Pacific Communications Group

Irvine-based Kia Motors America Inc. has dropped the public relations agency that helped usher it into the U.S. market in 1994. Replacing Porter Novelli Public Relations as the South Korean auto importer's outside voice will be Pacific Communications Group in Torrance. Pacific also does PR and marketing work for Fullerton-based Yokohama Tire Corp., the U.S. operations of British luxury performance car maker Aston Martin Lagonda and Ford Motor Co.'s regional headquarters in Anaheim.

Irvine-based Kia Motors America Inc. has dropped the public relations agency that helped usher it into the U.S. market in 1994. Replacing Porter Novelli Public Relations as the South Korean auto importer's outside voice will be Pacific Communications Group in Torrance. Pacific also does PR and marketing work for Fullerton-based Yokohama Tire Corp., the U.S. operations of British luxury performance car maker Aston Martin Lagonda and Ford Motor Co.'s regional headquarters in Anaheim.

Mayor Richard Riordan named a public relations executive as his director of communications Thursday in an effort to add some bite to his public speeches and coordinate local and national media interest in the new mayor. David H. Novak, 30, is vice president of Los Angeles-based Pacific/West Communications Group Inc., where he represents a wide range of corporate, governmental and nonprofit clients.

The California Department of Transportation has been ordered to pay a former state contractor more than $2.1 million for defamation and breach of contract. The arbitrator who made the ruling said Caltrans falsely accused Pacific/West Communications Group, known as Pac/West, of billing the state for frivolous charges, such as a ski trip and sports tickets. Those charges were never billed to the state, the ruling said.

A marketing firm billed the state for hundreds of thousands of dollars that covered such unauthorized items as employee raises, skiing, golf, football tickets, holiday parties and a $6,000 dinner for Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, Caltrans auditors say. The company, Pacific West Communications Group, challenged most of the audit's findings. The company said the state changed the terms of its contracts without notice and failed to conduct audits in a timely way.

Madison Avenue image makers look at most Winter Olympics athletes and cringe. Skiers are hidden behind goggles and layers of protective gear. Speed skaters--wrapped from head to toe in Martian-like garb--can't be told apart. And the lugers look like car crash dummies. There is, however, one notable exception: the female figure skaters. They are marketable elegance on ice. That is why, many months before the Olympics began, advertisers began scouting--and in some cases touting--the women skaters.

It seems simple enough. Take the portability out of aerosol spray-paint cans by tethering them to a permanent power source--say, an electrical outlet--and the graffiti epidemic in California is history. No more ugly scrawls on freeway bridges or esoteric gang threats on school buildings and private property, say proponents. Forget police searches for elusive taggers. Save the taxpayer money spent on temporary cleanup efforts.