A-PLUS HONOR: Coastline Community College has a...

A-PLUS HONOR: Coastline Community College has a special reason for posthumously giving an honorary associate in arts degree at Sunday’s commencement to slain Garden Grove Police Officer Howard E. Dallies Jr. He was one of the college’s own. . . . Since 1990, Dallies had taken 18 course units there. “Officer Dallies was a dedicated student and advocate of higher education for peace officers,” says Coastline President William M. Vega.

WASTED PAINT: Mission Viejo’s Daniel Hernandez, awaiting sentencing, admits he bilked millions from his precious metals employer to support a lavish lifestyle. A peek at just how lavish is illustrated in the upcoming issue of Car and Driver magazine. It profiles a Bell Gardens auto painter who charged $64,000 to give Hernandez the perfect paint job he demanded on his new Ferrari Testarossa. Hernandez told C&D;: “Everything has to be perfect--I’m driven that way.” . . . Alas, the perfect Ferrari has been seized for taxes; it’s likely to be sold at auction.

SCOUT MASTER: Bob Bermudez of Westminster showed up at the 60th anniversary celebration for the Lone Ranger in Lone Pine--scene of dozens of Westerns--last weekend (F1) only because he loves “old movies.” But he was a good sport when coaxed into donning a Tonto outfit for its barbecue dinner. The celebration, in the shadow of Mt. Whitney, drew fans like Barbara Tighe of Anaheim, mostly a Tonto fan: “He’s the one who saved the Lone Ranger, if you remember the story.”

NEW BEET: The Blue Beet restaurant on Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula, closed by bankruptcy last month, has reopened as Sid’s by the Sea. Not everything is new though. . . . Restaurateur Sid Soffer, the new owner, was the original Blue Beet owner in the 1970s, when it brought in jazz greats like Art Pepper plus Delta blues legend Son House. The often scrappy Soffer says he plans to restore the venue to its former fame as a folk and bluegrass mecca. “It will look like the old Blue Beet,” he says.