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Saturday, Apr 18, 2026

Blast From Past: Ex-Editor in WSJ; Jao Joins Condi

Soldier of fortune: Yes, that’s former Orange County Business Journal editor Mike Stone (1989-1990) on the cover of the Feb. 25 Wall Street Journal, now bearded and 7,000 miles away from California. Per WSJ, he works out of “a frigid shed” in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where he “provides a crucial tool to the opposition activists trying to oust the autocratic regime here: a printing press owned by the U.S. government.” Stone works for Freedom House, a U.S. non-governmental agency. After turning the OCBJ into a weekly and introducing EE RR to P RR, Stone went on to start business journals in Budapest and Mexico City …

Freshman OC Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has plunged into the El Morro ocean-trailer park controversy, but he’s also making friends in Sacramento: He’s been sharing See’s candy and his wife Diane’s home cooking with Capitol security. When one of the guards had a mild allergic reaction to the walnuts in her pumpkin pie,”My wife tried to kill a CHP officer with poison pie! Wait until that gets out”,DeVore did damage control the next day. He brought the guards a pie without nuts …

Chicago snowbird Dick Reiff wonders why Californians complain more about the oil platforms off the coast than the desert windmills that look 10 times worse …

Little Saigon developer Frank Jao (Bridgecreek Development) has been elected chairman of the Vietnam Education Foundation, which promotes educational and cultural exchanges. Jao heads an A-list board of presidential appointees that includes Condoleezza Rice, two other Cabinet secretaries, John Kerry, three other members of Congress, TIAA-CREF chief Hebert Allison, a college dean and three profs …

How about that? Jeff Moorad of OC runs the Diamondbacks baseball team of Arizona. Arte Moreno of Arizona owns the Angels baseball team of OC (or is it of Los Angeles?) …






Separated at birth: incoming PacSun Chief Executive Seth Johnson, actor Kelsey Grammar

New star in this year’s CHOC Follies (March 18 and 19 at The Grove of Anaheim): Former Rockette Juliet Schulein, who was granted rare permission by Follies director John Vaughan to miss a couple of rehearsals because she was filming a Radio Shack commercial. Call (714) 532-8690.

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Rick Reiff
Rick Reiff
Rick Reiff, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is editor at large of the Orange County Business Journal. He also is a host and producer of public affairs programs. He has covered Southern California for 34 years in print and on air. He is a four-time Golden Mike winner, three-time Emmy nominee and 2018 recipient of the Orange County Press Club's Lifetime Achievement Award. Reiff has been with the Orange County Business Journal since 1990, serving 10 years as editor. He originated and wrote the paper's popular "OC Insider" column for 15 years.

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