TWO HAPPY, ONE SAD: If you have...

TWO HAPPY, ONE SAD: If you have heard those horror stories about how tough it is to pass the state bar exam, here’s an upbeat note: In the July California bar exam, 63% passed--the highest percentage in the last 32 years! Santa Ana appellate court Justice Edward J. Wallin suggests: “Law students are getting brighter--and better prepared.”. . . He gets to know them well too. Wallin has spoken before 21 of the last 22 groups in Orange County to be sworn in as lawyers. He sees them again Dec. 13 at the Hyatt Regency Alicante in Garden Grove.

ALUM ALERT: There’s good reason why the Art Institute of Southern California doesn’t have an alumni association. The small Laguna Beach college for arts or graphic design has been giving degrees only since 1986. But now some ambitious alumni trying to organize a group have a dinner meeting planned on campus Wednesday night. . . . Says institute president John Lottes: “We’d like to build a network to recommend students to us and also help us with job placement.”

WIDER MESSAGE: Close friends of Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, know it’s more than just a job to him. Kennedy passionately believes in its causes, defusing racial tensions and fighting hate crimes. Now Kennedy has a chance to spread the word even wider. . . . He’s the new president of the state Assn. of Human Rights Organizations. Says Kennedy: “We are being torn apart at the seams by fears. . . . We must pull together.”

LITTLE IS BETTER? Canadian singer and harpist Loreena McKennitt has gone from street-corner gigs to top-selling albums and a soundtrack slot in Disney’s No. 1 film “The Santa Clause.” But she worries about getting too big: “It’s harder to get that connection from inside you to the audience in a larger hall. I don’t see my music working in a hall bigger than 2,500 seats.” . . . Fortunately, her performance tonight is at the Irvine Barclay Theatre (F1). It’s 756 seats.