G-string air force

San Diego — Federal aircraft registration records show that Cheetahs mogul Jack Galardi's LVA Management & Consulting owns a 1968 Falcon Jet, along with a 1984 Bell helicopter, and a Piper Cub. Shirle Galardi is registered as owner of a 1991 27-foot, 7-ton Porter yacht by the name of Cheetahs, docked up the coast in Long Beach ... George Knapp, columnist with the Las Vegas Mercury, claims there's a battle brewing between the San Diego and Las Vegas branches of federal law enforcement over the handling of Mike Galardi's plea bargain. "Justice Department officials in Washington and in San Diego are anxious to cut him some slack, perhaps even give him probation in return for the volumes of information he's been giving them. But the Las Vegas feds aren't so accommodating. The latest offer they held out to Galardi would have him serve in excess of 80 months in prison, pay a $10 million fine, and surrender his topless clubs. Needless to say, Galardi isn't going to agree to this, which sets up the possibility of a nasty legal confrontation that might pit feds against feds in court." ... New York Post columnist Cindy Adams reports that Joey Buttafuoco, of the Amy Fisher affair, has opened a food operation geared to gringos disembarking in Ensenada called Joey Buttafuoco's Long Island Hotdogs.

Unreality TV Last Saturday morning, after months of on-air hype and plugging of wedding consultants, it was finally time for KNSD Channel 39 to televise a wedding of two lucky viewers on the terrace across the street from Horton Plaza. The ceremony, modeled after the The Today Show, another production of KNSD parent NBC, came off without a hitch, though "news" anchor Rory Devine got a bit teary near the end. Then, just before the broadcast ended, she ushered the couple onto an oversized, shiny black bus bearing a sign plugging a local limo service, which viewers saw drive away. As soon as the show was off the air, however, the bus backed up and the couple disembarked from whence they had come, to pose for yet more still photographs on the wedding set ... Plans apparently have changed for state assembly candidate Heidi Von Szeliski, who is running against Vince Hall and Lori Saldana in the Democratic primary. Von Szeliski is also a pollster with Decision Research. Last year she told the magazine Campaigns & Elections about where she hoped to be in ten years: "Be a well-paid talking head who takes extensive vacations. Get more sleep, spend more time with family and friends. Shape policy on major issues when not lounging on the beach in Mexico."

Toil and trouble While the La Jolla development pot continues to bubble, K.C. Strang, an aide to city councilman Scott Peters, has left to take a job with Public Solutions, a lobbying outfit representing Terrabrook, which is attempting to develop a controversial biotech complex in Torrey Hills. Strang says he won't be working on that effort or any other city projects in his new gig, but Public Solutions -- its local office headed by ex-Susan Golding aide Mitch Berner -- has plenty of clients with business at city hall. The list includes the Beth Jacob Congregation, Congregation Beth Israel, and Gafcon Construction. Terrabrook is no stranger to trouble. Three years ago, one of its executives was accused by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission of acting as a conduit for illegal campaign contributions to Santee city councilmembers ... Word has it that the city's South Bay plant dedicated to recycling sewage water is having some problems getting up to speed, with giant cost overruns making the situation even more acute ... Is Arnold Schwarzenegger getting preferential treatment from the U-T? That's the view of some who labor inside the paper's Mission Valley plant. The connection, they claim, is a social tie between editor Karin Winner and Bob White, the longtime Pete Wilson aide who got his start running fraternities while a student at San Diego State in the 1960s ... He may be technically "retired" from the U-T, but don't count out Herb Klein, the old Nixon PR man who has long influenced the policy of the paper, including support for the taxpayer-funded Padres and Chargers deals. Using a cane, the old lion hobbled out of downtown's Wyndham hotel the other day after a breakfast meeting of the chamber of commerce board, followed closely by Cox Communications' Bill Geppert.

-- Matt Potter