Randy Cunningham went to Bangladesh to check out drug-trafficking

San Diego — She's not exactly a household name, but she's a plaintiff's lawyer with a good if low-profile pedigree. Constance H. Shaner practices law out of the offices of Ravreby, Shaner & Gibson in Carlsbad. Records show that within the past six years she's handled such personal-injury cases as Grace McEntee vs. the North County Transit District and the City of Oceanside as well as Dwight Dyke vs. the State of California. Her associate, Richard Ravreby, has done hundreds of bankruptcy cases and acted as agent for many local corporations, the records say. Shaner, it turns out, is also the wife of San Diego District Attorney Paul Pfingst, and there's the rub: Pfingst, who's in charge of monitoring compliance with political ethics laws, hasn't been revealing his wife's employment and income on the disclosure forms he's required to file each year with the state Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC). Pfingst spokeswoman Gayle Falkenthal says it's all an oversight and that the forms will be amended to reflect that Shaner has indeed been making more than $10,000 a year, the maximum disclosure category, during the district attorney's years in office. A spokeswoman for the FPPC says she hasn't heard about the case yet but that misdemeanor charges are possible for those violators who fail to properly disclose. Falkenthal says that Shaner is currently practicing independently of Ravreby.

High Roller

The name of San Diego bookie Peter Jay Lenz may be added to Nevada's "black book" of people banned from entering the state's casinos. Back in 1992, Lenz was accused by federal officials of running a multimillion-dollar national-sports bookmaking ring out of his La Jolla mansion. The feds also linked Lenz to Richard "the Fixer" Perry, a Las Vegas resident busted for rigging big-time sports events. Lenz was convicted of conspiring to run an illegal gambling business in 1996, according to Nevada's Gaming Control Board, which voted last week to nominate him for "black book" status. The final say about whether Lenz goes on the list of those who the state says are of "notorious and unsavory reputation" is up to the state's Gaming Commission ... Curious about the arcane details of the vast software empire run by Padres owner John J. Moores? Just point your web browser at www.jmi-inc.com, the website of Moores's investment vehicle, JMI Equity. "JMI seeks to invest between $1 and $10 million over time in each of its portfolio companies," according to the site. "The Firm has experience investing in start-up situations, providing expansion capital or partnering with management teams to complete recapitalizations or buyouts. JMI has offices in Baltimore, Maryland, and San Diego, California." The site also provides a list and description of each of the 24 companies Moores currently owns a chunk of.

Bucks Up

Midwest Television, the family-owned outfit that owns the KFMB stations in San Diego, has just unloaded the three TV stations it owns in Peoria, Champaign, and Springfield, Illinois. Nexstar Broadcasting Group bought the trio from the August C. Meyer Jr. family for $110.2 million. Eager to make a killing in the hot media market, Meyer had put the stations up for sale last year. They had been in the family for almost 50 years ... A Ventura inventor is suing Mercedes-Benz and Hoehn Motors Ltd. of Carlsbad for what he claims is patent infringement. Jim Feuling came up with a three-valve cylinder head design that reduces emissions, according to AutoWeek, and licensed the patent to Ford Motor Co. Mercedes also used his design but wouldn't pay, Feuling alleges, so he sued in federal court here, naming the Hoehn dealership as a co-defendant because he first saw the offending cars there ... Annual congressional junket disclosures are out: Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham went to Bangladesh last year to check out drug-trafficking and child-labor problems, thanks to the National Security Caucus Foundation. Democrat Bob Filner gave a speech in San Francisco, paid for by the Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine ... Lt. Scott Kartvedt of San Diego is the newest member of the Navy's Blue Angels.

Contributor: Matt Potter