SUPER SCRUBBER: Most cities are diligently trying...

SUPER SCRUBBER: Most cities are diligently trying to stomp out graffiti. Trouble is, that hasn’t always deterred the graffiti vandals. “We thought we had won the war, but it started getting worse about a month ago,” says Garden Grove public services director Richard J. Conrad. . . . But now the city is adding a new weapon: It’s purchasing a $12,499 water-pressure device designed for fast, efficient graffiti removal. It either washes and sandblasts it away or covers it over.

OUT OF BOUNDS: Who’s turning in the graffiti folk? Sometimes their own friends. When Keith Scott McHaney, 19, of Fountain Valley, went to Stonecrest Park with another teen to play basketball, he was surprised to see the other boy start drawing graffiti on a trash can. McHaney turned him in. This week, the city council awarded him $500. . . . Says McHaney: “It wasn’t easy. But the people who write these things, there is no purpose being served. They’re being ignorant.”

KING TECH: Orange County prosecutors have something new to help them with juries. Optical scanners enable them to enlarge photos, documents, fingerprints, videotapes, X-rays and diagrams and display them on large monitors, then zoom in on details. . . . The sophisticated gizmo is surprisingly low tech: “It’s easier to operate than a VCR,” says Deputy Dist. Atty. Rick King, head of the homicide unit. Prosecutors let defense attorneys use them too. “I run the thing for them,” King says. “I think that’s only fair.”

TV CHRISTMAS: Anaheim folks who keep clicking the remote control on their cable TV may be surprised to see a few friends wishing them a merry Christmas from the TV screen, complete with a smiling family portrait. For $10, MultiVision cable TV will run a full-screen ad with your Christmas greetings; for $20 they show your picture too. Of course, your friends will have to watch a steady diet of Channel 3 to catch you.