NOT SO QUIET? The Laguna Niguel Rotary...

NOT SO QUIET? The Laguna Niguel Rotary chose domestic violence as the topic for its fund-raiser dinner tonight at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point. An emerging national spokeswoman for the cause who lives nearby will be the keynote speaker: slaying victim Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister, Denise Brown. . . . Says Rotary spokesman Ronald Redmond: “Sometimes we may think of South County as quiet bedroom communities without problems like this. But it’s not true.”

GETTING MEASURED: County Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy, a leading proponent of the Measure R half-cent sales tax boost, and Measure R opponent Bruce Whitaker squared off Wednesday for yet another debate on the issue--this time before the North Santa Ana Rotary at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art. A straw poll there showed 58% against, roughly the same as most countywide polls. But Popejoy got one break: One Rotarian told him that he was a lifelong anti-tax conservative Republican but that Popejoy had changed his mind on this one.

SHE WAS THERE: Helena Maria Viramontes returns to her roots today to promote her new novel, “Under the Feet of Jesus,” about a migrant farm family. She now teaches at New York’s Cornell University, but she lived in Irvine for 12 years, and her book was inspired by the migrant workers she saw then. . . . Says Viramontes: “When people sit down to eat their salads or bite their apples, I want them to think about the piscadores [harvesters] that brought that food to their tables.” . . . She signs copies tonight at 6:30 at Martinez Books and Art in Santa Ana.

M.M. & HOLLYWOOD: If you want in on the first-day hand cancellations of the new Marilyn Monroe commemorative postage stamp, you can go to Universal Studios or the Beverly Hills Post Office today. But closer to home, postal officials will also have first-day, special pictorial cancellations of the stamp at Planet Hollywood in Santa Ana, from noon to 8 p.m.