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US President Donald Trump has restored eligibility for The Gambia and Swaziland to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which will remain in effect until 30 September 2025 and gives some Sub Saharan African countries preferential trade terms when exporting to the US.

UK retailer Marks & Spencer has confirmed the sale and franchise of its retail business in Hong Kong and Macau to its long-established franchise partner Al-Futtaim.

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has detailed progress with its Safety Committee Training Program, despite recently admitting major life-threatening safety concerns remain outstanding in too many of the factories it monitors.

Hundreds of Southern California Subway restaurants have launched a controversial $4.99 footlong deal despite protests from some franchisees.

The promotion launched Monday, Jan. 1 at participating restaurants across the nation including roughly 785 Subway restaurants in Los Angeles and Orange County. The deal, which first emerged during the Great Recession, was last seen on menus in 2012. The latest bargain shaves the cost of some sandwiches by as much as $1.80 — a drastic drop that struggling restaurants can ill-afford.

Bob Grewal, who owns the master development rights for more than 2,000 Subway restaurants across the country, said franchises who dislike the deal do not have to participate. He said roughly 90 percent of his franchise stores in Orange County and the greater Los Angeles area, are selling the discounted subs.

“That’s quite a bit,” he said.

Some operators, especially shops in locations where the rent is high, have chosen not to participate.

“There are franchisees upset about the deal. And, they have a right to be,” said Grewal, whose company is the largest Subway franchisor in the world. “We can’t by law force anybody to do the $4.99.”

He said the deal was brought back to increase foot traffic in restaurants at a time when fast food rivals are pushing value meals. McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Del Taco, for example, recently announced tweaks to their value menus for 2018.

“Everybody in QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) industry is launching price point promotions. We wanted to bring back a real value to customers,” he said.

Grewal said franchise representatives must approve all chain-wide promotions. Despite protests from some franchise groups, the $4.99 footlong deal was approved twice by Subway representatives, said Grewal, who also operates restaurants in Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland.

In previous years, Subway offered several subs for $5 between 2008 and 2012. In 2014, Grewal said Subway brought back the deal but raised the price to $6. This year, represents a compromise. The $4.99 price is only good for five subs: Black Forest Ham, Meatball Marina, Spicy Italian, Cold Cut Combo and Veggie Delite.

At his 243 Orange County Subways, those subs range in price from $5.99 to $6.79 for a 12-inch sandwich, Grewal said.

“A majority of the country will barely break even — even if they get a traffic bump,” Grewal said.

So why do it?

“This is not to make money. It’s to bring them (customers) back to Subway restaurants.”

Once the deal goes away, operators like Grewal are hoping customers will continue to come back.

Restaurants need the boost.  In 2016, Subway sales reached $11.3 billion, down 1.7 percent from the year before, according to the latest data from Chicago-based market research firm Technomic.

City officials in Laguna Niguel will hold a dedication ceremony for the pickleball courts at Laguna Niguel Regional Park, from 10 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 10.

Pickleball is a cross between badminton and tennis and is a sport that is growing in popularity. The city will soon be opening four courts to the public at the park.

The dedication ceremony is free for the public to attend and the county entrance fee to the park will be waived for the event for those who mention the pickleball dedication as they enter.

IF YOU GO

What: Pickleball Courts Dedication Ceremony

When: 10-11 a.m., Wednesday, Jan. 10

Where: Laguna Niguel Regional Park, 28241 La Paz Road

Cost: Free

Information: 949-425-5100 or cityoflagunaniguel.org

San Juan Capistrano’s first people – the Juaneño band of Mission Indians – may have to wait a bit longer for the city to build a $1.7 million cultural park dedicated to their heritage.

The city has the money to build the one-acre Putuidem Village simulation in an open space off Camino Capistrano along Oso Creek. But the city doesn’t have money to maintain the proposed improvements, estimated to cost about $75,000 a year.

So the cultural venue, planned over the last three years, sits atop a list of nine “unfunded” projects in the city’s work plan for 2018.

City Manager Ben Siegel recommended at a City Council meeting Dec. 13 the city not build any new facilities it can’t afford to maintain. So it will be up to the City Council this spring, when considering a new budget, to try to come up with maintenance money.

Councilwoman Kerry Ferguson, who has worked with descendants of San Juan’s first people on a Putuidem Village advisory committee to help plan the park, said the city needs to make it happen for the Juaneños.

“They have essentially had their land taken away from them, they’ve had their culture taken away from them,” Ferguson said. “Over the history of this town, they have not had a lot of encouragement. They have been told for a very long time that this project was going to happen.”

Ferguson said the village, which would include kicha huts, a cultural group area, information panels, native tools and an amphitheater, was expected to be ready by November 2018.

“If we go back to them now and say, ‘Gee, I’m really sorry but we don’t have maintenance money. we’re not going to build this place that would give back just a little of the land’ … I can’t even begin to describe the disappointment that is going to bring to that community.”

The Acjachemen Nation, whose history dates back thousands of years in Orange County, became known as the Juaneños after Spanish settlers arrived and built a mission in 1776.

The proposed cultural gathering place, to be built on the site of the original Putuidem Village, is to serve as a showcase for Acjachemen culture for visitors and school children and as a quiet place for Juaneño reflection, Ferguson said. It would also be used for tribal events.

“We need to come up with the money to get that completed,” Councilwoman Pam Patterson said.

Ferguson suggested a solar energy conversion program could save the city $80,000 a year and provide a source of revenue. Councilman Brian Maryott suggested the city could tap into unspent money in the city’s fund for an open space area in the northeast, but Mayor Sergio Farias said money from one open space fund can’t go into the other.

Jerry Nieblas, an Acjachemen descendant who traces his lineage back to the original Putuidem Village, said Juaneños want to work with the city and could help form a foundation to assist. But the city needs to step up as well, he suggested, as the site is city property and he believes that Putuidem Village can become a valued resource for the city.

It will become new cultural attraction at the northern entrance to town, highlighting that there was life in San Juan before Mission San Juan Capistrano, Nieblas said.

“And let people know that we are still here,” he said, “our language and our culture.”

Plans for Putuidem Village are about 90-percent complete, Siegel said, and will be brought to the City Council when ready.

So, my friends, it’s the time of year when lots of us make resolutions, and I’m no exception. However, I’ve reached the age of wisdom, which means I now only make promises to myself that I think I can actually keep.

So, here they are:

I will get on the bathroom scale every morning, no matter how much I’m forced to curse at the result.

I will stop expecting “Star Wars” movies to be entertaining.

I will keep doing things that are inappropriate for women my age, though I draw the line at going to Coachella. I remember one newscaster, forgive me for forgetting your name, suggesting that people without tickets could just take off their bras, smear dust all over themselves and pee in their backyards and have the whole experience for free. I do that every day anyway, so I’m set.

I will faithfully walk at least 87 steps a day – the exact distance from my desk to the refrigerator. (Fitbit, anyone?)

I will stop buying things with my credit card on Amazon just because I get free Prime shipping.

I will think seriously about going to the gym. Every day. Then, I will actually go. At least, most of the time.

I will clean the pile of clutter off the breakfast bar, so at least we have one tidy space to eat. The dining room table is hopeless, as the top hasn’t been sighted for years under the piles of paperwork and magazines, but I still have hope for the breakfast bar.

I will not meet with any emissaries from Russia, even if they tempt me with those cute nesting wooden dolls.

When I drive past the lair of the devil, also known as the See’s Candy store, I won’t slam on my brakes and look in the window, requiring the person behind me to also slam on his brakes.

At their request, I will quit referring to my young adult children as “you kids,” unless they are actual goats, which sometimes seems the case.

When I’m in the hot tub at my gym, and an elderly man wearing bathing trunks and a baseball cap gets in next to me and starts talking loudly on his mobile phone, using the speaker, I will continue to point out to him that it’s annoying but when he starts telling me to shut up, I won’t get in an argument with him. I’ll just remind myself I got in there to relax, and he’ll never let me have the last word anyway.

At least once this year, I will remember to bring earplugs to rock concerts, keeping in mind that I lost much of my hearing sitting in the fourth row of the Rolling Stones Steel Wheels tour when they played the L.A. Coliseum.

I will give up on my dream of being a contestant on “Survivor,” realizing I would undoubtedly be the one who stubbed her toe the first day and needed a medical evacuation.

I will color my hair more often, before I get that thick line of gray roots that reminds me I’m actually way older than I feel.

I will bring my own healthy snacks to office meetings, so I don’t devour entire plates of home-baked goodies that my fabulous chef colleagues bring in just to torture me.

In an effort to avoid early onset dementia, I will stop trying to initiate conversations with my young adult children, especially when they involve slang expressions that I can’t fathom. (OK, wait. So, what used to be cool and was then fierce is now fire?)

Along the same vein, whenever my teenage daughter says something is “Gucci,” I will stop looking around for a leather handbag.

I will refuse any attempts by the Trump Administration to recruit me to be ambassador to England. They call their fries “chips” and put vinegar on them. It’s just wrong.

I won’t laugh hysterically any time someone suggests that, now that my kids are grown, I might meet a man and get married.

I won’t log into the website for my insurance company, create a new log-in, and then forget my user name and password before I can write it down.

I will stop cursing at idiots who cut me off in traffic, lest they roll down their windows and aim a pistol at me. Unless it’s a black BMW. Then, seriously, you just gotta.

So, friends, that’s my list. Last year, I added that I wanted to “stay scared.” Because if you’re scared, you’re pushing your boundaries and going to new places.

So, happy new year, and I hope it’s a scary one for you, too.

In November 2016, just before Stray Cats frontman Brian Setzer was setting out on his annual solo Christmas Rocks! Tour, he dropped the news that he and fellow Stray Cats “Slim Jim” Phantom and Lee Rocker had been toying with the idea of a reunion.

It has been a decade since the influential rockabilly trio performed together, one of its final stops being a sold-out show at Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa on July 22, 2008. Now it looks like the Stray Cats will strut once again and will headline Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend on Saturday, April 21, at The Orleans Hotel (4500 W. Tropicana Ave.) in Las Vegas.

The show will take place Thursday, April 19-Sunday, April 22 and also feature sets by the legendary Jerry Lee Lewis, Duane Eddy, Carl Mann, The Eldorados and more. There will be eight different burlesque shows, a car show, vintage fashion show, pin-up contests, jiving lessons and classes, pool parties and more. Four day passes start at $150 at VivaLasVegas.net.

The Stray Cats, known for hits such as “Stray Cat Strut,” “(She’s) Sexy + 17” and “Rock This Town,” formed in New York in 1978. The group has had numerous periods of inactivity as each member has worked on solo projects. Now that a decade has passed since its last performance, Setzer, who jokingly said he’d want to get the group back together before he lost his pompadour, also said that he missed playing with the Stray Cats guys.

“I miss it,” he said during an interview in November 2016. “Especially now, I mean let’s face it, we’re not kids anymore. We’re getting older and when we talk about the stuff that we did and that feeling we had of taking over the world, as silly as that sounds now, it really takes us back and now I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, we’re still here!’ We’re still here and we can play our asses off, so, let’s play!”

Rocker, who is a longtime Laguna Beach resident and has enjoyed his own solo success, said via a press release put out on Tuesday, “Just a string bass, a guitar and a drum, Stray Cats are back to show ’em how it’s done. 39 Years after our first gigs, we’re back! Can’t wait to rock again with my brothers Brian and Slim.”

Obviously this reunion opens the door for more shows and possibly even a summer tour, though no further details have yet to be announced.

GOLDEN PAIR: Team India cricket captain Virat Kohli and Bollywood actress and producer Anushka Sharma’s wedding included gatherings in Haldi, Mehendi, Delhi and Mumbai. For last week’s reception in Mumbai, the bride went with her go-to designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. Kohli chose a look from Raghavendra Rathore, a decision that has hurled Kohli into greater international acclaim.
The designer said the star cricketer’s look was “discussed and planned with the popular captain of Team India himself, over a bespoke session. Many versions of the same look were created and eventually the choice of the deep navy-blue silk handmade Jodhpuri Bandhgala Jacket paired with the classic Jodhpuri breeches with custom-made shoes was finalized upon.”
Kohli is “not a slave to passing trends,” having chosen a bespoke look that has stood the test of time. “It is his exposure to a mass audience that will perhaps make this look a trend at all levels of retail.”
As an international style-setter in her own right, Anushka Kohli was on hand for the initial interaction with Rathore’s team and “had valuable input to offer,” he said.
As the namesake of a bespoke men’s wear company, Rathore said it was imperative to understand what exactly Kohli was looking for and

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The three-bedroom residence was furnished by ESPASSO and In Plus Inc.