivities, which begin at 10 a.m. today (Friday, Feb. 9) and continue into the weekend.

The sprawling interior was neatly lined with rows of food, treats and supplies for dogs, cat and pocket pets.

Also see: More shops, new restaurant coming to Brea Mall this summer

Mora said the grand opening weekend will feature discounts for shoppers, with vendors on hand showcasing their products. Fido might also be in for a treat — a bath. The store has DIY washing stations for dogs of all ages. (If you go this weekend, ask about a freebie. Dog washes are typically $17 per dog, no matter their size.)

Well-behaved, leashed pets are welcome inside the store, Mora said.

More retail news: Village at Orange closes its interior mall after 50 years of making memories

Centinela is named after the street — Centinela Avenue in Mar Vista, just north of LAX — where it debuted nearly 100 years ago.

The company has other Orange County locations in Fullerton, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach.

Attendees and panelists discussed rising hate crimes and reports of antisemitism, both at the local and national level, and discussed solutions for working together to fight hate in the U.S. and abroad.

Thursday’s event was hosted by the Jewish Federation of Orange County and UCI’s School of Social Ecology.

“The summit is designed to explore — through the lens of criminology, criminal justice and sociology — the questions that pop up in everyday lives,” said Erik Ludwig, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of OC, before the event.

Ludwig said that reports of antisemitism have “skyrocketed,” leading to “widespread fear and anguish” both in Orange County and nationwide.

Leaders at the summit also discussed the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, which officially began Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed over 1,000 and kidnapped over 200 people in southern Israel. In retaliation, Israeli forces launched a brutal attack — which many advocates are calling a genocide — on the Palestinian people in Gaza. The death toll recently passed 25,000 at the end of January.

Hundreds of Jewish institutions, including synagogues, were threatened with hoax bombings across the U.S. in late 2023. Since the Oct. 7 attack, the Anti-Defamation League has recorded 3,283 reported antisemitic incidents in the U.S., including 1,353 incidents of harassment. About 73% of Jewish college students surveyed have experienced or witnessed some form of antisemitism since the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year alone.

Last November, the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), based in Anaheim, announced an “unprecedented increase” in complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bias in the month following the Oct. 7 attack.

From Oct. 8 to Nov. 8, 2023, CAIR-LA received 116 requests for help and reports of bias— a 300% increase in cases compared to the previous month, officials said. Of these intakes, 85 were for cases related to Palestine, with nearly 40% being hate crimes, hate incidents, or both.

In Orange County, 32% of hate crimes reported in 2022 targeted people based on religion — primarily the Jewish community, according to the latest Hate Crimes Report by the Orange County Human Relations Commission. And 81% of reported religious hate crimes were against Jewish communities, according to an L.A. County Human Relations Commission report. Statewide, hate crimes — except for anti-Asian crimes — rose 20% in 2022.

Hannah Yu, representing the New York County District Attorney’s Office, and UCI’s Jeff Kopstein, from the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies, presented further data that supports the rise of hate crimes across the board, and what their offices are doing to address this.

Kopstein is currently working on a mass survey of antisemitism on the UCI campus. He said that the levels of antisemitism and general anti-Israel sentiment have “soared.”

“You can predict somebody’s antisemitic attitudes if they’re really ‘anti-Israel,’” Kopstein said.

For some, such statements have become a point of contention in recent months — as many pro-Palestine activists, even Jews and historians, have claimed that criticizing Israel and its treatment of Gaza isn’t “automatically antisemitism.”

“These are not easy conversations. These are the conversations that most of us steer away from,” Ludwig said during a panel. “We wanted to steer directly into the conversation. We wanted to do it data-based… experts can tell us the human toll of hate.”

Another panel focused on how local communities and leaders can address antisemitism; featuring Orange County District 5 Supervisor Katrina Foley, District Attorney Todd Spitzer, and Rabbi Richard Steinberg, the OC Human Relations Commissioner and leader of Congregation Shir Ha-Ma’alot.

Last fall, Foley and other supervisors faced backlash for past comments condemning the Hamas attacks, and seemingly supporting Israel’s response, in a joint statement with District 3 Supervisor Don Wagner and District 1 Supervisor Andrew Do.

Their statement received criticism, with some — including leaders from CAIR-LA — calling it “one-sided” and “deeply problematic” against local Arab, Muslim and Palestinian communities.

At Thursday’s summit, the panelists discussed how to address antisemitism — and all hate — in Orange County, especially in local communities.  Some solutions included more education on Jewish history and people, restrictions for online harassment, diversity and inclusion of underrepresented groups, and zero tolerance of hate speech.

Some ways that UCI has been addressing the rise of antisemitism over the last few years is by ensuring student and staff accountability, while promoting education and training, according to UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman.

Jenn Lundblad, a teacher with the Laguna Beach Unified School District, attended the summit in hopes of learning more about what Jewish students are going through.

While Lundblad hasn’t personally witnessed or dealt with antisemitism on campus, she said she wants to support students of both Israeli and Palestinian backgrounds, especially during this “tricky” time.

“Our particular district is not very diverse, so sometimes we don’t get all the information,” Lundblad, 45, said. “We’re making a really strong effort this year in particular, by moving forward to recognize culture and ethnicity and just different diverse groups, and we found that the students really want you to get it right.”

Staff writer Destiny Torres contributed to this report. 

The 62,471-square-feet complex, due to open to students this spring, combines the college’s School of the Arts into three main structures: Music/Dance, Visual Arts and Fine Arts/Gallery.

Built by McCarthy Building Cos. and designed by DLR Group, the sustainable LEED Gold facility sits at the southwest edge IVC’s Performing Arts Center, adjacent to the new Parking Lot 6.

Also see: Taiwanese computer maker signs $265M lease for new Tustin headquarters

“The Arts Village is IVC’s most significant construction project to date,” said IVC President Dr. John Hernandez.”We look forward to its impact on the community.”

Construction of the Arts Village started in late 2021.

Here’s a breakdown of each building:

Music/Dance: includes practice and rehearsal areas.

The Fine Arts/Gallery: has a 150-seat auditorium equipped with adaptable acoustics for lectures and musical events. It also has an art gallery for student and external exhibitions.

The Visual Arts building includes a first ceramics facility for students with a focus on sculpture and pottery.

Each building comes with state-of-the-art audiovisual systems and advanced security technology.

The Arts Village was built by McCarthy Building Cos. along with DLR Group. It was funded by the South Orange County Community College District and California.

Avid opens new manufacturing hub in Costa Mesa

Avid Bioservices recently celebrated the opening of its cell and gene therapy manufacturing facility in Costa Mesa.

The facility, announced back in 2021, was budgeted between $65 million to $75 million, according to the trade website Fierce Pharma.

Avid makes products used by biopharmaceutical companies working on the development of new cell and gene therapies.

The 53,000-square-foot facility is roughly 5 miles from another Avid manufacturing campus in Tustin.

Avid says the expanded facility, complete with quality control labs and production lines, has the potential to boost total revenue up to approximately $400 million annually.

Irvine office building fetches $11.2 million

A 20,772-square-foot office building in Irvine recently sold for $11.2 million, or $539 per square foot, according to Lee & Associates.

The two-story building at 2485 McCabe Way includes upgrades throughout, including a gym, restrooms with lockers and showers and kitchens.

The buyer, DTMM Properties LLC, intends to occupy the building for their business, the brokerage said.

The seller was Bassman-Blaine Holdings LLC.

BKM buys industrial center in Denver

BKM Capital Partners in Newport Beach bought West 6th Center in Denver for $10.75 million.

The 122,783-square-foot small-bay industrial building is leased by three companies.

BKM said it will spend $7 million to modernize the property including upgrades to the property’s roofs, parking lots, HVAC systems, paint scheme, landscaping, signage and storefronts, as well as capital for speculative tenant improvements.

The firm intends to leverage the property’s 1.5-year weighted average lease terms to correct a 53% mark-to-market deficiency in rents.

To do that, the company is converting a large space on the campus into four spaces, doubling the facility’s number of units to six and bringing the average unit size from 40,928 square feet to 20,464 square feet.

BKM bought the facility through a joint venture partnership with TerraCore Capital. BKM represented itself in the deal. Cushman & Wakefield negotiated on behalf of the unidentified seller.

People on the move

Ana Almada has been named chief executive officer at DKN Hotels as the Irvine-based company splits into two entities. Almada, previously vice president of Operations, will lead DKN Hotels, which includes hotel management and operations. DKN Ventures will be led by CEO Kiran Dahya who will work on acquiring, divesting and developing hotels. Almada has been with the company 25 years, starting as an intern Comfort Inn Sea World, which was a DKN Hotel at the time.

Franco Tenerelli is the new chief legal officer at Thomas James Homes in Aliso Viejo. He will oversee all legal affairs and advise the company as it prepares to go public. Previously, Tenerelli spent eight years as CLO for Landsea Homes and before that was regional counsel for Toll Brothers.

The Irvine-based luxury automaker is turning 10. Inside those years are some bumpy beginnings.

From a startup to bust and then reborn again (twice), the company is eking out a name in the luxury car world with three new models hitting the roadways this year and into 2026.

After two rocky years before the pandemic struck in 2020, the automaker is ready to start adding jobs again at its headquarters in Orange County and manufacturing plant in Moreno Valley.

The company today counts about 300 workers, but President Marques McCammon said Karma will eventually need to hire another 300 to 500 employees to meet production demands. To make that happen, the automaker is looking to create workforce development and training initiatives with local universities to prod students into the green transportation economy.

“We will be designing prototypes for all of our vehicles, and as that portfolio grows we’ll add more engineers and technicians, and there will also be more area suppliers,” McCammon said.

Startup days

Karma’s path has not been without challenges. Its origins in 2007 as Fisker Automotive met an early demise after its battery supplier A123 Systems went bankrupt. Wanxiang, a Chinese automotive conglomerate, bought the assets of both businesses in 2014 for $400 million and renamed the company Karma.

The company’s first EV was the Karma Revero. But on April 11, 2019, Karma issued a recall and stop-sale order on all Reveros, due to a flaw in the rollover sensors that could disable the car’s side-curtain airbags.

The resulting financial difficulties prompted the layoff of 200 employees at its Irvine headquarters in November 2019 and 60 more the following year.

To put the company back on track, several executives were let go last year. McCammon, formerly with Chrysler Corp. and then Daimler-Chrysler, was brought on board to lead the company’s operations.

Karma engineers, designs and manufactures its electric and range-extended EVs in Southern California. The company maintains a 500,000-square-foot production facility in Moreno Valley and the vehicles are sold throughout North America, Europe, South America and the Middle East.

“North America is our biggest market by far,” McCammon said. “We have 32 dealerships and 22 of them are in North America.”

That includes dealerships in Murrieta, Las Vegas and Scottsdale, among other locations.

The company has sold about 1,000 of its luxury vehicles to date. That equates to an average of 100 cars a year.

“We’ve always existed as a niche vehicle maker, and we’re comfortable with that,” McCammon said. “In terms of luxury vehicles, we’re probably the closest to Ferrari. They do 15,000 units a year, but I don’t see us reaching that scale in the near future.”

Joseph Yoon, a consumer insights analyst with Edmunds, said Karma caters to a niche market of buyers with deep pockets.

“It’s hard to gauge what they consider a success,” he said. “It’s not like they’re building compact SUVs for young families. They’re serving a very small slice of the market.”

In November, Karma announced its three new models:

Revero: A return of Karma’s signature range-extended hybrid electric touring sedan, this updated version has an 80-mile electric range and a combined gas/electric range of 360 miles. It will be available in the third quarter of 2024 for around $145,000.

Gyesera: Karma’s first full all-electric sports touring sedan features rear-wheel drive, a 250-mile range and a 11.6-inch infotainment screen. It will be available in the fourth quarter of 2024, priced at $190,000.

Kaveya: The full-battery electric super coupe will be available in two versions. One, with a top speed of 180 mph, a 250-plus mile range and butterfly doors, will be available in the fourth quarter of 2026. The other, with rear-wheel drive and 536 horsepower, will be released in the fourth quarter of 2025. The estimated sticker price for the cars will be “north of $300,000,” McCammon said.

Karma’s buyers include Jay Leno, who owns a custom Karma Revero GS6 that was recently highlighted on his TV show, “Jay Leno’s Garage.”

“I drove it for about a month and put about 700 miles on it,” Leno said as he showcased the car. “I didn’t use any gas because I got about 80 miles free every day. And by free, I mean electric. I have to admit, the more I drove it the more I liked it.”

A growing market

A new report from Kelley Blue Book found a record 1.2 million U.S. vehicle buyers chose to go electric last year. In 2023, EVs accounted for 7.6% of total US vehicle sales, the company said, up from 5.9% in 2022.

EV sales in the fourth quarter of 2023 set a record for both volume and share — 317,168 and 8.1%, respectively. But demand has slowed.

KBB said EV growth will continue to slow, possibly displaying the first quarter-over-quarter sales decline in more than three years.

Yoon explained the slowdown this way:

“EV makers have run out of early adopters,” he said. “They’re trying to get people who weren’t really into EVs to buy them, and it’s a bit difficult.”

He said buyers have strong reservations about the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

“I live across from a big mall that has all sorts of EV chargers, but they’re always occupied,” he said. “And if you get outside of big urban areas, people will worry. ‘Oh, maybe I can’t go see my family because there are no chargers there.’ “

Several governments are providing tax subsidies on the purchase of luxury and economy electric vehicles, but California has taken the EV push a step further.

In August 2022, the California Air Resources Board approved an advanced clean-cars rule that will require all new cars sold in 2035 and beyond to be zero-emission vehicles, including EVs and plug-in hybrid electrics.

Karma has also developed its own EV battery production facility at its Moreno Valley facility, and the company plans to create a clean energy corridor between Irvine and Moreno Valley, a project aimed at improving air quality in the region.

“We’ll have charging infrastructure on both sides and energy storage available to customers for their homes,” McCammon said. “We’re also partnering with another company to provide charging for commercial vehicles.”

The market for commercial EVs is also ramping up.

Riverside officials recently cleared the way for Ohmio, a New Zealand maker of autonomous electric shuttles, to move its international headquarters to the city.

Costa Mesa-based Rove has also broken ground on a mega-center in Santa Ana that will boast 40 fast-charging stations, a grab-and-go market, car wash, 24-hour lounge, free WiFi and restrooms.

And Brea-based EV automaker Mullen Automotive recently launched production of its Mullen Three Class 3 truck at the company’s assembly plant in Tunica, Miss. With a range of 120 miles and a hauling capacity of 5,800 pounds, the vehicle was created for businesses that make short-haul deliveries, a Mullen representative said.

Dr. William Thompson IV — a 56-year-old doctor who lived in Huntington Beach and had access to patients at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian for the last decade while also operating a private practice in Newport Beach — was charged in September 2023 with more than a dozen felony counts, including sexual penetration and sexual battery by fraud and forcible oral copulation.

Now, at least 73 patients are accusing Thompson of abusing them, too.

In a 730-page lawsuit filed Jan. 17, the alleged victims said that beginning in 2011 and continuing through 2023, Thompson used his authority as a doctor along with manipulative behavior to repeatedly subject them to unwanted sexual acts.

The alleged victims said Thompson’s actions occurred at Hoag Hospital, at his private medical offices and at his home, where he would instruct patients to visit him for invasive tests that they later found were unnecessary, according to the complaint.

The tests he performed on his patients “served no legitimate medical purpose, and were committed for no other reason than to satisfy Thompson’s own prurient sexual desires,” attorneys for the alleged victims wrote in the complaint.

“Thompson took advantage of his patients’ ignorance of the proper administration of genital, anal, and rectal examinations, so that (he) could force Plaintiffs to be fondled, stroked, and penetrated for (his) prurient sexual interests and sexual gratification.”

Thompson could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. An attorney representing Thompson in his criminal trial did not return a request seeking comment.

Morgan Stewart, a partner at Manly, Stewart & Finaldi in Irvine, which is representing the 73 claimants, said Thursday that numerous “red flags” in Thompson’s behavior were ignored during the time that he worked as a specialist treating mainly gay men diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. But he said Thompson’s alleged abuses only stopped after he was arrested in September.

Thompson has since posted bond and is awaiting further proceedings in the criminal case brought against him.

All the claimants in the lawsuit were listed as John Does, but several men identified themselves by name Thursday. In a statement, one alleged victim, Johnny Chung, said he started seeing Thompson on the recommendation of his husband.

“Initially, (Thompson) was incredibly professional and courteous,” Chung wrote in a letter. “But after three months, he began to act inappropriately with each visit.”

Chung described how Thompson would insist that Chung undergo prostate and other examinations of his body parts “to be thorough,” Chung wrote.

“I left each exam feeling more violated and taken advantage of,” Chung wrote.

Chung’s husband, Michael Glockner, also said Thursday he was abused by Thompson. Glockner said he began seeing Thompson around 2016, when an illness confined him to a wheelchair.

Glockner said he was recommended to Thompson because he was the only doctor in South Orange County who specialized in the care he needed. During his time being treated by Thompson, Glockner said, the doctor increasingly began to push the boundaries of their patient-caretaker relationship.

He said Thompson subjected him to “aggressive prostate exams,” in which the doctor “would always want me to look at his private area to see how aroused he was,” Glockner said.

Several victims who spoke Thursday — who ranged in age from 25 to 68 years old — said they struggled to come forward because men are not typically seen as victims of sexual abuse.

When Chung told Glockner that Thompson had also abused him during an appointment, Glockner said he felt he needed to come forward to tell his story.

“I thought I was the only one he was doing this to,” Glockner, 68, said. “But when he did this to Johnny, that’s when I knew there were more of us.”

In a statement Thursday, officials at Hoag said they recognize “the courage it takes for former patients to come forward.”

The officials said Thompson was an independent medical practitioner who was not employed by the hospital group. But they said Thompson “had clinical privileges at Hoag Hospital” that were suspended following the filing of charges against him last year.

Microsoft is laying off about 1,900 employees in its gaming division, according to an internal company memo, just over three months since the tech giant completed its $69 billion purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard in Santa Monica.

The job cuts represent about an 8% reduction of Microsoft’s 22,000-person gaming workforce, the memo, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, notes. Those impacted worked on teams for Activision Blizzard as well as Xbox and ZeniMax — which are also owned by Microsoft.

Also see: How the Microsoft-Activision deal came back from the dead

“As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer wrote in the memo.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Also on Thursday, Irvine’s Blizzard President Mike Ybarra said he would be leaving the company in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, appearing to acknowledge the layoffs.

Related: Activision to pay $35 million to SEC after ‘frat boy culture’ complaints

“It’s an incredibly hard day and my energy and support will be focused on all those amazing individuals impacted – this is in no way a reflection on your amazing work,” Ybarra wrote — later adding that his time leading Blizzard “was an absolute honor.”

The company’s chief design officer and co-founder, Allen Adham, also is leaving Blizzard.

Microsoft closed its $69 billion Activision Blizzard deal in October, nearly 22 months after the deal was first announced after overcoming opposition from antitrust regulators in the United Kingdom and European Union.

Related: Microsoft’s Activision deal hurts gamers, UK watchdog says

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission lost a court fight to block the acquisition but its antitrust enforcers are still pursuing a case that seeks to unwind the deal. The FTC has described the merger as a threat to competition in the video game industry, enabling Microsoft to create “walled gardens” around its Xbox Game Pass subscription service and the emerging business of streaming games on demand.

The latest layoffs at Microsoft follow a chain of job cuts across the tech sector in recent weeks — including those at Google, Riot Games, TikTok, eBay and Amazon. Retail, hospitality, media and other sectors have been it by job cuts as well.

Also see: Sega of America workers in Irvine file for union election

Microsoft eliminated a significant number of roles just one year ago. In January 2023, Microsoft said it would be cutting 10,000 workers, then almost 5% of its workforce, as the company joined other tech players scaling back on pandemic-era expansions.

The latest Microsoft layoffs “underscores the importance of having a union voice on the job,” said the Communications Workers of America — which has been working to organize video game employees, including some at gaming divisions at Microsoft.

In an unusual arrangement for the gaming industry, Microsoft has pledged to stay neutral if Activision Blizzard workers in the U.S. and Canada seek to organize into a labor union. The union deal was part of a 2022 agreement with the CWA that helped address U.S. political concerns about the merger’s effects. So far, however, only a small set of Activision Blizzard divisions have formed unions.

WASHINGTON — Trump White House official Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced on Thursday to four months behind bars.

He was the second Trump aide convicted of contempt of Congress charges, after former White House adviser Steve Bannon, who also got a four-month sentence but is free pending appeal.

Navarro was found guilty of defying a subpoena for documents and a deposition from the House Jan. 6 committee. He served as a White House trade adviser under then-President Donald Trump and later promoted the Republican’s baseless claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

He has vowed to appeal the verdict, saying he couldn’t cooperate with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. A judge barred him from making that argument at trial, however, finding that he didn’t show Trump had actually invoked it.

Navarro said in court before his sentencing Thursday that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack had led him to believe that it accepted his invocation of executive privilege. “Nobody in my position should be put in conflict between the legislative branch and the executive branch,” he told the judge.

The judge told Navarro that it took “chutzpah” for him to assert that he accepted responsibility for his actions while also suggesting that his prosecution was politically motivated. “You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution,” the judge said. “These are circumstances of your own making.

Navarro’s lawyers had advised him not to address the judge, but he said he wanted to speak after hearing the judge express disappointment in him. Responding to a question about why he didn’t initially seek a lawyer’s counsel, he told the judge, “I didn’t know what to do, sir.”

The judge is allowing Navarro’s defense to submit a written brief on the question of allowing him to remain free pending appeal.

Justice Department prosecutors said Navarro tried to “hide behind claims of privilege” even before he knew what the committee wanted, showing a “disdain” for the committee that should warrant a longer sentence. Prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence him to six months behind bars and impose a $200,000 fine.

Defense attorneys said Trump did claim executive privilege, putting Navarro in an “untenable position,” and they asked for a sentence of probation and a $100 fine.

Bannon, who also made executive-privilege arguments, was convicted of two counts.

Navarro’s sentencing comes after a judge rejected his bid for a new trial. His attorneys had argued that jurors may have been improperly influenced by political protesters outside the courthouse when they took a break from deliberations. Shortly after their break, the jurors found Navarro guilty of two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress.

But U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found that Navarro didn’t show that the eight-minute break had any effect on the September verdict. He found no protest was underway and no one approached the jurors — they interacted only with each other and the court officer assigned to accompany them.

National restaurant chain The Cheesecake Factory and some of its contractors have paid $1 million to settle a major California wage theft case, in which state labor officials accused the companies of stiffing hundreds of janitors of overtime pay and breaks.

Janitors at eight Cheesecake Factory restaurants in Orange and San Diego counties were forced to work as many as 10 extra hours a week without being paid overtime, the state’s Labor Commissioner’s Office said in a 2018 citation.

Also see: At Southern California Cheesecake Factories, 559 janitors were cheated out of $4.57 million in wages, labor commissioner charges

“When we were working long nights cleaning the kitchen and the dining room of the restaurant, we knew the employer and the restaurant owner were taking advantage of us,” Naxhili Perez, one of the former San Diego janitors, said in a press release.

The state’s Labor Commissioner’s Office planned to formally announce the settlement and hand out checks to former workers at an event in San Diego on Tuesday. The office is now hoping to get the attention of other ex-employees who may qualify for a payout for unpaid work they did between 2014 and 2017.

The agreement, reached last fall, marks a long-delayed resolution in one of the state’s most significant cases alleging wage theft. To persuade workers to cooperate with the state, the Labor Commissioner’s Office worked with the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, a workers’ advocacy center that employs former janitors to investigate conditions in the industry.

Such partnerships are one of the state’s recent strategies to bring wage theft cases against large employers in the hopes of sending a message across their industries. The trust fund’s director at the time of the citations, Lilia García-Brower, is now the state’s labor commissioner.

And the citations were one of the office’s first uses of a 2015 law that holds companies that hire janitorial contractors jointly responsible for workplace violations.

Also see: 3 Thai restaurants in Los Angeles area cited for more than $1 million in wage theft

For years, workers’ advocates have complained that with the rise of contracting and subcontracting in the janitorial industry, it was easy for smaller employers to close up shop, declare bankruptcy or change names when accused of wage theft, while building owners or other companies that hired them escaped liability.

In the Cheesecake Factory case, the company contracted with the national Americlean Janitorial Services Corp. to clean its restaurants. Americlean in turn subcontracted the work in the eight southern California locations to a cleaning company called Magic Touch, according to the state.

Though Magic Touch directly hired the janitors, the state said in 2018 that Cheesecake Factory managers kept workers from going home at the end of their eight-hour, overnight shifts. The managers would inspect the restaurants and assign additional tasks to the janitors before they were allowed to leave, without paying overtime, the labor commissioner said. 

During the state’s investigation, Magic Touch changed its name, but the state said both businesses were liable for back pay. Owner Zulma Villegas filed for bankruptcy in 2021.

Villegas’ attorney Roxana Verano, reached by phone today, declined to comment on her client’s behalf. An attorney for Americlean did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the end, The Cheesecake Factory agreed to pay the bulk of the settlement — $750,000 — while the rest was split between Villegas and Americlean, according to the agreement.

As part of the settlement, none of the companies admitted fault. But both Villegas and Americlean will provide a written apology to workers. Villegas’ apology, included in the settlement, states she “did not fulfill my obligations under the law as an employer, some of which were out of my control,” while Americlean notes it “could have overseen Magic Touch better” and said it no longer provides cleaning services to the restaurant chain.

For the next two years, the restaurant chain has agreed to require any contractors bidding to provide janitorial services at its California restaurants to disclose whether the state has ever found them liable for wage theft. It will also require its current and future California contractors to provide their janitors information on labor laws in English and Spanish, and submit to audits if workers have future complaints, according to the settlement. But the agreement says the apology by Villegas and Americlean won’t be distributed at any Cheesecake Factory restaurants.

A spokesperson for The Cheesecake Factory did not immediately respond to written questions this afternoon.

“It’s a message to all brand names out there,” Yardenna Aaron, executive director of the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, a janitorial workers’ advocacy group, said in a press release. “If you don’t ensure your contractors comply with laws protecting workers, there are very real consequences.”

But the case also shows the hurdles for enforcing California’s strict labor laws in low-wage industries employing mostly immigrant workers.

When the state cited the companies in 2018, it calculated the total amount in unpaid wages and damages owed to more than 500 workers to be nearly $4 million.

The Cheesecake Factory and its contractors appealed, which is common for employers in such citations. For the next two years, the proceedings became mired in evidentiary disputes and scheduling conflicts, appeals documents previously obtained by CalMatters show.

Then the pandemic hit, and the appeal was put on hold until January 2021. Settlement talks were underway by August 2022 and the agreement was signed in September 2023 — for only one-fourth of the initial citation amount.

Now, the state and the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund are looking for the company’s former janitors to receive payments for unpaid work they did as long as nine years ago. They’re in touch with about 60 former workers, the trust fund said in a press release, but believe about 500 more may be eligible.

Janitors who worked at Cheesecake Factory restaurants in Brea, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Mission Viejo, Escondido and San Diego between Aug. 31, 2014 and Aug. 31, 2017 are asked to call 619-213-5260.

The settlement stems from an investigation that began in 2016 regarding alleged wage and hour violations at Cheesecake Factory restaurants in San Diego County.

The janitors were employed by companies that were contracted and subcontracted by the restaurant chain, according to the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, a statewide watchdog group that investigates allegations of law violations in the workplace.

MCTF said the state Labor Commissioner’s Office found workers were often logging up to 10 hours of unpaid overtime every week, with some failing get proper meal or rest breaks.

Representatives with The Cheesecake Factory could not be reached for comment.

Naxhili Perez, who previously worked at a Cheesecake Factory restaurant in San Diego, said businesses sometimes think they can hire a contractor and avoid responsibility — but that’s not the case.

“If the law is being broken inside your company, you are responsible,” Perez said in a statement. “Now the Cheesecake Factory understands there are no shortcuts when it comes to workers’ rights.”

Cheesecake Factory restaurants targeted in the investigation:

120 Brea Mall, Brea

600 Spectrum Center Drive, Irvine

7871 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach

1141 Newport Center Dr., Newport Beach

42 The Shops At Mission Viejo, Mission Viejo

7067 Friars Road, San Diego

789 W. Harbor Dr. C-1, San Diego

200 E. Via Rancho Pkwy Suite 370, Escondido

Janitors who worked at those locations between Aug. 31, 2014 and Aug. 31, 2017 are advised to call the Labor Commissioner’s Office at 619-767-2039 because they may be entitled to wages and damages as part of the settlement.

“This settlement is a result of our effort to use enforcement tools which increase compliance, levels the playing field and recovers owed wages for workers,” California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a statement.

California strengthened its laws to remove loopholes that allowed businesses to subcontract services and avoid responsibility to ensure workers are paid what they are owed, she said.