Mismanagement

Orange County's planning department is in "critical condition" -- employees have not been performing required safety and environmental inspections, morale is down and customer service is nearly nonexistent, according to a county performance audit released Wednesday. The 117-page review of the county's Planning and Development Services Department includes 35 findings and recommendations for improvement in all levels of the agency.

The Orange County grand jury issued a scathing report Tuesday criticizing the public administrator/public guardian's office for "egregious" mismanagement, including questionable promotions that cost hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars. The report, the jurors' second on the subject, concluded "that a complete restructuring" of the office was necessary. "It was outrageous behavior," jury foreman Jim Perez said.

State Republicans ousted embattled party Chairman Jeffrey Frederick on Saturday at a tense meeting that left the party bitterly divided as it heads into a crucial campaign season. Frederick's dismissal came after he repeatedly resisted public requests for his resignation from almost every top-ranking Republican officeholder in Virginia. They accused him of in- competence and mismanagement. But at the heart of the dispute is a struggle that is tormenting Republicans in the state and nationally: whether to rigidly pursue an agenda dominated by conservative social issues or reach out to more moderate voters with a pledge to focus chiefly on economic concerns.

The most serious problems started back in 2004, when Pam Pratt was recalled as mayor of this tiny city on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a half-square-mile known these days for crawdads and municipal chaos. In the dysfunction that followed, Isleton stopped paying its bills. City workers and council members ran up $600,000 in attorneys' fees. The city spent more than $156,000 that belonged to its waste collector and had to pay it back -- with interest.

In an unexpected twist, a former Labor secretary tapped to resolve a dispute between two high-profile labor leaders essentially rendered a split decision Thursday. At issue was whether the officers of United Healthcare Workers-West, based in Oakland, broke union rules when they set up a tax-exempt fund for patient education, which the Service Employees International Union said was a secret war chest in a fight against its parent union.

Accusing his ex-wife of character assassination, Broadcom Corp. founder Henry T. Nicholas III said her attempt to oust him as co-trustee of their family holdings was filled with "outrageous falsehoods," including misrepresenting herself as unable to meet her expenses when she had spent more than $100 million in the last two years. Stacey Nicholas' attorney, Adam Streisand, said he had not seen the filing in Orange County Superior Court and declined to comment. In a filing in probate court Nov.

Most nights it's possible to look skyward with a pair of cheap binoculars and see a $100,000 mistake circling the Earth. The glowing object -- an orbiting NASA tool bag -- was lost last month by an astronaut during a routine spacewalk. The canvas-and-acrylic caddy contained two grease guns, a scraper, a trash bag and some wipes, hardly cutting-edge technology. So why did it cost $100,000?

The Madoff scandal is shining a new light on what critics deride as years of toothless enforcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission -- and heightening calls for major changes. Already under fire for its regulatory performance during the financial crisis, the reputation of the federal government's Wall Street watchdog is now in tatters after it failed to stop Bernard Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme before it had wiped out as much as $50 billion in investors' money.

Audrey Irmas remembers when money was so tight for the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1997 that she drove from one fellow board member's home to another, rounding up $7,000 for building repairs. Now MOCA's financial house is in shambles -- and this time it reportedly will cost at least $25 million to replenish the endowment and an additional $5 million to cover projected deficits for the coming year. "This shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone," said Irmas, a life trustee of the museum.

Henry T. Nicholas III's former wife accused the Broadcom Corp. billionaire Wednesday of squandering $60 million from their fortune on personal indulgences, including a $3.1-million limousine bill, and making misguided investments that have left her so cash-poor she can't pay her tax bill.