The Irvine Spectrum is close to signing a deal with a major department store as part of its Phase 3 expansion, the Insider hears … Guess who Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido is backing for LA mayor? James Hahn. But Pulido says his city wins either way, because he gets along with Antonio Villaraigosa, too. OC’s other most-prominent Hispanic pols, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez and Assemblyman Lou Correa, endorse Villaraigosa U.S. Rep. Chris Cox’s letters to Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer concerning his withdrawal from consideration for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals make interesting reading. He is gracious to Feinstein, thanking her for her apparent decision not to “blue slip” his nomination. “It has always been an enjoyable experience to work with you on matters of shared interest,” he says. Cox’s letter to Boxer takes some shots. He labels as an “anti-democratic abuse” her intention of using a Senate prerogative to block his nomination and he calls her rejection of a judicial nominee for political reasons “outside the mainstream of our entire constitutional tradition.” He concludes wryly, “I very much enjoy the opportunity to serve our country by writing law, and perhaps someday I will have occasion to thank you for the role you have played in keeping me at it”
….Mere sand won’t do anymore: With Monarch Beach Golf Links getting spruced up for the opening of the adjacent St. Regis hotel, the bunkers are being emptied and re-filled with a fine white powder,crushed marble, like the stuff at Big Canyon CC Former Costa Mesa mayor Peter Buffa is a hired gun for the El Toro airport effort. He produced the anti-“Great Park” TV spot that shows a bunny munching a $100 bill. Next up: the bunny at home, reading an anti-park editorial While 17 Jaguar employees have decided to stay in New Jersey rather than move to Ford’s new Premier Automotive HQ in Irvine this August, there’s no similar resistance at another of the group’s units, Land Rover. The company says that only two of about 50 employees have declined to be relocated from Lanham, Md. (Washington, D.C. area). The key difference is that much of Land Rover’s staff are new hires who knew they’d be headed to California; the company had already experienced an employee exodus after BMW announced plans to relocate Land Rover to New Jersey, a shift preempted by the sale to Ford Yet another big “entrepreneur” event: The Entrepreneur Summit, June 19 and 20 at Chapman U’s Argyros School of Business and Economics. “People forget that venture firms didn’t bomb, only the ‘dots’ did,” says event organizer Billy Fried. Go to www.digitalorangecounty.com for more info.
