BIG BROTHER? If you’re financially strapped, it’s...

BIG BROTHER? If you’re financially strapped, it’s nice to have a neighbor like the Irvine Co. Executive Vice President Gary Hunt handed over to the Newport-Mesa school board this week a check for $2 million, part of a $5-million gift it promised the district as a goodwill gesture by the end of 1993. Hunt suggested the two have a strange kinship during the recession: “Both of us are struggling.” The money should come in handy: The district still is attempting to recover almost $4 million taken by former finance director Stephen A. Wagner.