Score one for Broadcom cofounder Henry “Nick” Nicholas in his loan dispute with homebuilder Jim Baldwin: Nicholas has gotten a court order for Baldwin’s yacht, which was impounded in San Diego by a federal marshal. The 163-foot Triton is part of the collateral in a $21.5 million loan deal; Nicholas says Baldwin reneged on the terms of the loan. Baldwin alleges Nicholas set him up …
Tom Tait, who gets sworn in this week as Anaheim mayor, received congratulatory words from mayors Daly and Daley—former Anaheim mayor and now county Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly and longtime Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. Tait says he got a kick out of the letter from the Windy City’s political boss, although he suspects a similar missive goes to all the new mayors …
Tait says his most immediate challenge is Anaheim’s “$15 million structural budget deficit.” For two years the city has used $32 million in reserves to cover its shortfalls, but with only $12 million in reserves left, Tait says hard choices have to be made on spending priorities and public employee pensions. Tait plans to build on his predecessor Curt Pringle’s “freedom friendly” initiatives with a “freedom and kindness” approach. He wants to eliminate as many city regulations that exceed minimum state standards as possible …
Remembrances: John Parker was a gentleman, humanitarian and builder of Aliso Viejo … Comic actor Leslie Nielsen of the “Naked Gun” movies was recalled fondly by OCers who worked with him on a funny series of National Car Rental commercials in the early 1990s: “We took over John Wayne Airport for the shoot,” said Curt Lyon, “with thousands of real airline passengers milling through the background creating even more mayhem. Although Leslie never turned down a request for an autograph, no matter how untimely it was for the production, it made us love him even more. He was a gentleman and a prankster” …
If you stacked all of Orange County’s politicos end to end, they would—and did—squeeze into Adam Probolsky’s Newport Beach offices for a holiday party …
Former (and future?) OC Supe Todd Spitzer is 50 …
Tony nominee Susan Egan (the original Belle in “Beauty and the Beast” on Broadway) and other notable grads perform this weekend when the Orange County High School of the Arts opens its Center for the Arts and Margaret A. Webb Theatre, a $13 million conversion of Mike Harrah’s former OC Pavilion in Santa Ana …
Crooner Andy Williams joins Pacific Symphony and Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman Dec. 16 to18 at Segerstrom Concert Hall …
EE RR goes prime time when Huntington Beach-based KOCE replaces L.A.-based KCET as the flagship PBS station in Southern California next month. One of the four weekly airings of “Inside OC” will be Fridays at 7:30 p.m., between “McLaughlin Group” and “Washington Week.”
