Boosted by continuing sales growth, August is expected to be the busiest month on record for imports at major US retail container ports and 2017 is on track to set a new annual high, new figures show.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 4-under 67 and a one-shot lead among early starters in a PGA Championship that was making it hard for Jordan Spieth and just about everyone else at Quail Hollow.

Not since 2010 at Whistling Straits has a score as high as 67 led the opening round of the PGA Championship. Spieth was happy to get through with a 72 in his quest to become the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam. U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka fared much better with a 67 and was among those one shot behind.

But even Koepka had a hard time making putts on new Bermuda greens that were firm and so fast that players had to be defensive.

“Anything under par on this golf course is a good score,” Olesen said.

Koepka had birdie putts inside 15 feet on his opening six holes and converted only one of them. He wasn’t the only player struggling to make them.

“If they get about a foot faster, they are kind of unplayable with the pin placements,” Koepka said. “These slopes are just getting bigger and bigger with the speed of the greens and the grain. If you miss it just by a couple feet from the flag, you can hit a great shot in there and wind up 30 yards away.”

It showed on the leaderboard.

No one managed to post anything better than 67, and Olesen needed a long putt on the 18th hole for that.
Grayson Murray, a North Carolina native who hit the opening shot, was the first to post 68. He was joined by Gary Woodland, Koepka and Chris Stroud, who qualified for the PGA Championship only by winning last week at the Barracuda Championship.

Paul Casey was among those at 69, while Dustin Johnson, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama were in the large group at 70.

The advantage of warm weather and, for the first time all week, plenty of sunshine was a slightly drier course that allowed the ball to roll. It was a big advantage to be in the fairway, and Olesen had only a 7-iron into 18th green. He played it well out to the left, leaving a downhill putt.

“It was a little bit of a safe shot into the green,” he said. “That’s what can happen on this golf course. When you play safe into the greens, you give yourself very tricky putts, like the one I had downhill, left-to-right. It was very, very fast. But it was just a very good roll. So it was nice to see that one drop.”

Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world, broke par for the first time in a major since the U.S. Open last summer at Oakmont, which he won for his first major. He played in the same group as Day, who was headed for another poor start until he made eagle on the par-5 seventh, followed with a birdie and wound up at 70.

“It’s going to test your patience one way or another,” Koepka said. “That’s just a major. You’ve got to stay patient. You can’t make doubles out here. That’s the big thing. Make sure the worst score you make is a bogey and give yourself a couple of good chances on the easier holes.”

That wasn’t easy for so many others.

Sergio Garcia took a pair of double bogeys at the end of the back nine and wound up with a 75. Ernie Els, in what might be his last PGA Championship, shot 80 for only the second time in this major. The first time was at Bellerive in 1992.

Aging casual dining brands Applebee’s and IHOP, both owned by Glendale-based DineEquity, announced plans to close as many as 160 restaurants.

Closures at Applebee’s, which has four Orange County locations, could range from 105 to 135 restaurants, DineEquity said Thursday. That’s more than double the number of closures previously stated by the chain. IHOP, which has several more locations in Orange County, will shutter 20 to 25 restaurants.

The news comes as both brands reported negative same-store sales for the second quarter. Same-store sales, a key indicator of a restaurant’s financial health, decreased 2.6 percent at IHOP and dropped 6.2 percent at Applebee’s.

“We are investing in the empowerment of our brands by improving overall franchisee financial health, closing underperforming restaurants and enhancing the supply chain,” Richard J. Dahl, interim Chief Executive of DineEquity, told investors on Thursday. “We are focusing on operations and elevating the guest experience, whether in our restaurants or off-premise.  We believe 2017 will be a transitional year for Applebee’s and we are making the necessary investments for overall long-term brand health and expect to see improvement over the next year.”

The company did not disclose which locations would close.

The diminishment of both brands comes as older casual dining chains look for a magic formula to attract diners who’ve fled to more relevant brands favored by young families and millennials.

“Applebee’s continues to struggle with consumer relevancy – both a brand-specific challenge and something that the chain bar-and-grill segment as a whole continues to face,”  Mark Kalinowski, a Nomura Instinet analyst, said in an earnings report.

It’s been a tough year for Applebee’s.

In 2016, the company and franchisees invested more than $75 million installing American-made, wood-fired grills at 2,000 restaurants. The restaurants began grilling bone-in pork chops, salmon (over cedar wood) and chicken breast.

But, the investment didn’t move the needle on Applebee’s slumping sales. In 2016, Applebee’s reported a 5 percent decrease in domestic same-store sales.

In the last two years, IHOP has closed two locations in Irvine. An eatery at Parkview Center had been there since 1992. It closed because its lease was up.

It’s unclear if IHOP chose to leave, or if it was denied a lease renewal.

“The way things worked out, things are not continuing on that location,” a DineEquity spokesman told The Register in 2016.

Later that year, another IHOP closed in Irvine at The Market Place. The Irvine Co. replaced it with Cha Cha’s Latin Kitchen, a popular gourmet Mexican restaurant with a location in downtown Brea. The Irvine Co. has been replacing older food brands with fresher concepts at its retail centers.

At this rate, it’s going to be a long time before this whale gets to Alaska.

Two days after a juvenile gray whale made its way into Dana Point Harbor, then came up close to shore near swimmers in Laguna Beach, it has now been spotted in Newport Harbor.

Newport Coastal Adventure captain Taylor Thorne saw the estimated 20-foot whale cruising around far into the harbor on Thursday, an “extremely rare occurrence,” he said.

“It’s supposed to be in Alaska right now,” he said. “And it is far from Alaska.”

The whale could be the same one seen inside the Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad Monday.

Thorne said it was behaving normally, though it looked skinny.

“It was a small animal, definitely not fully grown,” he said.

He speculated that the whale looked old enough to be weaned from its mother, and it had barnacles on its skin, meaning it wasn’t a newborn.

He said he spotted the whale near Lido Island, and “it was heading straight toward Hoag Hospital.”

Gray whales have the longest migration of any mammal on Earth, making their way from Baja – where they spend winter months giving birth – up north to Alaska.

Most have already passed the area and are at their summer-time destination.

“I don’t know what it’s doing,” he said. “It’s just going deeper and deeper into the harbor.”

The whale had last been spotted off Emerald Bay in Laguna Beach by Mark Girardeau Tuesday who by chance left Dana Point Harbor around the same time the whale was shooed out by Harbor Patrol and a group of stand-up paddle boarders.

The whale was spotted near Davey’s Locker and appeared to be swimming calmly and normally, said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who operates a gray whale census count at Point Vicente off Palos Verdes.

“The whale seemed really relaxed and was blowing three and four times in a normal pattern,” she said. “It seems just like an inquisitive young whale. We get them int he harbors every summer.”

Schulman-Janiger said it’s a good chance the whale is continuing along its journey north to its feeding grounds in Alaska.

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Stranding Coordinator Justin Viezbicke said there’s no efforts to try and usher the whale out of the harbor. Efforts were being made to help an entangled sea lion in Newport  Beach.

“Really not much we can do with the whale,” he responded via text.

He noted that it’s best to give the whale space “as close approach can be stressful to whale,” especially in confined spaces like harbors.

Purchasing a new fire engine was approved by the City Council, but you will likely not see it on the road for at least a year.

The fire engine is part of $855,600 in spending on new vehicles the City Council approved last month.

The city makes a plan each fiscal year for vehicle purchases, this year including six for the Police Department, the fire engine, an SUV for management services and equipment for the Public Works Department.

The vehicles and equipment will replace aging ones that have either excessive mileage, reached age and life expectancy or increased maintenance costs.

The fire engine, which is estimated to cost $600,000, will likely not be in service for at least nine months after the truck is ordered, said Neil Groom, procurement and contracts administrator for Brea.

It is unknown which of the four fire stations in Brea will get the new engine; the city will likely decide closer to when the engine is delivered, Groom said.

Purchase plan

Here is a breakdown of the vehicles the city expects to buy:

Management Services: Purchase of GM Yukon Hybrid at cost of $50,0000

Police Services: Purchase of six vehicles at cost of $198,000

Fire Services: Purchase of a Fire Pumper-KME Eng. 3 at cost of $600,000

Public Work: Purchase of 11 maintenance tools at cost of $7,600

Source: City of Brea

FivePoint Communities and two partners completed the purchase on Thursday, Aug. 10, of Broadcom’s new office complex south of the Orange County Great Park in Irvine and will lease two of the new buildings there to the chip maker for the next 20 years, the Aliso Viejo development firm announced.

The announcement came during the newly public firm’s first earnings report released at the close of the stock market Thursday.

FivePoint — the master developer behind homes and businesses around the Great Park and behind portions of the park itself — said it formed a new joint venture last Friday, contributing $106.5 million and acquiring a 75 percent interest in the new partnership. The other two members of the new joint venture, Five Point Office Venture Holdings I LLC, were not named.

The firm then exercised its right of first refusal to buy back the 73-acre Broadcom parcel, which has four new office buildings with just over 1 million square feet of space and approvals to build about 1 million square feet more office space in the future. Two of the four buildings have been completed and the other two are nearing completion, the company said.

The purchase is being financed with about $104 million in cash and $339 million in loans.

Broadcom originally purchased the Irvine office site for $128 million in 2015, with plans to build its new world headquarters there. But Singapore-based semiconductor firm Avago bought Broadcom in 2016, and Avago — since renamed Broadcom Ltd. — moved its U.S. headquarters to San Jose.

FivePoint’s earnings report said Broadcom signed a 20-year lease for two of the buildings with about 660,000 square feet. An additional 135,000 square feet of office space will be leased for 10 years to a subsidiary of FivePoint and a subsidiary of FivePoint’s former parent company, Lennar Corp., the company said.

FivePoint projects the property will generate about $27 million a year in net income.

Last year, Broadcom Ltd. put nearly half the site up for sale, including two of the four buildings, 32 acres plus 450,000 square feet of future building rights. Broadcom’s original purchase agreement, however, gives FivePoint the right to buy back the land, buildings and future building rights before a third party can buy it, the company said.

Broadcom initially estimated the cost of building all 2 million square feet of office space would cost $778 million.

Daniel DuGoff used a trip to Taipei with the CFDA Incubator program to form the foundation of his men’s collection.
DuGoff, who studied architecture before working for Patrik Ervell and Marc Jacobs, said on the trip he was able to experience the urban grit of Taipei along with the tropical landscapes of Yangmingshan National Park, which is located outside of the city.
DuGoff used those contrasts to present a minimal lineup of classic men’s sportswear energized with color — green, mustard, white and navy — and prints including plaid, an abstracted window pane and a hazy leaf print.
High notes from the collection included the short shorts, which mimicked the silhouette of a swim trunk but were made from shirting material, the Fifties-inspired knot polos with embroidery on the chest, and the hooded jacket made from cotton and nylon grosgrain.
DuGoff has said his primary goal is to produce easy clothes that men will want to wear on an everyday basis. He accomplished that goal with this lineup and also introduced some new pieces into his customer’s wardrobe.
See More From the Men’s 2018 Collections:
Perry Ellis Men’s Spring 2018: The company injected performance features into its tailored clothing uniform and then layered on fashion.
Hecho Men’s Spring 2018: The

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Hollywood contemporary denim brand DSTLD is going back to the masses in hopes of raising more capital.
DSTLD (pronounced “distilled”), armed with confidence following the close of $1.7 million through equity crowdfunding, is now looking to raise more money to fuel its growing apparel range for men and women and interest in opening showroom concepts.
That initial funding round, which closed in February, came from more than 1,700 people and has seen the company notch growth in sales. By June 2016 the business had lifetime revenue of $3.3 million and that was up to $9.1 million as of June of this year.
“We were kind of guinea pigs with Regulation A+ at the time when we decided to move forward with it. We’re happy that we made that move and we will continue to use that strategy to grow the brand,” said DSTLD cochief executive and creative director Corey Epstein. “This will be our second round so it should be easier than the first time.”
Regulation A+, which some have called a mini-IPO, allows companies under Title IV of the JOBS Act to give the public a chance to invest in a company. Businesses are thus able to bypass what’s more commonly seen as

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PUNK INSPIRED: Streetwear-inspired clothing brand Obey has taken up residence on Melrose Avenue for a month-long pop-up.
The brand on Thursday evening is expected to celebrate its first foray into stand-alone brick-and-mortar in the city along with the launch of its Debbie Harry x Obey women’s collection, with artist Shepard Fairey on hand to DJ the private launch event.
The concept shop, at 7400 Melrose Avenue, totals 1,000 square feet and will have in stock pieces from the collaboration with Harry in addition to other items from the fall collection for men and women. A collection of zines will be available from various artists and publishers, including Never Press, Studio Number One and Animals Mag. Additional events are also planned for the space.
The company’s collaboration with Harry was first disclosed last year.
“I’ve been a Blondie fan my whole life and have collaborated with them in the past, which has been a dream come true. But working with Debbie on this project has been totally inspiring,” Fairey told WWD at the time of the collaboration’s announcement. “She’s been very involved and hands-on for the whole process, just another display of her incredible talent.”
The 25-piece collection includes a mix of pieces ranging from a

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NEW DELHI — India Couture Week 2017, organized by the Fashion Design Council of India, marked a decade in existence and was extended to seven days this year. The finale by designer Manish Malhotra encapsulated some of the main trends in the country’s couture market — a sense of grandeur with an Indo-global design, lots of embroidery, shimmer, rustling silk and long trains.
“I like a lot of floral motifs, I like a lot of shimmer. It’s about a lot of drama for me,” Malhotra told WWD. The designer is based in Mumbai, and is famous for his red-carpet looks that Bollywood actors collect; his shows are studded with Bollywood stars as a result, including Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh this season.
The construction was different this time, Malhotra explained. While the lehngas (long skirts) had grand trains, the tops were fitted, without much embroidery, allowing for jewelry. He paid extra attention to “an interesting back.”
“When a woman leaves the room, she should leave her mark. It doesn’t have to be her clothes — it could be her voice, or her mind. But because I make clothes, that’s the quality I infuse. I feel that the back should be dramatic,” he said.
The collection

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