Feterik Exiting CFL; Small Startup Oryxe Catches Red Herring

Huntington Beach businessman Michael Feterik is selling the Calgary Stampeders to a group from the Canadian city that includes several oilmen, an entrepreneur and two former players. The deal for the Canadian Football League team is in the due diligence phase, reports the Calgary Herald. Feterik has been under pressure to sell the proud franchise, which has declined on the field since he bought it for $4 million in 2001. He recently was asking for $4.9 million, the paper says. Feterik’s main business is Orange County Container, a maker of corrugated boxes and other packaging with reported annual sales of $120 million. (Arte Moreno, take note: Despite the company’s name, it’s based in Los Angeles County, in Industry.) Orange County Container has about 1,000 workers and several plants in Southern California and Mexico y “Mrs. Ambassadorable” is back from Spain, and don’t call her Judy. The Insider is told that Julia Argyros is sticking with the first name she adopted when hubbie George started his diplomatic gig in late 2001. The Spanish pronounced her old name “Hootie,” hardly appropriate for state dinners A juicy story in county politics this year is likely to be Assemblyman Todd Spitzer’s expected ’06 election challenge to D.A. Tony Rackauckas. Spitzer has political savvy and about $800,000 more in campaign funds. Rackauckas has incumbency, the backing of the Republican Party,and an early endorsement from Sheriff Mike Carona. Backing from the popular sheriff is a plus for Rackauckas. But it’s also likely to heighten scrutiny of how he handles the corruption-case prosecution of former Carona chief deputy George Jaramillo Two OC companies make the resuscitated Red Herring magazine’s list of the 100 most innovative companies in the world. Broadcom is an obvious pick. But Oryxe Energy? The Irvine startup makes a clean-fuel additive. “This is a big step for Oryxe Energy,” says chairman and CEO Walt Schindler, who’s seeking another $6 million in funding EE RR’s New Year’s resolution: Get his face out there more Women’s work: The top staffers in OC’s major GOP groups all are women,deputy chairman Laura Cunningham of the OC Republican Party, executive director Beth Holder of the Lincoln Club and executive director Wendy Cantor Hales of the New Majority Commuting on the under-repair 22 freeway, Dixie Merrill chuckles as she passes the City Drive exit: “Big words,CAUTION SPEED LIMIT, REDUCED 55 LIMIT,as I go speeding past at 20 mph” As Sherri Cruz has disclosed, Warner Bros. is leveraging its hit TV show “The O.C.” with a magazine and Web site called “The OC Insider.” A notice to hotshot Hollywood lawyers: Don’t even think about suing me, baby. Just be happy if I don’t come after you Never a dull moment: Former Transportation Corridor Agencies CEO Wally Kreutzen, who left in the wake of the aborted toll-roads merger plan, has joined the city of Irvine as assistant city manager for the Great Park Corp.