Wealthy People

A wealthy family allegedly used a personal shoplifter to acquire some of life's finer things--Baccarat crystal and Armani suits--until their five-finger discounter turned informant and they got stung. The family simply made a list of things they wanted from a nearby Dayton's department store and had a convicted thief lift the items for them, paying him a fraction of the retail cost, authorities said Friday.

When you walk through Los Angeles City Hall, it looks like a diversity enthusiast's wildest dreams come true. Blacks, browns and whites together, sharing work on city commissions, in council offices. Even the lobbyists are multiethnic. Perfect for a city that has become one of the world's great conglomerations of races and cultures. But the world does not live by race alone.

This holiday story ought to have a Hollywood dateline. The cast includes a cross-dressing crook who is also a part-time hairdresser, a dentist named Dr. Dick, and lots of really fabulous clothes. On the cold, slippery day after Thanksgiving, when many Minnesotans risked death en route to retail hell, Dr. Gerald Dick, 58, and his well-to-do family waited for an unusual hybrid of shoppers to come to them. Only they weren't the personal shoppers available to the time-starved populace.

If it's more blessed to give than to receive, how come we know the names of the glitziest and wealthiest Americans--but not the most generous? Well, move over, Madonna. Step aside, Michael Jordan. Wipe that smile off your face, Michael Ovitz. Charitable giving just got a lot more glamorous--and you small-timers aren't even on the list. Slate magazine, Microsoft's venture into online publishing, has listed the names of America's most generous.

The gap between rich and poor in California has been steadily widening in the last three decades, as the rich got a little richer and the poor got a lot poorer, according to a study released today by a new California think tank. Though California's gap has generally mirrored the national income gap, "it has exceeded the nation in the last seven years--which is not something to be proud of," said Deborah Reed, principal author of "The Distribution of Income in California."

Bill Gates ranks as the world's richest private citizen with an $18 billion fortune from his Microsoft Corp. software empire, but a growing number of Asian billionaires are gaining on him, Forbes magazine reports. In the magazine's annual billionaires ranking released Sunday, Forbes estimated Gates' worth grew 40% from $12.9 billion last year, making him the wealthiest billionaire for the second straight year. The increase was due largely to the higher value of Microsoft stock. No.

The girlfriend of slain millionaire William F. McLaughlin pleaded guilty Friday to embezzling nearly $500,000 from him and forging his name on a check for $250,000. Nanette Anne Johnston, 30, was sentenced to one year in County Jail and five years of probation, and was ordered to give a $1-million life insurance policy she had received from McLaughlin to his family.

The income gap between the richest and poorest American families--a politically charged issue that figures to weigh heavily in this year's elections--kept widening during the early 1990s despite a recovering economy, a major new study reported Tuesday. The study, called the first comprehensive look at patterns of income distribution in the 1990s, said that the people who pulled ahead economically generally were older, highly educated and members of families headed by married couples.

An heir to the Du Pont chemical company fortune shot an Olympic wrestler to death Friday, police said, then holed up inside his mansion and refused to negotiate with SWAT team members. John E. du Pont was heavily armed and had barricaded himself alone inside a second-floor bedroom of his mansion in suburban Philadelphia, police said. Negotiations broke down after several hours. Officers could see Du Pont walking around inside the mansion late Friday night, but they were keeping their distance.

Steve Forbes' name is conspicuously absent each year when his magazine lists the 400 richest Americans. The competition wants to correct that. Fortune magazine estimates in its Feb. 5 edition that the Republican presidential candidate has a personal net worth of $439 million, most from his inherited stake in the family publishing and land empires.