UCI students in Mark LeVine’s Middle East history classes got unique instruction last week—their professor speaking via Skype and cell phone live from the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. LeVine, a provocative scholar—he writes weekly for Al Jazeera—hopped on a plane to join the throng, as he had similarly flown into Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003: “I’m a historian. This is history. In a way, it would be professional misconduct if I wasn’t here.” LeVine spoke with the Insider minutes after Hosni Mubarak’s Thursday speech in which the longtime Egyptian leader stopped short of resigning: “I’m in the middle of a revolutionary situation.” He praised “the democratic uprising,” wisecracked about standing in front of Egyptian tanks “my tax dollars have paid for” and called U.S. fears of a Muslim Brotherhood takeover “absurd,” but with a caveat: “If it turns into a bloodbath, who knows?” On Friday Mubarak did step down, and LeVine was in the celebration, e-mailing, “Where else would I be?” He said he hoped to be able to fly back to OC this week. And presumably the tension on the homefront has eased, too: “My wife wanted to kill me for coming here” …
Danaher’s $6.8 billion offer for Beckman Coulter (story, frontpage) blew away the private equity suitors. “They went big enough to scare off anybody who wanted to make an approach. They clearly wanted it,” observes Murray Rudin of Riordan, Lewis & Haden in Irvine. He says the 45% premium that conglomerate Danaher is paying for the Brea-based medical testing company started by legendary scientist Arnold Beckman exceeds the typical 30% to 40% range for a “large, successful, growing public company” …
The Insider expects a decision very soon on the new artistic director for South Coast Repertory to succeed celebrated founders Martin Benson and David Emmes, who will remain active …
Catch it if you can: SCR’s updated and body-beautiful “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” through Sunday … Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno, recent recipient of the OC Bar Association’s prestigious Franklin G. West Award, is the longest-serving judge in OC history. He was appointed to the bench in 1977 by once-and-future Gov. Jerry Brown …
Mike Carona won’t be back anytime soon, but you can still spot lawmen at Antonello Ristorante in South Coast Plaza Village. Last week—at separate tables—were Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters with businessman Paul Musco, and detective/former OC sheriff Lt. Bill Hunt and Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio with La Mirada CPA Phil Liberatore. Arpaio was in to speak at Liberatore’s Nixon Library lecture series. (OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens occasionally eats at Antonello, too.)
