Alexander: Kings are pushing through hockey’s dog days

• January 23, 2025

LOS ANGELES — These can be the dog days of the NHL season.

Everybody’s past the halfway point of the 82-game schedule, but the playoffs are still three months away. The games pile up, the midseason break – this time for the Four Nations international tournament Feb. 12-20, rather than an All-Star weekend – isn’t for another couple of weeks and you’ve just had three days at home sandwiched around back-to-back five-game road trips.

And if you get into a rough patch it can be tough to get out of it.

Then again, sometimes a simple play or a good bounce can do the trick.

Trailing the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers 1-0 in the third period on Wednesday night, and at risk of their fifth loss in six games – right before an upcoming Columbus-Detroit-Florida-Tampa Bay-Carolina excursion – the Kings got that play, and that bounce. Samuel Helenius poked a loose puck past Panthers goalie Spencer Knight 6:41 into the period, for what turned out to be his first NHL goal, and that opened the door. Adrian Kempe’s 24th of the season 6½ minutes later gave L.A. the lead, Darcy Kuemper preserved it, and the Kings had a 2-1 victory that could be even more significant than two points in the standings.

Rest assured, those points matter. The Kings haven’t been getting nearly enough of them lately, following a five-game winning streak that had carried them into the new year with four losses in five games. The last, a 5-1 drubbing by Pittsburgh on Monday in the return home after a 2-3 trip, was a certified stinker. But in Coach Jim Hiller’s description the others weren’t bad games, just unsuccessful ones.

“We haven’t had some results recently, but we thought we played well,” he said. “Thought we played well in Calgary, lost (2-1). Thought we played well in Edmonton, lost (4-3). Had a bad first period in Seattle and then played pretty well, lost (4-2, two nights after a 5-1 win in Vancouver). And then, we just talked about Pittsburgh. So all of a sudden you’re going, ‘Oh, we’re not getting any points.’ We thought we were playing pretty good with the exception of the Pittsburgh game.

“So we didn’t overreact, the players just gathered themselves and probably were a little bit tired coming back from that road trip, I think if I look at it now in retrospect. But having said all that, in the end, the points are what you need. Points are important. I mean, you don’t get much for second place. But it did feel like we were still playing good hockey. And the points should come if you play like that.”

Helenius, called up earlier this season from the AHL Ontario Reign, called that first NHL goal “a dream come true.” (And yes, he’s keeping the puck.) He had eight goals in a full season in Ontario in 2023-24, and two in eight games this season before being called up. This time his timing was really good, as was that of Tanner Jeannot, who poked the puck lin Helenius’ direction.

“He deserves it,” teammate Kevin Fiala said. “He’s been grinding for so many years, for his whole life, and he deserved it. We’re very happy for him.”

The first goal might have come from an unexpected source. The go-ahead goal didn’t. Fiala shot from inside the blue line, and Kempe tipped it in for his 24th of the season.

And maybe this was just a case of the Kings being tired of struggling. They were severely outplayed in the second period but came out with renewed energy in the third. Sometimes it takes that combination of will and stubborness to rise above fatigue and ennui.

“Yeah, there are” the dog days, Fiala said. “But that’s what good teams (do). I mean, 82 games is a long season and it’s a grind. I know what you mean. It also helps a little bit to live in L.A., you know, in January to have sun days. But honestly, I think this team is just ready to play any day.”

And don’t look now, but the Kings are about to get an All-Star reinforcement.

Drew Doughty, who broke his left ankle in a preseason game, is skating with the team and conceivably could play some time during this trip. It will be a boost competitively to have him back on the ice, and it will be a boost in spirit and energy as well to have the two-time Stanley Cup champ chirping in the locker room.

“He’ll have an immediate impact, just coming back into the group,” Hiller said. “He’s a really popular, energetic player. It will take him some time. So we’re accepting that it’s likely going to take him some time to get back up to speed. And when I say time, (it means) weeks, you know what I mean? But that doesn’t mean that he can’t help us in the short term and, you know, maybe a lesser role and that, you know, we can build him back up as quick as we can.”

There is also this reason for Kings fans to feel some optimism: After this upcoming trip, the club will play 22 of its final 32 games at home and only five as far east as the Central time zone. After Wednesday’s win they are 15-3-1 at home.

If it feels like the dog days, that often means it’s a stretch in which you’re way too familiar with planes and hotels and luggage.

“What are we, three and a half, four days home maybe?” Hiller said of the brief interlude between trips. “This one is going to be more challenging than the last one, just based on that. … We’ll have to challenge the guys. Hopefully Drew and Laf (Alex Laferriere, out with an upper body injury) at some point can give us reinforcements on this trip.

“I think we’ll need it before too long.”

 jalexander@scng.com

​ Orange County Register 

Trump tells Davos elite to invest in US or face tariffs

• January 23, 2025

By ZEKE MILLER, JOSH BOAK and JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump used an address Thursday to the World Economic Forum to promise global elites lower taxes if they bring manufacturing to the U.S. and threatened to impose tariffs if they don’t.

Speaking by video from the White House to the annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, on his third full day in office, Trump ran through his flurry of executive actions since his swearing-in and claimed that he had a “massive mandate” from the American people to bring change. He laid out a carrot-and-stick approach for private investment in the U.S.

“Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes as any nation on earth,” Trump said. “But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff — differing amounts — but a tariff, which will direct hundreds of billions of dollars and even trillions of dollars into our treasury to strengthen our economy and pay down debt under the Trump administration.”

Trump, who spoke Wednesday to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, also said Thursday that the kingdom wants to invest $600 billion in the U.S. but that he would ask Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to increase it to $1 trillion. The remark drew some laughter from the crowd in the hall in Davos.

Introducing Trump, Davos founder Klaus Schwab told the new president that his return and his agenda have “been at the focus of our discussions this week.” He invited Trump to speak at the summit in person next year.

Trump, who promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war before taking office, said it remained a top priority, but he offered few clues for how he would do so.

“One thing very important: I really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon and get that war ended,” Trump told the Davos audience. “We really have to stop that war. That war is horrible”

Earlier in his address to the forum, Trump laid blame on the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries for keeping the price of oil too high for much of the nearly three-year war. Oil sales are the economic engine driving Moscow’s economy.

“If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately,” Trump said. He added about OPEC+, “They are very responsible to a certain extent for what’s taking place.”

Oil prices have more recently slumped due to weaker-than-expected demand from China as well as increased production from countries such as Brazil and Argentina that aren’t in OPEC+.

Keaton reported from Davos, Switzerland. Associated Press Writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Teen who killed 3 girls at Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England sentenced to over 50 years

• January 23, 2025

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A teenager who stabbed three young girls to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England was sentenced Thursday to more than 50 years in prison for what a judge called “the most extreme, shocking and exceptionally serious crime.”

Judge Julian Goose said 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana “wanted to try and carry out mass murder of innocent, happy young girls.”

Goose said that he couldn’t impose a sentence of life without parole, because Rudakubana was under 18 at the time of the crime.

But the judge said he must serve 52 years, minus the six months he’s been in custody, before being considered for parole, and “it is likely he will never be released.”

Rudakubana was 17 when he attacked the children in the seaside town of Southport in July, killing Alice Da Silva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. He wounded eight other girls, ranging in age from 7 to 13, along with teacher Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, a local businessman who intervened.

The attack shocked the country and set off both street violence and soul-searching. The government has announced a public inquiry into how the system failed to stop the killer, who had been referred to the authorities multiple times over his obsession with violence.

Defendant disrupts the hearing

Rudakubana faced three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder and additional charges of possessing a knife, the poison ricin and an al-Qaida manual. He unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty on all charges on Monday.

But he wasn’t in court to hear sentence passed on Thursday.

Hours earlier he had been led into the dock at Liverpool Crown Court in northwest England, dressed in a gray prison tracksuit. But as prosecutors began outlining the evidence, Rudakubana interrupted by shouting that he felt ill and wanted to see a paramedic.

Goose ordered the accused to be removed when he continued shouting. A person in the courtroom shouted “Coward!” as Rudakubana was taken out.

The hearing continued without him.

Horror on a summer day

Prosecutor Deanna Heer described how the attack occurred on the first day of summer vacation when 26 little girls were “gathered around the tables making bracelets and singing along to Taylor Swift songs.”

Rudakubana, armed with a large knife, intruded and began stabbing the girls and their teacher.

The court was shown video of the suspect arriving at the Hart Space venue in a taxi and entering the building. Within seconds, screams erupted and children ran outside in panic, some of them wounded. One girl made it to the doorway, but was pulled back inside by the attacker. She was stabbed 32 times but survived.

Gasps and sobs could be heard in court as the videos played.

Heer said two of the dead children “suffered particularly horrific injuries which are difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature.” One of the dead girls had 122 injuries, while another suffered 85 wounds.

A teenager obsessed with violence

The prosecutor said Rudakubana had “a longstanding obsession with violence, killing, genocide.”

“His only purpose was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” she said, as relatives of the victims watched on in the courtroom.

Heer said that when he was taken to a police station, Rudakubana was heard to say: “It’s a good thing those children are dead, I’m so glad, I’m so happy.”

The killings triggered days of anti-immigrant violence across the country after far-right activists seized on incorrect reports that the attacker was an asylum-seeker who had recently arrived in the U.K. Some suggested the crime was a jihadi attack, and alleged that police and the government were withholding information.

Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Christian parents from Rwanda, and investigators haven’t been able to pin down his motivation. Police found documents about subjects including Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs on his devices.

In the years before the attack, he had been reported to multiple authorities over his violent interests and actions. All of the agencies failed to spot the danger he posed.

In 2019, he phoned a children’s advice line to ask “What should I do if I want to kill somebody?” He said he had taken a knife to school because he wanted to kill someone who was bullying him. Two months later, he attacked a fellow student with a hockey stick and was convicted of assault.

The definition of terrorism

Prosecutors said Rudakubana was referred three times to the government’s anti-extremism program, Prevent, when he was 13 and 14 — once after researching school shootings in class, then for uploading pictures of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to Instagram and for researching a London terror attack.

But they concluded his crimes should not be classed as terrorism because Rudakubana had no discernable political or religious cause. Heer said “his purpose was the commission of mass murder, not for a particular end, but as an end in itself.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that laws might need updating to combat a “new threat” from violent individuals whose mix of motivations test the traditional definition of terrorism, “acts of extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms.”

Wrenching testimony from victims

Several relatives and survivors read emotional statements in court, describing how the attack had shattered their lives.

Lucas, 36, who ran the dance class, said that “the trauma of being both a victim and a witness has been horrendous.”

“I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died?” she said.

A 14-year-old survivor, who can’t be named because of a court order, said that while she was physically recovering. “we will all have to live with the mental pain from that day forever.”

“I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing that we think you’re a coward,” she said.

The prosecutor read out a statement from the parents of Alice Da Silva Aguiar, who said their daughter’s killing had “shattered our souls.”

“We used to cook for three. Now we only cook for two. It doesn’t seem right,” they said. “Alice was our purpose for living, so what do we do now?”

​ Orange County Register 

No reported growth overnight in Hughes fire near Castaic as crews prepare for more tough weather

• January 23, 2025

Firefighters held the Hughes fire in check overnight, keeping the blaze at 10,176 acres with 14% containment as crews prepared for another day of critical fire weather, authorities said.

The fire, burning near Castaic in the Antelope Valley, was first reported around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22, and exploded in size thanks to strong Santa Ana winds, prompting evacuation orders and warnings and, at one point, a short shutdown of the 5 Freeway.

More than 4,000 personnel were assigned to the fire and about a dozen aircraft were sent up to the Santa Clarita area to help ground crews, authorities said.

Hughes fire surpasses 10,000 acres near Castaic; evacuations ordered and 5 Freeway reopens

No structures have been reported damaged or destroyed as of Thursday morning.

Crews overnight focused on extinguishing hot spots and flare ups, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said Wednesday evening.

“Overnight firefighters, with support from aircraft and dozers, fought aggressively and were challenged by extreme fire behavior, terrain, and weather,” Angeles National Forest officials said in a Thursday morning update. “Today, crews will continue focusing on establishing and holding control lines on all flanks of the fire.”

Firefighters kept the fire from spreading to Elderberry Canyon, the Castaic Hydroelectric Power Plant and surrounding communities overnight, officials said.

Crews were also focused Thursday on holding the fire within its footprint while protecting the Wayside Honor Rancho and structures along Charlie Canyon drainage, officials said. Additional fire engines were being staged within Castaic communities to prevent further spread.

The Hughes broke out during a red flag warning for troublesome fire weather. That warning, by the National Weather Service, lasts until Friday, with wind gusts expected to peak on Thursday, Jan. 23, according to meteorologists.

Firefighters could get a reprieve over the weekend, when light rain might arrive.

Mandatory evacuation orders were impacting about 31,000 people as of Wednesday night, officials said, with another 23,000 under evacuation warnings.

Deleted:

Nearly 500 inmates were evacuated on Wednesday from one of the Pitchess Detention Center campuses in Castaic to a nearby correctional facility, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The cause of the fire was not known yet.Here’s what we know:

• Acres burned: 10,176
• Containment: 14%
• Structures damaged: 0
• Updated evacuations can be monitored here
• 31,000 residents are under mandatory evacuation orders as of Wednesday night; 23,000 under evacuation warning
• This map shows where the fire is burning
• An evacuation center was set up at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita
• Fire Personnel: More than 4,000

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

​ Orange County Register 

Immigrant detention beds may be maxed out as Trump moves to deport ‘millions and millions’

• January 23, 2025

By MORGAN LEE and STEPHEN GROVES, Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s inauguration-day executive orders and promises of mass deportations of “millions and millions” of people will hinge on securing money for detention centers.

The Trump administration has not publicly said how many immigration detention beds it needs to achieve its goals, or what the cost will be. However, an estimated 11.7 million people are living in the U.S. illegally, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently has the budget to detain only about 41,000 people.

The government would need additional space to hold people while they are processed and arrangements are made to remove them, sometimes by plane. The Department of Homeland Security estimates the daily cost for a bed for one adult is about $165.

Just one piece of Trump’s plan, a bill known as the Laken Riley Act that Congress has passed, would require at least $26.9 billion to ramp up capacity at immigrant detention facilities to add 110,000 beds, according to a recent memo from DHS.

That bill — named after a Georgia nursing student whose murder by a Venezuelan man last year became a rallying cry for Trump’s White House campaign — expands requirements for immigration authorities to detain anyone in the country illegally who is accused of theft and violent crimes.

Trump also is deploying troops to try and stop all illegal entry at the southern U.S. border. He triggered the Alien Enemies Act to combat cartels. The rarely used 1798 law allows the president to deport anyone who is not a U.S. citizen and is from a country with which there is a “declared war” or a threatened or attempted “invasion or predatory incursion.”

Detention infrastructure also will be stretched by Trump’s ban of a practice known as “catch and release” that allows some migrants to live in the U.S. while awaiting immigration court proceedings, in favor of detention and deportation.

ICE uses facilities around the U.S. to hold immigrants

ICE currently detains immigrants at its processing centers and at privately operated detention facilities, along with local prisons and jails under contracts that can involve state and city governments. It has zero facilities geared toward detention of immigrant families, who account for roughly one-third of arrivals on the southern U.S. border.

“There’s a limitation on the number of beds available to ICE,” said John Sandweg, who was acting director of ICE under President Barack Obama. “There are only so many local jails you contract with, private vendors who have available beds. And if the administration wants to make a major uptick in detention capacity, that’s going to require the construction of some new facilities.”

Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S. border with Mexico leverages the U.S. military to shore up mass deportations and provide “appropriate detention space.” The Pentagon also might provide air transportation support to DHS.

Private investors are betting on a building boom, driving up stock prices at the top two immigration detention providers — Florida-based GEO Group and Tennessee-based CoreCivic.

A fast-track budgeting maneuver in Congress called “reconciliation” could provide more detention funding as soon as April. At the same time, the Texas state land commissioner has offered the federal government a parcel of rural ranchland along the U.S.-Mexico border for deportation facilities.

Where could ICE add detention space?

The American Civil Liberties Union estimates that ICE is considering an expansion of immigrant detention space across at least eight states, in locations ranging from Leavenworth, Kansas, to the outskirts of major immigrant populations in New York City and San Francisco, said Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney for the group and its National Prison Project.

The ACLU sued for access to correspondence from private detention providers after ICE solicited feedback last year on a potential expansion. Related emails from detention providers suggest the possible redeployment of a tent facility at Carrizo Springs, Texas, previously used to detain immigrant children, and the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas — one of two major immigrant family detention centers that the Biden administration phased out in 2021.

“Under the Trump administration, Homeland Security will be working to try to detain everyone that it possibly can and also expand its detention capacity footprint well beyond what is currently available in the United States at this point,” Cho said.

Cho added that Congress ultimately holds the purse strings for immigrant detention infrastructure — and that the Pentagon’s involvement under Trump’s emergency edict — warrants a debate.

“How does this detract from our own military’s readiness?” she said. “Does the military actually have the capacity to provide appropriate facilities for detention of immigrants?”

Using the military

Advocates for immigrant rights are warning against a hyper-militarized police state that could vastly expand the world’s largest detention system for migrants. Immigrant detention facilities overseen by ICE have struggled broadly to comply with some federal standards for care, hindering safety for staff and detainees, a Homeland Security Department inspector general found during 17 unannounced inspections from 2020-2023.

During Trump’s first administration, he authorized the use of military bases to detain immigrant children — including Army installations at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Goodfellow Air Force Base. In 2014, Obama temporarily relied on military bases to detain immigrant children while ramping up privately operated family detention centers to hold many of the tens of thousands of Central American families caught crossing the border illegally.

U.S. military bases have been used repeatedly since the 1970s to accommodate the resettlement of waves of immigrants fleeing Vietnam, Cuba, Haiti, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

Groves reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed.

​ Orange County Register 

What to do with food in your refrigerator and freezer during a power outage

• January 23, 2025

Q. Last week, our power was turned off because of the strong winds. Unfortunately, we had to throw away a lot of food because our freezer and refrigerator were off for 2 days. In the future, what can we do to minimize the loss of food?

We were in the same boat last week. If the power is out for only an hour or two, chances are your food will be OK if you keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed. I strongly recommend purchasing a thermometer for each refrigerator and freezer and placing them where they can be read easily (not buried in the back of the produce drawer!). This is especially important for the refrigerator because perishables are not safe if they have been held at 40F or warmer for 2 hours or longer. Items in the freezer will stay in a safe temperature range for longer, but their quality may suffer if they partially thaw and refreeze (for instance, ice cream will develop ice crystals).

Items in a chest-type deep freezer will fare better than those in an upright, frost-free model. Frost-free freezers periodically cycle to warmer temperatures in order to melt any ice crystals whereas a freezer that needs periodic manual defrosting keeps a constant lower temperature.

If the power goes out, and you suspect it may be out for longer than 2 or 3 hours, fill a cooler with ice and move as many perishables as possible onto the ice. If available, dry ice can be used to keep food frozen. Dry ice is most effective when placed in a chest freezer or chest cooler. Use caution when handling dry ice—it can cause painful frostbite if bare skin comes in contact. Wear heavy leather gloves and don’t hold it for too long. Don’t place it in an airtight container. As it sublimates (changes from solid directly into gaseous carbon dioxide), it can cause a tightly sealed container to burst. When placing in a freezer or cooler, wrap it in newspaper or a towel to prevent it from coming into direct contact with anything that could be damaged by extreme cold (most plastics and glass, for instance). When transporting dry ice in your vehicle, keep your windows open and drive directly home. The carbon dioxide gas will displace oxygen and cause unconsciousness and suffocation without warning if it’s in an enclosed space.

During a power outage, it’s hard to cook, especially when you can’t even light your grill. A few years ago, our big freezer went out and we had a lot of food that was going to be lost. Fortunately, my teenage son invited a bunch of his friends over and they managed to take care of all of the endangered food in an astonishingly short time.

Los Angeles County

mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/

Orange County

ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

Riverside County

anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; 951-955-0170; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/

San Bernardino County

mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu

​ Orange County Register 

Real estate news: Longtime Bella Terra mall owner sells its stake to partner

• January 23, 2025

The longtime owner and developer of Bella Terra mall in Huntington Beach has sold its 25% interest in the property to its partner, PGIM Real Estate.

San Jose-based DJM Capital Partners, which bought the property 20 years ago, declined to share terms of the sale.

“It is with pride that we sell our stake in Bella Terra, marking the end of a successful 20-year run as part owner and custodian of the property” said Lindsay Parton, president of DJM Capital. He said the firm has met its “investment and operational goals in Bella Terra” and was moving on to other projects in the state.

DJM bought the Huntington Beach Center in the early 2000s and soon launched a revamp of the aging center, which opened in 1966. It demolished many of the smaller buildings and flipped the mall inside-out, creating an exterior-facing experience for shoppers.

Bella Terra debuted in 2006, and in the ensuing years added a Costco and 467 apartments at The Residences at Bella Terra.

Last April, the partnership put the mall up for sale, with The Real Deal estimating its value at $300 million.

DJM and New Jersey-based PGIM got city approval in 2022 to redo the mall again. That plan included adding 300 more apartments and new retail by demolishing the Burlington Stores location and another 33,000-square-foot building.

Representatives with PGIM could not be reached this week to discuss the future of that expansion project.

The real estate partners in a statement said they would continue to co-own and operate other real estate assets in California. DJM also owns Lido Marina Village in Newport Beach and LBX, The Hangar, in Long Beach, and Ovation Hollywood.

Logistics complex breaks ground in Orange

Work began Jan. 9 on Orange Logistics Center, a two-building industrial complex at 759 N. Eckhoff and 752 North Poplar streets in Orange.

IDI Logistics is building the 285,719-square-feet campus not far from the Orange Crush, a confluence of the 5, 22 and 57 freeways.

Orange Logistics is taking the place of National Oilwell Varco, an equipment maker for parts used in the oil and gas drilling industry. To make way for the warehouses, multiple buildings on the site used for manufacturing, testing and office space were demolished.

Both industrial buildings will feature 10,000-square-foot office spaces. Building 1 will span 189,519 square feet, and the smaller Building 2 99,200 square feet.

Work on the buildings should be completed by early November, according to IDI Logistics.

The project teams include Premier Design + Build Group, HPA Architecture, the engineering firms HSA & Associates (structural) and Thienes Engineering (civil).

Lee & Associates in Orange is the project’s real estate broker.

Hyundai preleases new Irvine building

Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. has preleased a 91,600-square-foot industrial building under construction in Irvine, according to CBRE, which brokered the deal.

Financial terms of the lease with landlord Dermody Properties were not disclosed.

Created in 1986 in Ann Arbor, Mich., HATCI is Hyundai Motor Group’s design, technology and engineering division for North America.

Work continues on LogisCenter at Irvine II at L2 Sterling, which Dermody expects to complete this quarter. The building includes 8,200 square feet of office and mezzanine space and sits on 4.4 acres.

Dermody is also building LogisCenter at Irvine I, a 133,320-square-foot industrial building due for completion later this year, CBRE said.

Koll Co. re-enters Colorado with $15M cash buy

The Koll Co. in Irvine recently paid $15 million in cash for an industrial building in Aurora, Colorado.

The deal marks the firm’s first foray into Colorado property since 2007.

“Over the last seven years, we have been building out an industrial portfolio focused on the Western US, closing numerous investments that have brought our collection to just under 6 million square feet,” said Scott Meserve, a principal at Koll. “As part of that strategy, we have been eager to strategically enter the Denver market and this deal afforded us the perfect opportunity.

The 142,413-square-foot, single-tenant building is leased through 2029 to RK Mission Critical, a subsidiary of RK Industries.

In addition to Colorado, the firm has properties in six other states including California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Minnesota.

Promotions at AO in Orange

AO, an architecture firm based in Orange, recently made several promotions. They include:

Scott Jones, who’s been with AO since 2006, was promoted to partner. His experience includes commercial, retail, and mixed-use projects.

Nakisa Heshmati, a 17-year veteran at the firm, was promoted to principal. She is responsible for programming and planning many of AO’s high-density multifamily and mixed-use projects.

Managing partner RC Alley hailed Jones and Hesmati as “invaluable assets” and that “both have been driving forces behind AO’s success over the years.”

Several AO colleagues also were promoted to senior associate. They include Rio Garcia, Veronica Kim, Francis Kwek, Kai Lau, Linda Laurenzi and Fred Thomas.

The real estate roundup is compiled from news releases and written by Business Editor Samantha Gowen. Submit items and high-resolution photos via email to  sgowen@scng.com . Please allow at least a week for publication. All items are subject to editing for clarity and length.

​ Orange County Register 

Amanda Knox gets a final shot at clearing her name of slander in Italy’s top court

• January 23, 2025

By NICOLE WINFIELD and COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Amanda Knox has a final shot at clearing her name of the last vestige of criminal wrongdoing when Italy’s highest court on Thursday hears her appeal of a slander conviction for falsely accusing a Congolese bar owner in the 2007 murder of her British flatmate.

But the innocent man she accused, Patrick Lumbumba, told reporters outside Italy’s Cassation Court that he hopes the conviction stands and “stays with her for the rest of her life.”

Both sides presented their cases during a two-hour hearing, with the high court set to begin deliberations later Thursday, but it was unclear when a verdict would be announced.

The ruling should bring an end to a sensational 17-year legal saga that saw Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend convicted and acquitted in flip-flop verdicts in 21-year-old Meredith Kercher’s brutal murder, before being exonerated by the highest Cassation Court in 2015.

The slander conviction against Knox remained the last legal stain against her. It survived multiple appeals, and Knox was reconvicted on the charge in June after a European court ruling that Italy had violated her human rights cleared the way for a new trial.

Knox is watching the verdict at home “confident and respectful of the justice system as she always has been. She is confident that this story will end today,” her defense lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova told reporters.

Speaking recently on her “Labyrinths” podcast, Knox said: “I hate the fact that I have to live consequences for a crime I did not commit.”

Her defense team says she accused Lumumba, who employed her at a bar in the central Italian university town of Perugia, during a long night of questioning and under pressure from police, who they said fed her false information. The European Court of Human Rights found that the police deprived her of a lawyer and provided a translator who acted more as a mediator.

“I’ve been having nightmares about getting a bad verdict and just living the rest of my life with a shadow hanging over me. It’s like a scarlet letter,’’ Knox said on her podcast.

Even if the high court upholds the conviction and three-year sentence, Knox does not risk any more time she jail. She has already served nearly four years during the investigation, initial murder trial and first appeal. Knox said the aim is to clear her name of all criminal wrongdoing.

“Living with a false conviction is horrific, personally, psychologically, emotionally,” she said on the podcast. “I’m fighting it, and we’ll see what happens.”

Knox returned to the United States in 2011, after being freed by an appeals court in Perugia, and has established herself as a global campaigner for the wrongly convicted. She has a podcast with her husband and has a new memoir coming out titled, “Free: My Search for Meaning.”

Knox returned to Italy in June for the verdict in the slander trial, and Dalla Vedova said at the time that she was “very embittered” by the conviction.

Knox was a 20-year-old student in the central Italian university town of Perugia when Kercher was found stabbed to death on Nov. 2, 2007, in her bedroom in the apartment they shared with two Italian women.

The case made global headlines as suspicion quickly fell on Knox and her boyfriend of just days, Rafaelle Sollecito. After eight years of trial, including two appeals to Italy’s highest court, they were fully exonerated in the murder in 2015.

Another man, Rudy Hermann Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was convicted of murder after his DNA was found at the crime scene. He was freed in 2021, after serving most of his 16-year sentence.

The European court ordered Italy to pay Knox damages for the police failures, noting she was particularly vulnerable as a foreign student not fluent in Italian.

Italy’s high court ordered the new slander trial based on that ruling. It threw out two signed statements drafted by police falsely accusing Lumumba in the murder, and directed the appellate court that the only evidence it could consider was a hand-written letter she later wrote in English attempting to walk back the accusation.

However, the appellate court in its reasoning said that the four-page memo supported a slander finding.

On the basis of Knox’s statements, Lumumba was brought in for questioning, despite having an ironclad alibi. His business suffered, and he eventually moved to Poland with his Polish wife.

Arriving at court, he underlined that Knox “has never apologized to me.”

Barry reported from Milan.

​ Orange County Register