Orange County

The Trojan League of Orange County made a splash in Fashion Island at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa, attracting hundreds of local USC alum for poolside cocktails followed by a dinner program in the ballroom. Co-chairs Melanie Salata Fitch and Carol MacDougall appropriately labeled the evening a "synchronized splash" honoring USC Olympians from Orange County, many of whom were from the worlds of swimming, diving, water polo and beach volleyball. An upbeat crowd led by Trojan league president Susan Ferrari mingled with notable USC athletic standouts, including the legendary Sammy Lee , the first American of Asian descent to win an Olympic gold medal for the USA in the 1948 London Olympics.

Lindsay Lohan maybe getting a new lawyer if she signs off on a plan to have a  prominent Orange County law firm help represent her on criminal charges she lied about a car crash on Pacific Coast Highway. The latest development comes after her New York attorney was warned by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge that he did not know California law. Paul Wallin, a partner at Wallin & Klarich, said Lohan's attorney, Mark Heller, has asked one of the firm's attorneys, David Wohl, to help represent the actress at trial March 18. "We are awaiting Ms. Lohan's approval," Wallin said.

Andy Roddick is coming to play against the Orange County Breakers July 13 at the Bren Events Center on the UC Irvine campus. The marquee event featuring the former world No. 1-ranked player is among the dates on the Breakers' schedule that was released Wednesday. The Breakers open the 38th season of Mylan World Team Tennis presented by GEICO on July 7 with a home matchup at the Bren Events Center against the Philadelphia Freedoms. Roddick, who will play for the Springfield Lasers, was the top pick in the Mylan WTT Marquee Draft and returns to competitive tennis with Mylan WTT this summer for the first time since his final professional match at the 2012 U.S. Open.

Corona del Mar High's Cayman Carter and Ryan Griffin, Estancia's Ben Beck and Colby Koste, and Newport Harbor's Derek Kula and Landon Gyulay were among those honored as scholar-athletes by the National Football Foundation Orange County Chapter Monday night at the Anaheim Convention Center. CdM Coach Scott Meyer was named a Coach of the Year along with Edison's Dave White at the 43rd annual awards dinner. Laird Hayes, a Newport Beach resident and retired Orange Coast College professor, was honored as a Football Official of the Year for his work in the NFL. Hayes, a side judge, has worked in three Super Bowls in 18 seasons.

In the 1970s, Mad Magazine published a classic cartoon depicting an amusement park called Get-It-Out-Of-Your-System-Land, which offered a series of booths allowing visitors to unload their basest urges: defacing classic paintings, burning books, smashing rare violins and the like. The park didn't include an opportunity to create a mess in a major art museum, but that's what the Orange County Museum of Art is basically offering as part of "Ain't Painting a Pain," its chaotic new show by Richard Jackson.

South Coast Collection continues to display economic activity, with three businesses opening recently and three more expecting to do so in the coming months. All six new tenants of the Costa Mesa shopping center, nicknamed SoCo, are exclusive to Orange County: Arc Restaurant, Lili Claspe, Wardrobe Ltd., Brown Jordan, Taco Maria, and Birdie Bowl and Juicery. "Our vision for SoCo has always been to bring the best of the L.A. shopping experience … to Orange County," Scott Burnham, president and chief executive of Burnham USA, developer of the center at Hyland and Sunflower avenues, said in a prepared statement.

Andy Roddick, a former No. 1-ranked player in the world, and twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, the world's No. 1 doubles team, will be making appearances during the Orange County Breakers' World Team Tennis season at the UC Irvine Bren Events Center in July. Roddick will play for the Springfield Lasers, who selected Roddick as the No. 1 pick in the World Team Tennis Draft on Tuesday. Roddick will be playing in his seventh World Team Tennis season, his first in three years. His last professional match was at the 2012 US Open.

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited with the expression, "The only thing permanent is change. " The electronic age has ushered in a dramatic evolution in human behavior. Our devices that are computer-driven are in fact dictating how we live. In Orange County this past week, the venerable Center Club, known for its old-world ambience exemplified by its pine paneling adorned with classic plein air California landscape paintings by early 20th-century coastal artists, gave way to the demands of a new world of high-tech e-lounges, power boardrooms featuring cutting-edge video and audio technology, work stations and "club hub" rooms for meetings and private work retreats, all aimed at a different ethic that represents a new age. More than 350 guests converged upon the grand-opening cocktail party Jan. 31 in Costa Mesa, which introduced the community to the ultra-modern Center Club revamp.

When Mihir Worah, managing director at the asset management giant Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO), arrived in Newport Beach, he had a quibble. "I moved to Orange County about 10 years ago, and I'm always complaining about how folks here don't care about science, and they're not excited," the particle physicist said. His son attends Sage Hill School on Newport Coast, so when administrators asked Worah to join a team advising the private college preparatory academy how to build a science center that would benefit the county, he agreed.

"Water, water and water. " Those, State Sen. Michael Rubio (D-Shafter) told the crowd at a Municipal Water District of Orange County event Wednesday evening, are the "top three most important issues" facing California's Legislature. But even as chairman of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and a native of the Central Valley — where fights over water can be something of a blood sport — Rubio said he's still only "scratched the surface" of one of the state's biggest puzzles.