HUNT STILL ON: Friends of Janie Carver,...

HUNT STILL ON: Friends of Janie Carver, the jogger slain near Fountain Valley’s Mile Square Regional Park last month, remain hard at work helping police hunt for her killer. Saturday morning they’ll hold the first in a series of monthly park rallies at Brookhurst Street and Warner Avenue--this one to distribute a new flyer saying the reward money has grown to $40,000. . . . Says Carver friend Joan Owen: “People are just outraged over such an unprovoked killing. It’s just so hard to take.”

EASING IN: Not all college newcomers are fresh out of high school. Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana hosts a “Welcome Back” day today for those away from the classroom at least 10 years. . . . They’ll get a campus tour, a refresher on registration, and a look at options available to them. It’s a way of “easing the transition,” says Xuan Benavides of the college’s New Horizons office. Benavides had an 18-year gap himself between high school and college. “It can be pretty scary.”

PARTY TIME? Can a bankrupt county celebrate financial success? Yes, say Rockwell International Chairman Donald R. Beall, above, and Fluor Inc. Chairman Les McCraw. Their names are atop the Orange County Business Council’s invitation to a “Victory Celebration” at the Irvine Marriott on Aug. 29. . . . Actually, they’re celebrating the $7.5 million raised to pursue the group’s five-year growth goals: Nearly 50,000 new jobs, $4.4 billion in economic improvement. . . . How? More international business, more tourism, “position Orange County as a business destination” and “increase positive news coverage.”

HOT TALK: Costa Mesa City Manager Allan L. Roeder has just returned from a municipal conference in Sydney, Australia. And what did they want to talk about Down Under? The bankruptcy, of course. “I don’t think we’re aware what big news this has been outside of America,” says Roeder. “They kept saying things like, ‘Gee, we thought we had problems.’ ” But Australians were more interested in how the county can get out of bankruptcy than how the troubles began.