HITTING HOME: It’s getting so you can...
HITTING HOME: It’s getting so you can find the word “bankruptcy” just about anywhere in Orange County these days--even in Little Saigon. Vietnamese Americans will hold a public session at the Little Saigon Resource Center in Westminster today to talk about the topic on their flyer: “Bankruptcy: How It Affects Us.” . . . . Spokesman Nghia Trant says local leaders will try to help people understand the “bankruptcy scandal and its effects on community programs.”
UPDATE NEEDED? The cover of the latest issue of Reader’s Digest shows a blue Corvette involved in a high-speed chase, with a headline: “Kidnaped on the Freeway--Drama in Real Life.” The cover story is a minute-by-minute account of the Orange County freeway chase in which Johnny Pagnini of Santa Ana successfully chased down two kidnapers in his 1966 Corvette. . . . The magazine ignores, however, Pagnini’s other drama: The freeway hero faces sentencing next month after admitting he assaulted his ex-girlfriend.
NO JOKE! If you’re going to hold an event on April Fool’s Day, who better to entertain than someone famous for joking around? Reason enough for the Orange County Philharmonic Society to bring in hot comedian Dana Carvey for its regal Golden Baton Gala on April 1 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. The Golden Baton award goes annually to a person or group supportive of music here. . . . This year’s winner: The Los Angeles Philharmonic, which has a long history of friendship with Orange County.
SHOCK WAVES: Orange County financial aftershocks from last year’s Northridge earthquake seem to be fading. After the Jan. 17, 1994, earthquake, the Orange County hotel vacancy rate dropped 16%. But by January, 1995, hotel occupancy was up again by 14.2%, according to PKF Consulting in Los Angeles, which compiles the figures. (D7) . . . “We are still below where we were in 1993,” PKF research associate Melissa Mills says, “but we are creeping up.”
