INSIDE SCOOP

-- Compiled by the Daily Pilot staff

When you’re Newport Beach’s city manager, some extra rules apply.

Homer Bludau, who’s been doing the job for almost two years now, told us

a while back that he’s the only city employee required to live in the

city. But recently we found out that he also has to undergo a personal

physical, which he passed just fine, thank you very much.

And with home and health taken care of, last Thursday the city’s chief

executive embarked on his first real vacation since coming to Newport

Beach. He’ll be visiting his daughter in Tucson and spending some time in

the desert. After several months of budget reviews and all the other

stuff he’s taking care of, “the pace has been nonstop for awhile and I

need some time to regenerate,” Bludau wrote in a memo last week.

We’re still kind of wondering why he didn’t offer to take us along.

Hope you’re having a great time, Homer. See you back soon!

An award-winning and infuriating Web site

A little something we need to clear up.

A typing error last week led some readers searching the Internet for

the wrong Web site. It’s YourCongress.com. We corrected that in a story

during the week, but apparently there are fans of just Inside Scoop.

Those same fans, by the way, weren’t all that happy with the site’s

ranking of -- or our way of thinking about -- Rep. Christopher Cox’s

influence in Congress. Yes, he’s the most influential politician in the

county, but according to the Web site, only 49th in the House.

It isn’t that the site -- again, YourCongress.com -- is some

fly-by-night operation. In fact, they’ve been nominated for a Webby Award

in the government and law category by the International Academy of

Digital Arts and Sciences. And that group’s been doing the online version

of the Oscars for five years now.