1988 Year

W as 1988 the year of the dead in the Orange County arts scene? Well, it was the year Pacific Symphony conductor Keith Clark was termed "a dead fish," the year William Shakespeare was nearly a dead duck in Garden Grove and the year the rock zanies in Oingo Boingo held yet another "Dead Man's Party" at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. Jokes notwithstanding, there were encouraging signs of life locally.

Murder charges were filed Monday against a Michigan inmate in the 1988 slaying of Malinda Gibbons, authorities said. Detectives and forensic scientists linked Jason Michael Balcom, 34, to the murder through DNA collected at the scene more than a decade ago. Gibbons, 22, was killed at her apartment in Costa Mesa on July 18, 1988. That same year, Balcom was arrested in Michigan on suspicion of sexual assault and kidnapping, police said. He will be returned to Orange County for trial.

JANUARY A presidential commission headed by Nicholas F. Brady issues a call for stock market reform. Its report on the stock market crash of October, 1987, recommends "circuit breakers" to limit price movements, new rules for buying securities on credit and other measures. Swiss pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann-La Roche bids $4.2 billion for Sterling Drug, the maker of Bayer aspirin, but weeks later Eastman Kodak wins Sterling for more than $5 billion.

One day after being arrested in his Dana Point home, a suspect in the 1988 slayings of auto racing legend Mickey Thompson and his wife was released from Los Angeles County Jail on Monday. Michael Goodwin appeared in a police lineup at the jail Monday morning and was released seven hours later, after sheriff's investigators determined they did not have enough evidence to keep him in custody. Two witnesses identified Goodwin in the lineup, his attorney said.

Once upon a time, it was the other way around. It was age and guile vs. youth and ambition, except it was the Utah Jazz that had the kids--including the burgeoning superstar everyone once fouled on purpose--and the Lakers who had the veterans, who ruled by dint of experience and iron will as much as talent.

Stoking a long-running debate over "good" and "bad" jobs, the Census Bureau said Tuesday that nearly three-fifths of the 6 million jobs created during the last economic expansion were in high-paying industries. The author of the study suggested in an interview that the findings undercut arguments by labor unions and Democrats that most of the jobs created in 1987-89 were low-skill, low-paying service jobs that would not support a decent living.

* Feb. 23: Frances Lear, former wife of television producer Norman Lear, reportedly commits $25 million of her divorce settlement to create Lear's, a new magazine for women over 40. Lear's joins '80s babies Spin, Sassy, 7 Days, Spy, Premiere and others in the decade's magazine boom. * May 23: Feminist attorney Gloria Allred breaks another barrier and surprises a few birthday-suited Friars, when she bursts into the all-male health facilities of the Beverly Hills Friars Club.

Here's how the Times' Class of '88 fared during the past 12 months: BIG PIG: The Aussie band with a striking lead singer and unique approach (half of the octet plays drums) failed to capitalize on the groundwork laid by its "Bonk" album and impressive shows. The group is preparing to record a second album.

WEEK 1 Rams 34, Green Pay Packers 7 Mickey Sutton set up a pair of first-half touchdowns, one by forcing a fumble and the other with a 46-yard punt return, and Jim Everett threw a pair of touchdown passes to lift the Rams to a season-opening victory in Green Bay. WEEK 2 Rams 17, Detroit Lions 10 Jim Everett's 5-yard scoring pass to Damone Johnson late in the third quarter, moments after Mel Owens had forced a Detroit fumble, broke a 10-10 tie in Anaheim.

Taxpayers paid 7% more in state taxes in fiscal 1988 than they did in the previous year, the government reported. The Commerce Department reported that state tax revenues totaled $264 billion in the year ending June 30, 1988, compared to $246 billion in the previous fiscal year. California had the largest total state tax revenue, $36 billion, up 6% from the previous year. California taxes averaged $1,281 per capita, slightly over the national average of $1,077.

Oh, Santa Margarita High is going to be the most powerful, most dominant force in Orange County high school athletics. At least that's what most athletic officials from other county schools are saying. Part of their fear is stoked by the sight of the $26 million campus, complete with a few crystal chandeliers, a computer hookup for every student and a cable television station. But the fact is that only 500 students, all freshmen and sophomores, attended the school this past year, its second in existence.