The economy is looking better at UCI, too. Donations for the past 12 months hit the $100 million mark for the first time in three years. The university’s capital campaign now has raised $600 million toward its $1 billion goal with four years to go. “We’ve got the momentum back,” UCI spokesman Bill Ross says …
Have Botox, will travel: Allergan CEO David Pyott recently traversed the globe in 15 days, logging more than 30,000 miles. He flew from L.A. to Munich to Dusseldorf to Monte Carlo to Beijing to Shanghai to New York to OC: “It was an interesting trip to see many customers at medical conventions and many Chinese government officials—I am the chairman of international affairs for the Biotechnology Industry Organization.” He was home long enough to see “Silent Sky” (it’s about stars, not airplanes, see page 55) at South Coast Repertory with wife Julianna, then was off to a medical convention in Honolulu …
OC Congressman John Campbell, one of the House Republicans’ budget experts, has become a frequent presence on cable talk shows. On Sean Hannity’s Fox News program he blasted President Obama’s deficit address as “a very political speech … He really didn’t put a substantive proposal on the table.” This week Campbell appears on “Inside OC” …
The California Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the OC supes’ legal challenge of retroactive pension benefits granted to sheriff deputies in 2001 not only is a big win for the deputies’ union, but for its lawyers—a team from Morrison & Foerster in L.A. led by Miriam Vogel and Tom Umberg with Manatt in Costa Mesa. Now the deputies want the county to pay their legal fees. How much is that? Says Umberg, “The county spent $2.5 million and that will be a good yardstick for the deputies’ own recovery. This was the equivalent of a legal perfect game. Three law firms and 10 judges, including the six Republicans on the California Supreme Court, all said the county had no case. I believe the judge will take that into account in awarding attorneys’ fees.” This from one of the big losers, Supe John Moorlach: “The Supreme Court cast a blind eye to this massive shift of wealth from the private sector to the public sector. I have warned for some time that the state of California is headed for receivership. This action by the Supreme Court only hastens that day.”
