CASE CLOSED: Eighteen months after the first...

CASE CLOSED: Eighteen months after the first allegations of influence-peddling that eventually forced Don R. Roth off the Board of Supervisors, his lawyers delivered a final check to the county courthouse in Santa Ana on Thursday. It was the last half of a $50,100 fine levied against Roth for political ethics violations. . . . He beat the deadline by 11 days. Roth’s lawyers won’t say how much may have been paid from campaign money. Deputy Dist. Atty. Guy Ormes says: “This closes that chapter.”

LAST LAUGH? Local GOP leaders Kathryn Thompson and Roger Johnson often were jeered for supporting Democrat Bill Clinton last year. But they could joke about it Thursday night at a Washington dinner for Johnson--Clinton’s new General Services Administration director--which Thompson hosted at the prestigious Georgetown Club. . . . Quipped Johnson: “Kathryn and I are the only two people in Orange County who, when we take off at John Wayne Airport, get a standing ovation.”

PAY BACK: It was 14 years ago that Ron Kneiding of Irvine passed out while relaxing in his hot tub. But doctors at Laguna Hills’ Saddleback Memorial Medical Center revived him. Kneiding, 52, will try to pay them back Saturday. He has rounded up 40 people to hit the Cruise the Corridor 5-K run at the new Foothill tollway Saturday. (B2) It benefits the nonprofit hospital. . . . Says Kneiding: “I’m going to run right down the middle of that freeway, and I’ll be thinking about Saddleback and how they saved my life.”

HARPING ON SUCCESS: The Community Concert Assn. of North Orange County, which imports well-known classical and popular music performers, launches its 48th season tonight, in Fullerton. Performing: harp soloist Carrol McLaughlin (F29). . . . How has one of the county’s oldest arts groups managed to stay afloat, while others have closed down during these rough economic times? “We just won’t give up,” says concert chairman Lotte H. Johnston.