Appointments

A Texas bishop was appointed Friday to lead the fastest-growing Catholic parish in the nation, Pope Benedict XVI announced. Kevin W. Vann, 61, will succeed Tod Brown as the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange at a formal ceremony in December. Brown, who has been leader of the Orange County diocese since 1998, reached the Vatican's mandatory retirement age of 75 last November. "Bishop Vann enjoys an enviable record of success and I am exceedingly pleased by his appointment," Brown said at a news conference in Orange.

Beleaguered teen retailer Wet Seal Inc. appointed two new company directors Thursday as it tries to fend off an activist shareholder unhappy with its poor performance. The Foothill Ranch retailer also abandoned a temporary shareholder rights plan adopted in August intended to discourage a takeover attempt. The company, which operates about 550 stores under the Wet Seal and Arden B. brands for young women, fired its chief executive, Susan McGalla, in July without an immediate replacement amid plummeting sales and a discrimination lawsuit filed by former managers.

A Newport Beach boat builder's efforts to restore a historic 1916 sailboat in a yard at his home may have finally run aground. After Dennis Holland, 67, missed an Aug. 30 date to disassemble the Shawnee, Newport Beach city attorneys last week asked the courts to appoint a receiver and remove the boat from a side yard at his Holiday Road home. Although this appears to bring the project close to its end, Holland said he remains optimistic despite being slowed by recent chemotherapy treatment for prostate cancer.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A rivalry forgotten, Bill Clinton enthusiastically and extensively made the case for reelecting his Democratic successor, declaring that President Obama “can build a new American Dream economy.” Clinton's speech, all 49 minutes of it, served to officially nominate Obama, whom the former president called “a man who's cool on the outside but who burns for America on the inside.” And it ended with the two men locking arms...

Three months and several candidates later, the Clippers have a vice president of basketball operations. Introductions won't be necessary in the team's Playa Vista offices. The Clippers promoted longtime team executive Gary Sacks on Tuesday to fill the position vacated in June when Neil Olshey departed to become general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers. Sacks is entering his 19th season with the team, having served as director of player personnel for the last two seasons.

ABC has tapped Peter Seymour to serve in a newly created role as chief financial officer for the Disney/ABC Television Group. The new position centralizes financial responsibilities for the various television channels managed by Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney/ABC Television Group, to whom Seymour will report. That includes the ABC television network, ABC Studios, ABC-owned television station group, ABC Family, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Radio Disney and Hyperion Publishing.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi surprised the nation Tuesday by naming an obscure bureaucrat as his new prime minister to form a government that probably will be held in check by military leaders during an unsteady transition to democracy. The appointment of Hesham Kandil, water minister in the outgoing military-appointed Cabinet, kept with Morsi's vow that his prime minister would not come from the Muslim Brotherhood's political party. Morsi, who ran as a Brotherhood candidate, is under pressure from secularists and Christians not to choose a government dominated by Islamists.

WASHINGTON - Attacks on Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. as a traitor to conservative ideals for voting to uphold most of President Obama's healthcare law reflect a lack of knowledge about how the American justice system works, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said. "It's unfortunate because I think comments like that demonstrate only too well a lack of understanding that some of our citizens have about the role of the judicial branch," O'Connor said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday in response to a question from ChairmanPatrick J. Leahy (D-Vt)

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Mitt Romney offered a family-friendly approach to the nation's immigration woes in his first general-election outreach to Latino voters, but the modest steps that he sketched underscored the political pull-and-tug the issue has become for the Republican presidential candidate. His more moderate tone Thursday on a number of side issues contrasted with the tougher stance he took during the GOP primaries. Yet in outlining the path he would take as president, he declined to take on the larger and thornier problem of the 11 million men, women and children already in the country illegally.

Dustin Brown impressed Jack Ferreira, special assistant to General Manager Dean Lombardi, when he spoke to players at the Kings' prospects camp in 2008. "I went upstairs and told Dean, 'I just saw your team captain speak,' " Ferreira said. Brown became the Kings' captain that season, making him the youngest to hold that honor in team history. He has held that position since. "You don't just put a 'C' on a guy's jersey," Lombardi said. "They have to earn it. " There is little doubt Brown has done so. He played a big role in the Kings' playoff drive.