Arthur H

Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Laurence J. Rittenband agreed today to reinstate a defense lawyer for convicted killer and Billionaire Boys Club leader Joe Hunt, just two days after kicking the attorney off the case. Arthur H. Barens, chief attorney for Hunt, had said he could not proceed with the trial's penalty phase if co-counsel Richard C. Chier was not also permitted to represent Hunt, who faces a possible death sentence. "I made an impassioned plea to the court to reinstate Mr.

Arthur H. Kaplan, a Beverly Hills businessman and philanthropist, died Thursday of cancer, a family spokesman said. He was 73. He was president and co-founder of KB Management Co., a development firm specializing in office buildings. Kaplan was involved in numerous Jewish charities, as well as medical and educational organizations that included the City of Hope, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Shriners and Children's hospitals and support organizations here and in Israel.

After 35 years in prison, Arthur H. Bremer, the man who shot and paralyzed Alabama Gov. George Wallace during his racially charged 1972 presidential campaign, is scheduled to be released today. Wallace, a fiery segregationist during the 1960s, was wounded on May 15, 1972, during a campaign stop in Laurel, Md. He abandoned his bid for the Democratic nomination, used a wheelchair for the rest of his life and died in 1998.

"I am expanding to the hilt, and I have no shame." --From Barry Minkow's "Making It in America." Even as his financial empire was collapsing last summer, Barry Minkow planned to host a television show designed to counter the negative image of America's younger generation. A brochure for "Class of Tomorrow," which was being marketed by two producers to various networks, hailed the 21-year-old Wunderkind as nothing less than "what tomorrow's youth is all about."

A 46-year-old man was electrocuted Friday when the chain saw he was using to trim a tree in a friend's yard in Simi Valley came in contact with a high-voltage wire, police said. Simi Valley Police Sgt. Neal Rein said Arthur H. Campos, 46, was found dead in the tree about 4 p.m. by Terry Cruz, 17, who had gone to the backyard of the family home to check on Campos' progress.

In Patrick Carr's review of Michael Wallis' "Route 66--The Mother Road" (May 6), Route 66 was listed as "the first paved connection between Lake Michigan and the (Pacific) Ocean." Later in the review, completion date of the pavement was listed as 1937. At least three years earlier, though, by driving to Salt Lake City and thence east on the "Lincoln Highway," one could travel all the way from Los Angeles to Chicago without leaving pavement. I know, because in a 1932 Pontiac I made such a trip in September, 1934, having avoided Route 66 because of its many unpaved sections.