OBJECTION: As a Superior Court judge, Dennis...

OBJECTION: As a Superior Court judge, Dennis S. Choate interprets the law. . . . Now he and some neighbors in the city of Orange want to be exempted from the city’s new street sweeping law. . . . Choate, who is leading a petition drive, calls the ordinance an “unwanted intrusion” because it requires residents of his East Orange neighborhood not to park their cars in front of their homes on street-sweeping days. . . . “I’m not saying we are a special neighborhood, but we are a different, unique neighborhood,” says the judge. . . . City leaders have balked so far, saying it could lead to similar requests.

MALL POLICE: “A City Hall in the Mall” is how Westminster Police Lt. Bill Lewis describes it. On Oct. 1, the Westminster Police Department will open a substation at Westminster Mall. . . . Officers may also help with lost children and misplaced cars, and shoppers will be able to pay their monthly water bills there. The station was not in response to the shooting of a 13-year-old girl there, says Lewis, or to a recent jewelry store robbery.

LEADING LADIES: Actress Kathy Bates is coming to the rescue of stage friend Jessica Tandy, with whom she co-starred in the hit movie “Fried Green Tomatoes.” . . . Tandy was to read from “The Diary of Anne Frank” as part of a new orchestral work by Michael Tilson Thomas, to be presented Oct. 6 and 7 by the Pacific Symphony. An orchestra spokesman says Tandy canceled her remaining 1993 engagements after a demanding summer film schedule.

CROONING COUNCIL: Businessman Bi Van Tran has to be thankful some members of the Westminster City Council are not too shy to show off their singing talents from time to time. . . . His request to add a karaoke machine to his restaurant on Magnolia Avenue met opposition from nearby residents who worried about noise. . . . But three council members declared at a hearing this week that they’ve tried karaoke themselves and it’s fun. The request was approved.