Sacramento is buzzing with reports that if Joe and Gavin Maloof don’t get a new basketball arena, they’ll move the Sacramento Kings to Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. Pond operator Henry Samueli’s people won’t say whether they’ve been talking with the Maloofs. Pond Chairman Michael Schulman says he thinks the Maloofs still are trying to stay put. But he’s emphatic that Samueli wants an NBA team to complement his Mighty Ducks hockey team, and the “door is wide open” for the Kings. There may be enough space on the Pond site for a training facility and offices, too, “and we’d explore all of that” with an interested b-ball franchise, Schulman says …
OC supe hopeful John Moorlach has endorsed his comrade-against-Citron, Chriss Street, to succeed him as county treasurer next year …
Larry Higby,Apria Healthcare chief and long-ago Nixon aide,may have played an unintentional part in motivating Mark Felt, then No. 2 in the FBI, to become Deep Throat. In his latest book, “The Secret Man,” Bob Woodward writes of Felt’s contempt for attempts by the Nixon White House to manipulate the agency and Felt’s loathing of “eager beavers” who paged him at all hours with routine questions: “Most notorious was Lawrence Higby, Haldeman’s administrative assistant, who passed on his boss’s every request as if the outcome of civilization was in jeopardy if something was not done at once. Higby was so efficient that administrative assistants became known as ‘Higbys'” …
OC Register operations chief Ray Stafford is leaving Freedom Communications after 15 years to join MediaNews as publisher of the El Paso Times …
At the dedication of a research facility named for him on the Allergan campus, OC business pioneer Gavin Herbert Jr. fondly recalled that he paid $32,000 an acre for the John Wayne Airport area site in 1965. (The land now is probably worth 50 times that, and 150 times if you entitle it for residential.) Gov. Schwarzenegger cut the ribbon and, referencing Allergan’s marquee product, Botox, quipped: “Two-hundred fifty researchers in one building,all for Joan Rivers” …
Holiday ladies: Reva Colover (Van’s Gifts) says luxury is the big seller this year,crocodile leather items, spa certificates, bath bubbles and champagne bubbles: “Anything to feel relaxed. Everyone’s stressed out and rushed.” Diana Martin (Prezents Inc.) says cashmere is a hot corporate gift: “From jetsetter travel sets,monogrammed throws, pillow cases, eye masks, socks,to beautiful scarves to cashmere jump ropes!” Financial planner Ellen Brooks (Sagemark Consulting) notes that philanthropists have until year’s end to take advantage of a Katrina-inspired law that allows contributions to any public charity to be paid with a tax-advantaged distribution from IRA accounts …
Love these names: Olive Crest has a new director of development, Joanne Fix; the city of Irvine has a new PR person, Judy Pal; and BofA has promoted Betsy Banker to VP of mortgage lending in Irvine.
