HELPING HAND: Vietnamese in Orange County haven’t...

HELPING HAND: Vietnamese in Orange County haven’t forgotten the many others who still languish in camps throughout Southeast Asia. The Vietnamese Physicians Assn. of Southern California hosts a public meeting tonight with Werner Blatter, director of the United Nations refugees commission, at Westminster’s civic center. . . . The association is pressing a proposal to close existing camps, allowing refugees up to 30 years old to emigrate to other countries.

NOAH’S RIDE: Racehorses have an assortment of unusual names. Like, Peter Noah. . . . TV producer Alan Kirschenbaum named his 3-year-old colt, which races at Los Alamitos, Peter Noah, after a close friend and fellow producer. Good friends, but competitors: Kirschenbaum’s TV hit “Coach” duels with Noah’s “Cafe Americain” on Tuesday nights. And the horse Peter Noah? He won his harness race last week at Los Alamitos’ opening day, and is back again tonight.

JOINT HEROES: Judy Richardson was invited to speak at UC Irvine this week to help celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. But she hopes to shift attention to another African American leader of the 1960s--Malcolm X. Richardson, a civil rights activist from that era, was an associate producer on the highly touted King documentary, “Eyes on the Prize.” But she’s just completed work on a new documentary on Malcolm X, to air Jan. 26 on public television’s “American Experience.” Says Richardson: “We started doing Malcolm three years ago, before Spike (Lee) did.”

IN HOUSE: Two Democrats trying to climb the political ladder will be on hand when the Orange County Trial Lawyers Assn. installs new officers today. . . . State Treasurer Kathleen Brown, running for governor, will be speaking. And Assemblyman Tom Umberg of Garden Grove, running for attorney general, will be honored by the group, because he pioneered new probate legislation that restricts lawyers’ control over their clients’ estates.