San Diego — She's running against state treasurer Matt Fong for U.S. Senate, but Susan Golding has a more direct Asian connection. A reliable source says her honor is getting regular acupuncture treatments from the city's foremost specialist. Reason: she's trying to lose weight and has already dropped five pounds ... A week from tonight, Chargers honcho Dean Spanos, son of Chargers owner Alex, is throwing a political shindig at his new La Jolla mansion for Marilyn Quayle, wife of possible presidential candidate Dan. Along with local Republican bigwigs Mike Alessio, Sam Hardage, and Kate Adams, Dean and wife Susie are charging $250 to attend, not much more than your average Chargers ticket. Proceeds go to Dan Quayle's political committee, called Campaign America. Also set to be on hand: Linden Blue, owner of big La Jolla defense contractor General Atomics, which just lost another one of its controversial drones over Bosnia.

Bolt notes

Forget that multimillion-dollar payment owed the Chargers for empty seats at the stadium. The latest financial scandal to hit city hall is a dispute with the Federal Aviation Administration over whether the city owes the feds more than $13 million in penalties for leasing city airport land at below market prices. A source says the city put a community police station and some other operations on airport property and didn't pay rent to the airport trust fund, a violation of federal requirements to charge fair market rents at airports supported by federal grants ... Media observers say XTRA, the sports radio station that carries Chargers games, made out like a bandit during last week's television blackout. They also note it's no coincidence that the station's owner, Ohio-based Jacor, was one of the most vociferous proponents of the stadium expansion, which contributed to the blackout. During this year's stadium controversy, the media giant quashed talk-show hosts on its stations who sought to discuss the downsides of the city's deal with Alex Spanos; the company also issued a memo telling station employees to show up at a Chamber of Commerce-sponsored rally endorsing the expansion ... Biggest political loser in the continuing controversy over the stadium: Mayor Susan Golding, who is expected to come under fire during legislative hearings on taxpayer-financed stadium subsidies that may be held next year, just as her U.S. Senate campaign gears up for the June primary ... The San Diego City Council, which spent more than a million dollars suing a citizens' group that wanted to have the stadium-expansion deal put on the ballot, has just declared this week to be "Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week" in the city.

Dirty laundry

Item on the San Diego City Council's closed-session agenda under "anticipated litigation": Internal Revenue Service vs. City ... A San Diego man accusing a Catholic priest in Denver of sexual assault is making big headlines in the Mile High City and caused the mayor there to issue a public defense of the embattled priest. John Ayon, who used to live in Littleton, a Denver suburb, but moved to San Diego several years ago, filed a $20 million suit against priest Marshall Gourley, alleging sexual abuse as a teenager. Gourley calls the allegations "distressing and not truthful" ... Don Sipple, a political consultant to Susan Golding, has just lost another big client. U.S. Senator Kit Bond of Missouri officially cut his ties last week to the controversial media guru because of the continuing controversy over an expose in Mother Jones magazine featuring allegations Sipple beat his now ex-wife. Sipple has denied the charges and sued Mother Jones, but a Bond aide declared last week: "We're just not going to let this situation be a distraction to his strong convictions and record fighting domestic violence." Golding has thus far defended Sipple and said she has no plans to dismiss him ... Centex Securities of La Jolla is underwriting a $6.3 million deal to take over the country's largest dirty movie satellite distribution system. An outfit called New Frontier Media wants to buy three subscription-based satellite channels by the names of Exxxtasy, Exotica, and True Blue, according to a company news release.

Contributor: Matt Potter