CITRON SIGHTING: You don’t see former county...

CITRON SIGHTING: You don’t see former county Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert Citron in public much these days. But Citron, 70, who has pleaded guilty to securities fraud in the county’s bankruptcy, was on hand this week for the opening of a playground for disabled children at Thornton Park in Santa Ana. He’s a longtime member of the Kiwanis Club that helped fund it. . . . “I haven’t been in hiding,” Citron snapped at a reporter. He added only that he’s “keeping busy.” . . . His sentence is pending his cooperation with bankruptcy prosecutors. (B1)

ATLANTA WEST: Westminster High alumni may well root for the Atlanta Braves when the World Series starts today. Braves outfielder Ryan Klesko starred at Westminster and was heavily recruited when he graduated in 1989. . . . Beckett’s baseball magazine in 1992 touted Klesko, then in the minor leagues, as a future star: “He’s big, he’s left-handed, he’s strong.” Klesko, in just his second season in the majors, has proved it right, batting .310 with 23 home runs.

BEAST BONUS: After rave reviews in New York and Los Angeles for her lead role in “Beauty and the Beast,” Susan Egan is stepping off stage to thank those who helped along the way. . . . Egan, 25, who grew up in Seal Beach, is a graduate of the Orange County High School of the Arts in Los Alamitos. She’ll attend a reception Monday night at the Centre Club in Costa Mesa to thank the school and its donors for giving her career its start. . . . She’s bringing her own beast too--James Barbour, her co-star.

KILLER TIME: If you want to know more about mammal life off Orange County’s coast, there’s a research group ready to give you an update. The Marine Mammal Symposium today at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa is open to the public ($5)--with sessions on dolphins, whales and underwater research. One exciting new discovery, says Dennis Kelly, a marine biologist there and adviser to the campus research club: killer whales off the coast here, in much larger numbers than anyone knew about.