Yorba Linda Water District customers will soon be getting a $44.46 conservation credit.

The district’s board at its July 25 meeting unanimously voted to refund about $1.1 million in the water conservation reserve fund to customers. The penalties were collected from customers who missed the mark on conservation from July 2015 to May 2016.

“This action followed a careful review and restructuring of the district’s finances, completion of a new budget for fiscal year 2017-18 without a water service charge increase, and successfully closing out the just completed fiscal year,” Board President J. Wayne Miller said.

The district, which serves Yorba Linda and part of Placentia, is issuing the credit this month to 24,872 active water accounts, General Manager Marc Marcantonio said.

The board is hoping customers will use the credit to make an investment in future water conservation.

“Customers are to be congratulated for exceeding the 36 percent mandate during the drought and are now encouraged to use this conservation rebate to permanently decrease their ‘water footprint,’” Miller said, adding that information about water saving devices and low-water use landscaping is available on the district’s website and will be included in the August billing statement.

“We never wanted to penalize anyone,” Marcantonio said. “We just needed people to pay attention to how much water they were using.”

Also, the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District is receiving a $47,700 health and safety refund from the conservation reserve fund and $100,000 will be set aside to ensure future compliance with Gov. Jerry Brown’s new plan, “Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life.”

The board is exploring recommendations made by an 11-member ad hoc committee formed to study the agency’s rate structure after voters in November overhauled the board. A $25 monthly water rate increase in October 2015 met with fierce public outcry.

One of the recommendations includes a rate rebate from the district’s water reserve account to help restore public trust.

That is expected to be discussed at a future meeting.

NEW HORIZONS: Suggesting short tenures are the new norm in fashion, Paule Ka is the latest fashion house with a change in creative direction.
According to market sources, Alithia Spuri-Zampetti and the French firm are to part ways after a two-year collaboration. Officials at Paule Ka declined to comment.
Spuri-Zampetti worked to extend the brand’s appeal in daywear and separates, bringing to the task a passion for fabric innovation and a sense of elegance rooted in the classic French fashions of the Fifties and Sixties.
Formerly the head designer in charge of women’s ready-to-wear collections at Lanvin, she was the first designer at Paule Ka since the departure in 2014 of founder and creative director Serge Cajfinger. Spuri-Zampetti also has stints at Valentino and Bottega Veneta under her belt.
The Italian-American designer grew up in Rome and the U.S. She is a graduate of Central Saint Martins in London.
Paule Ka has targeted expansion in the United States, Middle East and Asia since Change Capital Partners bought a 70 percent stake in the firm in 2011. “We have a global objective of doubling in size in the next five years,” Catherine Vautrin, chairman and chief executive officer of Paule Ka, told WWD last year.
The label’s

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In a move that signals the company’s largest investment in soccer in North America, Adidas and Major League Soccer have extended their long-term partnership through 2024. Terms were not disclosed.
The six-year deal makes Adidas the official supplier partner for the league, its clubs, youth academies and youth-affiliated clubs.
“Sport is the epicenter of our culture and, in the U.S. and Canada, soccer is the most popular sport for young people to play,” said Mark King, president of Adidas North America.
“Our partnership with MLS puts Adidas at the core of sport in North America, allowing us to make a positive difference in an athlete’s game and life. Built from athlete and consumer insight, we are looking to create the future of sport and bring new and different things to the game the world has never seen before.”
Under the terms of the deal, Adidas will outfit MLS teams with uniforms, footwear, training gear and sideline apparel. The company will also provide the league with its official match ball.
“Major League Soccer has built a legacy with Adidas that has been essential in the rise of our league,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber. “Adidas has been a major collaborator with us since the inception of

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Panache is promoting women finding their perfect bra size in its new campaign.
Titled “Find Your Fit,” the documentary-style campaign features videos of professional bra fitters helping women find their correct size. The cameras zero in on the moment when a woman finds the perfect fit.
“Our new campaign looks at the many changes that a woman’s body goes through and encourages professional bra fittings throughout her lifetime to make sure she’s always supported and confident in her current shape and size,” said Leigh Norris, marketing director at Panache. “That ‘wow’ moment when she finds her perfect bra that banishes bulges and eliminates saggy straps can make women feel like a million dollars. Our new campaign provides great advice from our expert fitters, whether women are searching online or in stores.”

According to Panache, which specializes in lingerie for D+ cup sizes, results from a new study found that more than half of women have never had a professional bra fitting with 42 percent avoiding it because they thought it was unnecessary, and 39 percent feeling too embarrassed to have one. Panache used these findings to inform the campaign.
These videos are streaming on Panache’s social media channels and the campaign images, which feature

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Artists are often praised for their personal style — extending their visual prowess to self-care and presentation.
It makes sense, then, that many young artists and galleries have begun using fashion and accessories as an extension of their aesthetic identity — issuing collectible items as a wearable strain of their work.
Tauba Auerbach’s Diagonal Press pins, Andrea Bergart’s basketball bags, Katie Stout’s sweatsuits, Grace Miceli’s Art Baby Girl range of clothing and accessories, Cecilia Salama’s phone cases, Los Angeles gallery Moran Bondaroff’s T-shirts and Aidan Alexis Koch’s jewelry have become calling card, streetwear-type items for specific downtown social circles.
Now artists Ida Badal enters the accessories ring with necklaces and retooled watches to accompany her solo show Pothole, opening Saturday at the Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society. The show — on view through September — is orchestrated by the curatorial collective, Auto Body.
Badal, who a year ago relocated from New York to her native San Diego, focuses on time as a medium for discussion. A graduate of The Cooper Union, her environmental paintings portray a contrast of nature and industry from uncommon vantage points — offering examinations either cloud height or microscopically up close.
She feels that accessories are a friendly extension of her art practice.

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A new program in Beverly Hills aims to attract more people to famed shopping streets such as Rodeo Drive and compete against other area entertainment.
BOLD, which stands for Beverly Hills Open Later Days, is a temporary initiative kicking off Thursday that keeps nearly 90 retailers in the city open until 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in August. Businesses in the area are typically open until about 6 p.m. BOLD will also bring in-store events and sidewalk art. Participating restaurants will provide shoppers who have made purchases after 6 p.m. with, for example, free appetizers or a glass of wine.
BOLD marks the first time a citywide program is being rolled out to lengthen guest stays in the area with retailers such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana and Burberry among the businesses that have agreed to keep their doors open later. City officials will test the program to see how it works with the hope of potentially making extended hours more permanent if successful.
“One of the main things that our organization has really been actively looking at is how do we keep Beverly Hills relevant,” said Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau chief executive Julie Wagner. “We don’t want

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Tried and tested by professional athletes, this board is the ride of a lifetime.

From Panama to Los Angeles, here’s what $100 million can get you.

The new ultra-luxe Hotel Talisa has us looking forward to subzero temps.

In a speech delivered July 20, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten characterized the school choice movement as merely an outgrowth of segregationist policies.

Across the country, students, parents and teachers have seen the benefits of school choice. Underprivileged students who might’ve otherwise been condemned to underperforming traditional public schools have been given the chance to attend schools that will actually educate them. Parents have been empowered to choose the best school for their child. And teachers have been given more flexibility in teaching.

Somewhere in this, Weingarten sees the product of “an intentional, decades-long campaign to protect the economic and political power of the few against the rights of the many.”

Framing the fight over education policy as a David versus Goliath battle, in which the AFT is David and school choice proponents are Goliath, Weingarten sought to make the case that school choice is merely a means for wealthy privatizers to undermine public schools.

Arguing “the term ‘choice’ was used to cloak overt racism by segregationist politicians,” Weingarten seemingly wanted conference attendees to tie the word “choice” to “racism, sexism, classism, xenophobia and homophobia” which, she claims, are all forms of division created by the same forces behind school choice.

Such conspiratorial and convoluted rhetoric is nothing new from the teachers unions. The United Teachers Los Angeles recently attempted to peg two candidates for school board as puppets of billionaire privatizers intent on dismantling public schools. Voters didn’t buy the scare tactics and elected Nick Melvoin and Kelly Gonez to the Los Angeles Unified school board in May, giving the nation’s second-largest district a pro-charter school majority for the first time.

While teachers unions have yet to build momentum off the billionaire-conspiracy angle, Weingarten has unfortunately chosen to go down the route of drawing dubious links between racism and school choice. It’s a rhetorical tactic wrought with irony, considering school choice programs have demonstrated great potential in helping especially underprivileged black and Latino students succeed.

The Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University has found that black students in California charter schools perform significantly better on reading and math than black students in traditional public schools. Additionally, both black and Latino students in poverty have been found to make more learning gains than their counterparts in traditional public schools.

While voucher programs across the country have yielded mixed results, the idea of vouchers remains popular. In April, the Public Policy Institute of California found 73 percent of blacks and 69 percent of Latinos in the state backed the vouchers for use at the school of a parents choice.

There’s a reason for the enduring popularity of school choice: parents actually want the freedom to choose, however inconvenient that might be for teachers unions desperate to retain their political stranglehold over education policy.

Parents, students and teachers deserve better than the warped thinking of teachers unions like AFT which put political power before choice and results.