For Sheriff Mike Carona, getting to two terms was easy (he was unopposed). Getting to three terms was hard (he barely escaped a runoff). There won’t be a fourth term: Carona said on “Inside OC” that he won’t seek re-election in 2010, doesn’t know what he’ll do next and hasn’t ruled out running for a different office …
Ultimate show-and-tell: Alice Hayes (wife of Kevin Hayes) was picking up son Conor after the last day of classes at Pegasus School in Huntington Beach when, to her astonishment, Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer walked by carrying the Stanley Cup and placed it in his car trunk. The night before, Niedermayer and jubilant teammates had been hoisting the trophy at Honda Center after their championship-clinching win over the Ottawa Senators. Just hours later,and two days before the big public celebration in Anaheim,Pegasus students and faculty got to see the Cup up close and pose for pictures with Niedermayer, who has two kids at the school …
The GOP Flag Day dinner featuring Rudy Giuliani drew a record 1,100 to the Hyatt Regency Irvine ballroom. Giuliani boldly kidded that when he saw an illegal immigration protester outside holding a “No Amnesty” sign, “I thought he meant Scooter Libby” …
Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and SunCal CEO and principal Bruce Elieff, bitter foes in the Disneyland Resort zoning battle, exchanged brief pleasantries at a private reception for Giuliani …
Chapman U news: Bulldozers are plowing up the center of campus to make way for a Jim Doti-inspired Italian piazza with fountain. Retiring law school dean Parham Williams will stay aboard as director of the school’s new program in prosecutorial science … Hillary Clinton is slated to stop in OC on Friday and hubbie Bill plans to be here Sunday …
Six decades after he dropped out of college to focus on business, S. Paul Musco finally got a degree,two, in fact, one on each coast and eight days apart. The OC industrialist (Santa Ana-based Gemini Industries) and philanthropist received honorary doctorates from the U of Rhode Island (in his native state) and from Cal State Stanislaus (run by Musco’s former Chapman U friend Ham Shirvani.) Musco had surprise company at the Rhode Island ceremony. Opera Pacific’s Bob Jones, a fellow New England transplant, happened to be visiting his Tilghman Island home in Chesapeake Bay and swung by to help Paul and Marybelle celebrate …
Newport Dunes promises “Southern California’s largest” July 4 fireworks display …
Yet another eye-popping fund-raising result: The Cystinosis Research Foundation reports its Natalie’s Wish event at the Balboa Bay Club raised $2.1 million (see item, page 21) …
In the age of the Internet, print media still has certain logistical advantages, suggests Scott Flanders, CEO of the OC Register’s holding company Freedom Communications: “There are three places,the bedroom, the bathroom and the beach,where you don’t want to have an electronic device.”
