HOT RAP ISSUE: Gang violence is the...

HOT RAP ISSUE: Gang violence is the hot topic today for county schools Supt. John F. Dean and Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez. They’ll meet with students from 1 to 2 p.m. in the county Department of Education Board Room in Costa Mesa to hear ideas on what can be done. Then from 2 to 4 p.m., they’ll field phone calls on a special Youth Rap Hot Line (714-668-7900). . . . A few statistics to back their concern: 309 identified gangs in the county, with nearly 18,000 members, and nearly 900 gang-related crimes in the first half of 1994.

WHOSE SUPERVISOR? Four-term departing Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder is used to critics. But how’s this for frank: Seal Beach Councilwoman Marilyn Bruce Hastings was upset this week that Wieder, 72, steered $239,000 in county park funds to Los Alamitos instead of Seal Beach. Said Hastings: “I’m really disenchanted with our centerfold girl.” (Wieder was featured in an Orange Coast magazine layout this year.) . . . Wieder spokeswoman Natasha Schumacher’s retort: “Harriett has no favorite cities. She’s done a lot for Seal Beach.”

BRADBURY HOUR: One mark of a successful public speaker: you get invited back. Noted author Ray Bradbury has spoken at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library several times, including last year’s 10th anniversary celebration. He’s back again Thursday night at 8. . . . . He’ll sign his best-selling books before and after his lecture. You guessed right if you thought the library would have some of his best titles available for sale.

SIBERIAN HOLIDAY? Maybe you don’t have Irkutsk on your list of vacation ideas for next year. But a lot of people do. Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal--the world’s largest freshwater lake--in Siberia, is growing as a tourist center. That’s why 40 of its top travel industry employees are in Anaheim Thursday getting tips on the hotel business. . . . You can bet they’ll squeeze in a trip to Disneyland--for most of them it’s their first time outside Siberia.