American Recordings

Jackie Joyner set an American indoor record in the women's long jump Friday at the USA/Mobil Indoor Track and Field Championships, improving on her own record by over 5 inches, with a leap of 22 feet, 10 1/2 inches. Joyner, of the World Class Athletic Club, set American bests in consecutive jumps, leaping 22-10 and 22-10 1/2 to break the old mark of 22-5 which she set last Friday in Inglewood, Calif.

On a bright, clear afternoon, a video crew has set up at Laguna Beach's Heisler Park. The subject of the shoot is a rising young singer who has recorded three albums, toured Europe several times and Australia once. In some cities she plays to thousands, but the park-goers who stroll by on this day look on curiously without recognizing her. Huong Tho is being interviewed by Trang Nguyen for an entertainment news program on Costa Mesa-based Little Saigon Television.

First American Financial Corp. posted record results for the fourth quarter and year. The company, which provides real estate-related financial and information services, said net income for the fourth quarter increased 93% to $22.8 million, or $1.27 a share, from $11.8 million, or 67 cents a share, for the same period in 1996. Revenue climbed 30% to $552.4 million from $425.5 million. Profit for 1997 totaled $64.7 million, or $3.64 a share, 21% higher than 1996 earnings of $53.6 million, or $3.

Marla Runyan, the first legally blind athlete to make a U.S. Olympic team, went to New York on a mission. She wanted to break the American indoor record in the women's 5,000 meters. She accomplished the feat Sunday at the Armory Track and Field Center while running the final 2,800 meters by herself, being timed in 15 minutes 7.33 seconds--more than 15 seconds faster than the previous mark of 15:22.64 by Lynn Jennings at Hanover, N.H., in 1990.

American Ecology reported a $2-million loss in the second quarter that ended June 30, stemming from a $3.9-million reserve set aside as part of the settlement of a lawsuit with the state of Illinois over a low-level radioactive waste dump the company once operated near Sheffield. Illinois filed suit in 1978 seeking $97 million in damages over the dump, where low-level radioactive waste has been leaking.

A continuation of "relatively low interest rates" helped First American Financial Corp. post record third quarter net income of $5.4 million, up 74.2% from $3.1 million a year ago. The Santa Ana-based parent of First American Title Insurance Co. said revenue for the period was a record $71.3 million, up 18.3% from $60.2 million. For the nine months, the company reported net income of $10.1 million, down 14.4% from the $11.8 million registered during the same period last year.

Joe Dial, taking advantage of the mile-high altitude, improved his American pole vault record by 1 1/2 inches Saturday with a jump of 19 feet 6 inches. After breaking the American mark, Dial, 24, tried to surpass the world record of 19-8 3/4, set last year by Sergei Bubka of the Soviet Union. But the wind at the University of New Mexico stadium shifted, and Dial missed two attempts at 20 feet.

In his post-Pixies incarnation, Frank Black has moved increasingly further from the creepy currents that made that band genuinely disquieting. No longer the mysterious Black Francis, he's become an amiable emissary of oddity, a hard-charging prankster who delights in word play and scientific puzzles, musical collisions and the quirks of human behavior. In a way, his three albums are rock-music counterparts to tabloids like the Weekly World News.