AMERICAN BEST: Not all savings and loan...

AMERICAN BEST: Not all savings and loan stories are about something bad. Mario Antoci, chief executive for American Savings & Loan, based in Irvine, has won recognition from the prestigious Business Enterprise Trust for his S&L;’s leadership in loans to minority or low-income neighborhoods. . . . American’s borrowers are 40% Latino, Asian or African American. Antoci will be honored at a dinner in December hosted by TV news magazine anchor Diane Sawyer.

LET’S GO FOR TWO: The Los Angeles Rams’ triumph over the New York Giants last week made Sunday’s loss to New Orleans even more frustrating for one fan. He wondered aloud on a radio talk show: When did the Rams last win two weeks in a row?. . . . It wasn’t last year, or the year before that. In 1991, in a dismal 3-13 season, the Rams beat Green Bay, then won their next game against San Diego. But there’s even an asterisk to that: They had a bye week in between.

THE DEFENDER: Ron Butler was a civil attorney when he won an acquittal in his first criminal case--a business client charged with a felony. It convinced him to go into criminal law. He’s now been with the public defender’s office 26 years, appointed as public defender in 1981. . . . Butler has never regretted his career choice: “We practice pure law in this office. We don’t have to worry about the business of finding clients.” . . . The office celebrates its 50th anniversary Nov. 5 with a dinner at the Hyatt Newporter Hotel in Newport Beach.

AT THE BEGINNING: In those 50 years, Butler is only the fourth public defender. The first, Nick Meyer, and Butler’s predecessor, Frank Williams, are deceased. But Richard L. Sullivan (1956-1960), now semi-retired from law, has been invited to attend. . . . The keynote speaker will be former appellate justice Robert Gardner, now 82, who was on the Superior Court bench when the office was formed in 1944. Says Butler: “He certainly knew all the key players then.”