<i> Snapshots of life in the Golden State.</i> : Simpson’s Mug Shot Played Role in Training Police

For several years now, domestic violence training for San Diego cops has used the shock value of one face to make a point:

That face is O.J. Simpson’s.

To ensure that beat cops are not intimidated by a famous name or face when it comes time to clap on the cuffs, San Diego has celebrity-proofed its training with a news clipping and photo of O.J. Simpson from his 1989 arrest for battering Nicole Brown Simpson.

“O.J. had a history, but he kept on getting breaks,” says Sgt. Anne O’Dell of the domestic violence unit. “What we want our officers to know is that there is only one standard and it equally applies to Joe Ragman and the biggest celebrity around.”

Taking to the Road

A total of 26.1 million vehicles* were registered in California last year, a 1.1% increase over 1992. Although Los Angeles County still leads the state with 6.2 million vehicles, that is about 11,000 fewer than in 1992. Listed are the eight counties with the most and the fewest registered vehicles in 1993.

TOP 4 REGISTERED BOTTOM 4 REGISTERED COUNTIES VEHICLES COUNTIES VEHICLES Los Angeles 6,232,816 Alpine 1,295 Orange 1,992,438 Sierra 4,327 San Diego 1,965,065 Modoc 11,473 Santa Clara 1,297,474 Mono 12,658

* Includes cars, trucks, trailers and motorcycles.

Source: state Department of Motor Vehicles

Compiled by researcher TRACY THOMAS

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Union Square, cradle of civilization: San Franciscans have long been accused of holding an exalted opinion of their city as something approximating the center of the known universe. The daily media advisory for last Tuesday began with this news alert to a major Bay Area event: “7:48 a.m.--Summer solstice, longest day of the year.”

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California, boom and bust: The state budget is a ruin, and this time we really, really, really mean it.

How can we tell? The tragic proof, says the Sacramento publication CJ Weekly, is that the state library has had to cancel its subscription to Playboy, maintained through lean years and fat “at the express behest of, uh, members of the Legislature.”

Henceforth, they can borrow copies from L.A. County firefighters.

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Hot heir? The good news is, it’s ink in a national magazine of the sort most state politicians would pose for Annie Leibovitz atop the Capitol dome to get. The bad news is, it wasn’t exactly flattering what Democratic political sachem James Carville had to say about our new state Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer in Vanity Fair.

At this spring’s state Democratic convention, Carville was waiting to do the grip-and-grin routine with the big checkbook crowd as several state senators took a turn at the microphone. But Sen. Lockyer, who recently succeeded to the post, reportedly waxed eloquent. And waxed. And waxed.

At last, Carville passed the VF writer a note. “HOW DULL? 1-10.” Then, another note, “IS THIS -------- GOING TO SHUT UP?”

If it makes you feel any better, senator, Carville’s own wife, GOP political sachem Mary Matalin, refers with affection to her unusual-looking Cajun spouse as “serpenthead.”

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Sunday in the park with Brown: Pressfolk from the warring Wilson and Brown camps were at last weekend’s picnic for state employees, but even after Brown campaign adviser Michael Reese greeted Wilsonite Dan Schnur affably, some Brown staffers eyed Schnur like a federal agent at a Mafia wedding, listening in as he chatted with a reporter covering the event. “Lighten up,” bantered Schnur. “It’s only June.”

Early dispatches from the gender front: Brown and Wilson appeared at back-to-back breakfasts with political reporters this week. Brown got up and walked over to a sideboard to refill her coffee cup. Wilson had his cup replenished by a reporter.

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Yes, we have no contenders: Everyone’s dream candidate swept the top of the Green Party ticket in June, when “none of the above”--NOTA to its friends--bested three challengers, taking 46% of the Green vote for governor. “Nobody in the race earned people’s votes, so people voted for nobody,” says Joe Hoffman, campaign manager for “Friends of Nobody.”

If by some fluke NOTA is elected, it can serve as governor of Erewhon--the imaginary satirical land in Samuel Butler’s novel “Erewhon,” being an anagram of “nowhere.”

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EXIT LINE

“The Mohave ground squirrels will sleep better tonight in their little burrows.”

--Mark Palmer, executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation, remarking not on the somniferous habits of the cinnamon-colored rodent, but on a judge’s decision blocking the squirrel’s removal at least for the time being from California’s Endangered Species Act list.