Gray Cary Ames Frye

Nineteen San Diego Zoo employees have been fired for alleged drug use or theft uncovered during a four-month undercover investigation that also found some zoo and Wild Animal Park workers possessing unauthorized firearms on the job. Doug Myers, executive director of the Zoological Society, read a three-page statement and met with reporters Tuesday at the zoo's administration building to report the findings of the in-house probe.

It pays to pay attention. * A sharp-eyed cop in Long Beach saw six teen-agers in a 1984 Chevrolet Suburban and had a hunch that something was amiss. He pulled them over and discovered that the Suburban had been swiped in San Diego. The six, all from Los Angeles, were booked for grand theft auto. And what was it that made the cop think the six didn't belong? A license plate holder that read, "Happiness Is Being a Grandparent." * Horses and lawyers.

If you thought the passions and loyalties aroused by the Broderick case were subsiding, think again. Kenneth G. Coveney, a San Diego tax attorney and former partner of Dan Broderick, sent an angry letter to the city's daily newspapers last week to correct what he said was an inaccurate description of a St. Patrick's Day graveside tribute to Dan and Linda Broderick.

For the second straight day, Gov. George Deukmejian Tuesday filled vacancies on San Diego County's overburdened courts, appointing three men and two women to seats on the Municipal Court bench. Reflecting a pattern present in Deukmejian's previous judicial appointments in San Diego, three of the five new judges--Allan J. Preckel, Gale E. Kaneshiro and Terry J. Knoepp--are current or former prosecutors. The remaining appointees, Marguerite L. Wagner and Timothy W.

A U.S. District Court jury has recommended that Sunnyvale-based Advanced Micro Devices pay $26 million in damages to San Diego-based Brooktree for infringing on Brooktree patents that cover computer chips used to generate color graphics on computer screens. U.S. District Judge William Enright Thursday prohibited AMD from making, using or selling any products which infringe on the three patents. Enright also gave AMD 10 days in which to appeal the injunction.

The new mayor: in words and money. In her inaugural address, Mayor Susan Golding promised to make San Diego "the most business-friendly city in America" but also "the most environmentally sound city." If you're waiting for a collision between these two rhetorical ideals, you may not have to wait long.

The five active U.S. District Court judges in San Diego have declined to oversee the Pioneer Mortgage civil suit that is beginning to wind its way through the court system, raising the possibility that an out-of-town judge will be imported to rule over the complicated case. U.S. District Judges Rudi M. Brewster, Earl B. Gilliam, Judith N. Keep, Gordon Thompson Jr. and John S. Rhoades have removed themselves from the case or declined to hear it because of possible conflicts.

Doerring & Associates, accused by regulators of fraud and securities violations for misappropriating real estate partnership trust funds, can no longer generate enough income to meet expenses and should be liquidated, according to documents filed in federal court Thursday. The liquidation process of Doerring's 32 properties, owned by more than 80 limited partnerships, will take about 18 months, according to documents filed by Thomas F.

California Transportation Commissioner J.T. (Tom) Hawthorne, warned against voting on San Diego highway and trolley projects because they involve customers of his Caterpillar equipment dealership, says he will not resign from his appointed state position.

The San Diego County district attorney's office announced Thursday that it won't prosecute anyone on criminal charges of arson and extortion involving a Mission Hills mansion and Chula Vista City Councilman David Malcolm. Four secretly recorded tapes of conversations about the arson plot were at the center of the district attorney's investigation.