BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS

Orange County Sheriff’s Department officials are still looking for

help in finding a Corona del Mar lawyer, who is wanted for a 1997 murder

of a Villa Park woman.

Department officials said Saturday that they had not received any

additional information that could lead to the arrest of Hugh “Randy”

McDonald, who is suspected of killing Janie Pang. Officials asked the

public Friday for help in finding McDonald.

Pang was shot to death at about 12:05 p.m. on May 30, 1997, in her

Villa Park home in the 9600 block of Crestview Circle. A mother of two,

Pang had lived in the city for two years.

The murder remained a mystery, officials said, until investigators

from the Sheriff’s Countywide Law Enforcement Unsolved Element Team

reviewed the case and linked McDonald, 38, to the murder.

McDonald lived in Corona del Mar at the time of the murder. He

disappeared shortly afterward, when a drawing of the murder suspect based

on witnesses’ recollections appeared in local newspapers.

An arrest warrant charging him with murder has been issued. His

whereabouts are unknown.

Anyone with information on McDonald’s location should contact the

Sheriff’s homicide unit at (714) 647-7055 during business hours, or after

hours at (714) 628-7170.

Victims of fatal crash identified

Orange County Coroner’s officials released the names of a woman and a

boy who died in a Costa Mesa car accident on Friday.

Deanna Ou, 15, of Lakewood, and Christopher Chhim, 4, of Bellflower,

were killed when the red Honda sport utility vehicle they were traveling

in went airborne and slid down an embankment at the Corona del Mar

Freeway onramp to the northbound San Diego Freeway at about 1:15 p.m.

California Highway Patrol officials did not release the names of the

car’s two other passengers, who survived the crash, or identify who was

driving.

Campbell awarded high honor by Republican group

Assemblyman John Campbell (R-Irvine) has been named as a Freshman

Republican Legislator of the Year by the National Republican Legislators

Association. Campbell is one of three legislators across the country to

be awarded the honor, which will be presented to him Aug. 14 at the

group’s national convention in San Antonio, Texas.

“I have to admit, given that there’s a lot of legislators in the

country -- with 50 states -- I’m surprised and honored,” Campbell said.

The state legislator, who represents the cities of Costa Mesa and

Newport Beach along with eight other cities in his 70th Assembly

District, said the award will “motivate me to be more effective.”

Campbell was nominated in part for his leadership on the energy issue

and his community outreach, said Jennifer Cowen, Campbell’s district

director.