Don Katz

Color and tint can say a lot about a wine. Aficionados twirl their glass and gaze into the bowl, searching for clues only the hue can betray -- the wine's concentration, age and potential quality. Not so for Don Katz, 29, owner of the Symposium Wine Bar in Irvine. He is blind.

Color and tint can say a lot about a wine. Aficionados twirl their glass and gaze into the bowl, searching for clues only the hue can betray -- the wine's concentration, age and potential quality. Not so for Don Katz, 29, owner of the Symposium Wine Bar in Irvine. He is blind.

First there was Toi, the Thai restaurant with locations in Hollywood, West Hollywood and Santa Monica. Then came Koi, the trendy Japanese restaurant and lounge on La Cienega. Chi, a hip spot in the Hyatt West Hollywood soon followed, as did Yi (officially called Yi Cuisine), a sophisticated Asian restaurant. The chef? Rodelio Aglibot, a veteran of, you know, Koi. Finally, we thought the whole trend must have peaked, but recently Kai opened in the old Rebecca's space.

Information about personal finance abounds in cyberspace. It's all over CompuServe, America Online and Prodigy. But many on-line denizens don't realize the extent to which it's busting out on the Internet as well. The other day, for instance, I was wondering whether closed-end municipal bond funds might still be a good deal, so I posted that question to misc.invest.funds.

If their orthodontist is right, Jason and Jarron Collins are going to be really dangerous on a basketball court in a few years. Somehow, looking in the mouths of Harvard-Westlake High's newest stars, the dentist judges the two have three or four inches of growth remaining. The twins turned 15 last month and Jason is already 6-feet-8 while Jarron is 6-7. Three or four more inches? Can the dentist be right?

Three days before the deadline for filing candidacy papers, Fern Rudin still was just an interested bystander. But her old friend Don Katz, a Ventura County Democratic Party official, was at the door, again urging her to run for Congress against Elton Gallegly. This time she was compelled to go forward. She was still in tears from watching an installment of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on oppressed Afghan women. And since the Sept.

It's hard for Thelma Barrios to be on the other end of an interview, since for nearly 40 years she's been the one asking the questions. As editor and publisher, and at one point owner, of the San Fernando Valley Sun, Barrios is seen not only as the backbone of the nearly 100-year-old newspaper, but also as a vital link in keeping this town a community, of giving a voice to the public, and of being a conduit of information between government and citizens.