OC could have a new sheriff this week, but June 17 is a more likely date for the supes to appoint Mike Carona’s permanent successor. The Insider’s take: Former L.A. Sheriff’s division chief Sandra Hutchens and Glendale Police Chief Randy Adams nailed their interviews and join the short list just behind Paul Walters and Ralph Martin and just ahead of Jack Anderson; Bill Hunt, choice of the deputies union, won’t get the nod but is preparing to run in 2010 …
So far so good for Edmond Thomas’ return to Wet Seal. The Foothill Ranch-based retailer, always at the mercy of fickle female teens, is on the upswing. The stock shot up almost 20% late last week after a good earnings report in a tough retail environment, and has now more than doubled for the year. (The recent market value of $450 million is still off about 40% from its 2002 high). Costs have been cut, the fashion line is clicking, and Brean Murray, Carret & Co. analyst Eric Beder anticipates a turnaround in the company’s troubled Arden B. chain. COO Thomas and then-CEO Kathy Bronstein rode the Wet Seal roller coaster in the ’90s; Thomas left in 2000 and eventually took over Irvine surfwear chain Tilly’s. Last fall he returned to Wet Seal as CEO, succeeding Joel Waller, who saved the company from bankruptcy in 2004 but couldn’t stop last year’s skid …
Irvine bankruptcy lawyer Joel Miliband (Rus, Miliband & Smith) has been named as one of the state Bar Association’s four reps on the California Judicial Council, the policymaking body for the state’s courts …
Top guns continue to leave the OC Register: Departing the same day as magazine-group leader Chris Schulz (to Gulfshore Media in Florida) were ad sales veep Joe Brenneman (“pursuing career ambitions”) and human resources veep Ken Jones (retirement). Biz Editor Glenn Hall has left to become editor of TheStreet.com. And editorial page star Steven Greenhut confirms he’s in the running for a think-tank job: “I’m sure all the local public-sector unions and government officials are pulling for me!” …
The upheaval in the newspaper business has turned bitter rivals the Register and L.A. Times into allies. Reg Publisher Terry Horne says he talks strategy with his Times’ counterpart David Hiller. Horne, in remarks to the OC Forum and afterward to EE RR, said the papers’ battle for readers and advertisers is no longer as much with each other as with Internet entities such as Google, Yahoo and Craigslist. Horne even said a Times collapse would hurt the Reg by diminishing advertisers’ perception of newspapers. Also, Horne said he wouldn’t be surprised if every daily in the country became a tabloid within five years to save on print costs, although he has no plans to convert the Reg …
Horne, who is moving from Mesa, Ariz., hopes he has timed the bottom of the local real estate market: He’s closing on a short-sale purchase of an ocean-view home in Talega for $1.7 million.
