SMOKE SCREEN: Some school districts appear willing...

SMOKE SCREEN: Some school districts appear willing to give up the lucrative after-hours lease to bingo groups to comply with the upcoming federal ban on smoking on school property. But at Capistrano Unified School District, board members have postponed a similar vote to see if a compromise can be worked out. . . . Says trustee Sheila J. Benecke: “Bingo built the stadium at Dana Hills High School.”

KIDS RULES: A lack of cigarette smoke is one thing that separates the new Adventure City from other amusement parks, such as Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. You can’t light up anywhere on the grounds of the theme park, which is aimed at adolescents and is along Beach Boulevard in Stanton. . . . And no one has complained so far, says spokeswoman Sherry Livingston: “We did it for the children; it’s consistent with the image we want.”

INVINCIBLE: Former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Vince Ferragamo, who lives in Orange, is a front-runner among celebrities helping out local causes. He’s raised money for youth groups, anti-drug campaigns, and the Special Olympics, as well as other charities. Now he’s lending a hand to the local Alzheimer’s Assn. chapter. . . . Ferragamo will headline its first annual Memory Walk & Classic Car Show Saturday morning at the Irvine Spectrum. Because his father-in-law suffers from Alzheimer’s, a degenerative disease, Ferragamo says, “This one is very special.”

SWIM FOR PEACE: The next time famed long distance swimmer Lynne Cox of Los Alamitos hits the salt water, she’ll have more than just another record on her mind. Cox has received permission to swim the Gulf of Aqaba in the Middle East. . . . She plans for her swim to “symbolically link Israel, Egypt and Jordan.” Cox, 37, plans to make the 14-mile swim over a two-day period, beginning Oct. 17. Cox was the first person to swim the Bering Strait in 1987.