This is a story about what our increasingly violent and dangerous society is doing to our collective wisdom and judgment.

Rick Roseli is a 17-year-old senior at Western High School in Anaheim. He's a three-year varsity water polo player and four-year trumpet player in the school band. In eighth grade, he won a prestigious John Philip Sousa award for outstanding bandsman. He's an average high school student, active in church, works as a busboy after school and has missed an inordinate number of classes this year because his single-parent mother has been on medical disability since last June and occasionally needs his help. Neither he nor his mother attempt to portray him as any kind of angel. "He's a typical 17-year-old kid," his mom says.

On Feb. 24, the school was giving a spring concert in the gym. Apparently a day or so earlier, the band teacher had asked whether any student had a toy popgun that the percussionist could use as a sound effect for a particular song. That night, one of the students brought an unloaded, handgun-sized BB gun, but it was quickly determined that it didn't make the requisite noise. As high schoolers will do, however, they passed the gun around and joked about having it in their midst.

Rick Roseli arrived about 25 minutes late for the pre-concert warm-up. He started tuning his trumpet and plinked a note on the piano in the band room, until a campus security monitor, in charge in the band director's absence, told him to stop.

What happened next is the nub of the matter. Partly for laughs and partly to irk the monitor, Rick got the empty BB gun and went back into the band room. Humorously, he says, he waved it around the room and, as if mockingly helping the monitor, said something like, "Everybody clear out!" He then said something to the monitor along the lines of, "Who was that yelling at me?" and pointed the gun in her general direction and, as he recalls, imitated Clint Eastwood doing a "Make my day" impression. He pulled the trigger, with the unloaded gun making its faint pop.

"Right after it happened, it crossed my mind, 'That was pretty stupid,' Rick said. "Then I thought, everybody's laughing, so nobody was scared." Of the monitor, he said, "She didn't act scared, just extremely mad." Rick told his mother about it when he got home later and she said it was a stupid stunt. "Don't worry,"he says he told her, "everybody knew it was fake, it's no big deal."

Rick played the concert that night, a Thursday. He attended a church camp over the weekend and came to school the following Monday. On Tuesday, he was called to the principal's office and asked to write a statement about the incident. Later that day, he says, police arrived and read him his rights. He wasn't arrested but was told he was on five-day suspension for violating the policy against having a gun, either toy or fake, in his possession on school property.

That was March 1. Rick hasn't been back in class since. School officials indicate they are recommending expulsion.

School officials won't discuss the case, citing student confidentiality. At my request, Rick's mother, Frankie Repine, authorized Principal Warren Stephenson to discuss the case with me, but he chose not to.

Stephenson told me there's more than meets the eye but can't tell me what. Rick's attorney, Jack Fleischli, disagrees, saying he has seen all the school district reports on the situation and that the details don't vary significantly from Rick's version.

The district hasn't disputed, the lawyer says, that the band teacher authorized a student to bring a popgun to school for the concert. The teacher also saw the gun before the concert and knew it was on campus, Fleischli says.

I spent an hour with Rick this week. He concedes the impropriety of flashing the gun around the campus monitor. Fleischli says a school report notes that a young child was standing nearby, but Rick says he doesn't remember seeing a child. Had he caused a serious disturbance that night, he says, school officials could have pulled him from the concert on the spot. Besides, he says, no one said anything about the incident until five days later.

Rick concedes that the monitor may not have known the gun was a band prop. He concedes the stupidity of waving it at her, if only in her general direction.

As for the no-gun-on-campus rule: "Oh, yeah, I totally agree with that. My only beef is that the sign is telling me if you have a gun, real or fake, you're going to get in trouble. Now here's a teacher saying, 'Bring in a gun, please, for our song.' The fact that it was authorized and was going to be used in the piece makes it the same to me as my trumpet, the same as the drum. It puts it in the 'everybody knows it's here, everybody knows it's fake' category."

I asked Rick to forget for a minute that the gun was requested by a teacher. What does he think about what happened?

"The most reasonable punishment, disregarding for a minute the fact that she authorized bringing the gun -- but on my actions alone -- would be a five-day suspension," he says. "I would think that would be reasonable.

"Most of all, I want to graduate with my class. I spent four years working my butt off, 12 hours a day, coming in on Saturday for band. . . . I don't think this one little mistake should override four years of hard work."

Fleischli says the district is acting illegally by continuing the suspension without a formal hearing.

I don't know what more, if anything, the district has on Rick. His mom and his lawyer said they told me the most damning things the district has told them, which don't sound very damning to me.

What may be at work here is the upshot of our current "three strikes and you're out" mentality. When it comes to students with guns, the mentality is one strike and you're out.

On paper, that's fine. For the 1992-93 school year, Orange County districts reported more than 400 incidents of students with guns. The threat is real and should be dealt with decisively.

But in school officials' zeal or fear or concern -- call it what you will -- a zero-tolerance policy overlooks that all crimes are not created equal.

Roseli may have stupidly frightened a woman, but he knew the gun wasn't loaded. He wasn't brandishing it around other students who didn't know it was unloaded.

He is not the same as the kid who brings a gun to school. A prankster who doubles as a trumpet player isn't the kid a zero-tolerance policy should be out to get.

Twenty years ago, this would have been a stupid prank.

It's still a stupid prank today. What's different is our fear of youth violence, which transported this incident to a level it doesn't warrant. And so Rick Roseli, who should be sitting in class for the final quarter of high school, sits at home, having his homework sent to him.

His mother asks: "Are we so intimidated because of what we're bombarded with on TV and in the news, associating our youth with gangs and killings, that a child can't even make a mistake now? Are we that frightened? It's scary."

Dana Parsons' column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.

A motorcycle exhibit and street fair near the Dana Point Harbor on Saturday will be part of national weekend festivities for the third annual Ride for Kids to benefit pediatric brain tumor research.

The local event will run from noon to 5 p.m. at the Pavilion Lantern Bay, at Street of the Golden Lantern and Dana Point Harbor Drive.

The motorcycle expo will feature new and vintage two-wheelers. The featured motorcycle will be a 1965 Honda CB-450 Super Sport known as the "Black Bomber."

"With the help of the motorcycling community, we can give these children a second chance," said Mike Traynor, founder of the charity event, which will take place at 12 other locations across the country. "We're excited to continue our national effort to conquer this serious childhood disease."

Other benefit activities taking place during Saturday's event will be a fine art reception and a charity auction.

The benefit ride from Dana Point to Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego County will follow on Sunday. Registration and breakfast will take place at 7 a.m. at Selva Road and Pacific Coast Highway, with riders leaving at 9 a.m.

Motorcyclists must collect a $35-minimum donation to participate. Those collecting $300 are entered in a drawing for a new Honda CB750.

For information about the Ride for Kids, call (800) 600-3821. FRANK MESSINA

The firm: "I know that lawyers are often intimidating," began the note from Janie Schulman of L.A.

But, she opined, one set of panelists at a Labor and Employment Law Section Retreat "have gone overboard with their firm name."

It's Payne & Fears.

*

Maybe Clinton could use a second-grader on his staff: Valerie Williams Zarrillo asked her class of second-graders at John C. Fremont School in Glendale to write essays on the topic, "If I Were President for a Day."

The students seemed to be up on current events, possibly more so than some of the President's older advisers.

One student, Dustin Boxer, is obviously a close follower of Bill Clinton. Dustin wrote, in part: "In the afternoon I would eat a cheeseburger."

Some other examples of political awareness:

* Whitewater influence: "I do taxes and read papers and then I watch the news again to see what happened." (Emineh Noravian)

* The Reagan influence: "In the afternoon, I do my check signing. I take a nap." (Jorge Alvarez)

* The Socks influence: "In the evening I would take a shower and I would get my bajamas on and I would get my cat -- well, if the President is allowed." (Michael Johnson)

* The Quayle influence: "In the evening working doing statistics on the computer and typing and doing papers and talking to the Vis President and testing him." (Corey Golden)

*

Arkansas West?Phyllis Waggner found a classified ad in a Westside newspaper that seems to offer sanctuary to the First Family.

Abe! We're shocked!We recently published a photo of some Downtown demonstrators standing alongside Abe Lincoln's statue while brandishing signs that said, "Down with Dirty Movies" and "Hollywood Repent." It was an inadvertent juxtaposition -- the picketers were protesting the nearby Academy Awards, not Honest Abe.

At least, that's what we wrote.

Imagine our surprise when we received a copy of the cover of Scientific American from Gerry Thompson of Arleta. It showed Honest Abe arm in arm with a grinning Marilyn Monroe. Monroe's dress is blowing in the wind, allowing her to show a lot of leg (a lot of both legs, actually).

Did the demonstrators know something we didn't? We're a little hazy on American history but we don't remember Monroe being involved with that President.

We felt better when we saw the magazine caption, which said: "Digital forgery can create photographic evidence for events that never happened."

Even so, we're happy the magazine didn't show Abe in his bajamas. miscelLAny:

The UCLA Sub Team and the HPS "Quicken" of Cal Poly Pomona are among the entries in the West Coast Human-Powered Submarine Invitational, scheduled for March 24-29 in Escondido. Pleasure-boaters need not fear a collision because Escondido is 15 miles inland. The competition will be staged in an area known as the Offshore Model Basin.

Beware of big doings in small, out-of-the-way places. The criminal charges against two former officials of an obscure water district in Orange County serve as a reminder of what can happen when important public business is conducted largely out of sight.

A year ago, scarcely anybody had ever heard of the Santa Margarita Water District, a $28-million-a-year special district providing water and sewer service to the sprawling suburbs. Then The Times reported that Walter W. (Bill) Knitz, district general manager, and Michael P. Lord, assistant general manager, had accepted tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and lavish trips from local business people, many of whom the two officials recommended for hefty contracts, apparently in violation of state law. Knitz and Lord later retired.

This week the Orange County district attorney's office weighed in after a yearlong investigation with charges that what the two did was out and out illegal. The counts centered on alleged failure to meet reporting requirements for the gifts and alleged actions taken on behalf of gift-givers in violation of conflict-of-interest laws. The misdemeanor counts carry fines or jail time or both.

The larger lesson lies in the potential for funny business at that most local level of government, the special district. There is a compelling need for public officials to keep special interests at arm's length, whether they function in the glare that falls on City Hall, Sacramento and Washington or in dimly lit places like small water districts.

Crime-weary Americans are counting on President Clinton to make good on his promise to provide 100,000 new cops. The Senate is already on board. Now, the House must deliver. One way to do that would be to support the police corps.

The police corps would work like the ROTC. Students would sign up after high school. They would receive federal scholarships for college in exchange for a four-year commitment, and the feds would pay for law enforcement training. After graduation, the new rookies would work for local departments. They wouldn't be eligible for pensions so they would cost less then traditional rookies. What a bargain!

Yet for some unstated reason, the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Tex.), did not consider the police corps bill last week when it took up the other anti-crime bills reported out of subcommittees. What's the holdup?

The White House and Senate would earmark anticipated savings from deep cuts in the federal work force to pay for more prisons, drug treatment and other anti-crime measures, including the initial appropriation for the police corps. Over five years the police corps would cost $2.5 billion, if limited to 50,000 participants as proposed by the Senate. That's a sound investment in public safety, but several House members are reluctant to cut federal jobs to pay for an anti-crime package that they justifiably believe is much too heavy on punishment and too lean on prevention. A better balance should be negotiated, but without sacrificing the corps.

If the powerful Chairman Brooks doesn't have a problem with the police corps, he should get the bill out of his panel so House-Senate conference committee members can tackle the differences. If he does have a problem, he should put it on the table and work out a timely compromise. Americans want more police, but most cities, including Los Angeles, have to scrape around to expand beyond a symbolic increase. A good chunk of a new police corps could shore up a Los Angeles force that is woefully too small to protect and serve this sprawling and diverse metropolis.

President Clinton repeated his promise of more cops last month. Did the House hear? America did.

Mexico's political and financial leaders were relieved at Tuesday's decision by Manuel Camacho Solis to not run for president. But with him out of the race, outgoing President Carlos Salinas de Gortari must take unambiguous steps to guarantee the fairness of next August's presidential voting. Otherwise, a victory by Salinas' handpicked successor will be tainted.

Camacho, the former Mexico City mayor who is negotiating peace with anti-government rebels in Chiapas, was the wild card in Mexico's presidential race. Public opinion polls indicated that he could strongly challenge Luis Donaldo Colosio, who was tapped by Salinas to be the nominee of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

A Camacho candidacy clearly would have erased the predictability of the cycle of Mexican politics -- every six years the PRI wins. The concern over the prospect of a forcefully contested race was such that when Camacho's no-go decision was announced the Mexican stock market soared.

The near-certainty of six more years of PRI rule is worrisome in some respects. Although the PRI has given Mexico 65 years of stability, it has done so at the cost of real democracy. The ruling party's grasp on power is so firm that most Mexicans are politically apathetic, if not cynical; when the PRI wins an election, many automatically assume fraud has been committed. A wide-open presidential race could have shaken the public's apathy.

The national Congress must press forward with the electoral reforms recently proposed by President Salinas, such as fair campaign financing and new technology to preclude fraud.

From the perspective of the United States and other foreign countries, the most important of Salinas' proposed reforms would allow international observers to monitor the coming election. This is a sensitive issue, one involving pride; Mexicans don't want foreigners acting as if they are the final arbiters of Mexican elections. But 1994 is a special year, with the memory of violence in Chiapas still fresh and the future of the country's dealings with the rest of the world pumped up by last year's North American Free Trade Agreement. This year, Mexicans must be prepared to swallow their resistance and not only accept foreign election observers but invite as many as possible.

That is what Salinas says he wants, so the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the rest of the world should take him up on it. If Colosio is to be Mexico's next president, so be it. But let him be elected in an open and honest vote, with the whole world watching.

Comish, Zelda M., 90, of Tujunga, retired seamstress for Chazan Interior Decorating. Forest Lawn Mortuary, Glendale.

Cuevas, Guadalupe J., 90, of Sun Valley, retired retailer.Utter-McKinley Mortuary, Mission Hills.

Feldman, David, 74, of Tarzana, retired refrigerator repairman. Aftercare California Cremation & Burial Society, Van Nuys.

Fox, Charles E., 95, of Sylmar, retired carpenter. Utter-McKinley Mortuary, Mission Hills.

Harbison, Betty, 85, of Panorama City, homemaker. Pierce Brothers Valhalla Mortuary, North Hollywood.

Holt, Vincent Evan, 79, of Reseda, retired utility lineman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Gates, Kingsley & Gates Mortuary, Canoga Park.

Johnson, Allen J., 38, of La Crescenta, general contractor. Ferrara & Callahan Funeral Directors, Sunland.

Johnson, David Brian, 34, of Canoga Park, mechanic. Gates, Kingsley & Gates Mortuary, Canoga Park.

Leiker, Mary Louise, 76, of Studio City, retired waitress. J. T. Oswald Mortuary, North Hollywood.

Marino, Alfredo, 64, of Burbank, pipe coater for the plumbing industry. The Valley Funeral Home, Burbank.

Miller, Ruth V., 78, of Glendale, retired cook for Glendale Community Hospital. Pierce Brothers Valhalla Mortuary, North Hollywood.

Roman, Amelia, 55, of Pacoima, homemaker. Noble Chapel, San Fernando.

Smith, Mary R., 88, of Palmdale, homemaker. Ferrara & Callahan Funeral Directors, Sunland.

Wilkins, Bette H., 68, of Tampa, Fla., formerly of Palmdale, homemaker. Chapel of the Valley Mortuary, Palmdale.

You, Jan Chen, 93, of Glendale, retired automotive mechanic. Forest Lawn Mortuary, Glendale.

Obituaries are published free of charge as a public service to readers. They are based on information provided by mortuaries.

Cessation of total inpatient care at the Sepulveda Veterans Administration Medical Center is an inappropriate solution ("Sepulveda VA Hospital to Be Torn Down," March 15). While it may be necessary to temporarily relocate surgical and long-term-care cases to other facilities until complete reconstruction is accomplished, the care provided to veterans from Bakersfield, Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley must not be disrupted or deferred in the wake of the events of Jan. 17.

Furthermore, there is one service provided by the Sepulveda VAMC that is so crucial and so necessary that its continuance should be of paramount concern to the current Administration. That function is the Chemical Dependency Treatment Unit, a three-pronged program that involves a five-to-seven-day inpatient detoxification, a 21-to 28-day inpatient rehabilitation program and finally an open-ended daily outpatient program with an initial 12-week patient commitment.

If the decision to partially relocate or otherwise disjoint this program is tolerated, veterans will die. It is a fact that because of the Sepulveda CDTU a great many lives have been saved. One of them is mine.

SHERRIE E. GOGERTY

Van Nuys

Since outpatient services are running in many functional buildings at the Sepulveda VA, why waste millions on some new building dedicated solely to outpatient care?

The Sepulveda VA is also one of the teaching and research arms of the UCLA medical complex. If you want to cut off one of the arms of UCLA because the public can't afford it, then I suppose that's just a grim fact of economic reality. But be intellectually honest enough to admit that this is a step backward, not forward.

JOHN PARSONS MD

Anaheim

Besides David Gergen, perhaps the Velcro President ought to consider hiring the Teflon President's scriptwriters.

JAMES R. GALLAGHER

Huntington Beach

The job summit is another exercise in futility and casuistry (March 15). The leaders of the G-7 are crying in their soup about the high unemployment in their respective, heretofore affluent democracies, and yet put in place mechanisms and incentives in the name of free trade and global competition that tend to make unemployment and underemployment a structural and long-term, rather than cyclical, phenomenon.

The blame is often placed on the victims of unemployment: They are not sufficiently trained, lack of basic skills, too expensive, too much regulation, too much taxation, etc. It is difficult to swallow the "lack of training" story when you hear that IBM, Apple, GM, and dozens more Fortune 500 companies lay off hundreds of thousands of workers, most of them highly skilled and college graduates. Does our government propose to retrain them to flip hamburgers?

In this country we have created tax incentives to destroy jobs. Every announcement of a downsizing, merger, restructuring is inevitably followed by a statement of how many workers will be let go, and of how much it is going to cost and impact profits for the period: hundreds of millions, billions in some cases. Read: The taxpayer is going to subsidize the layoffs by sheltering corporate profits. Which, of course, is a double hit since the taxpayer is also paying for unemployment compensation and all the other programs designed by government to fix the problem. A problem that, by its own policies, the government had a major role in creating.

MANUEL MORENO

La Jolla

In Detroit, President Clinton called on the world's leading industrial democracies to embrace the technological changes that are shaking their economies.

Whether embraced or not, there are growing concerns that the improvement in technology leads to layoffs.

The industrial nations must admit that unemployment, whether 6% or 16%, is inevitable when advanced technologies cause substantial reductions in employment. They must move beyond President Clinton's symbolism and carefully crafted rhetoric about future benefits generated by technological changes. They must provide jobs for the jobless.

JOSEPH WALDBAUM

North Hollywood

In the more than 2,000 words in your March 7 story about Mike Reynolds and the "three strikes and you're out" movement, not one mention was made of the group that's done more than anybody else to make it a reality -- the National Rifle Assn.

The NRA has pushed three strikes laws for years now.In Washington state, a citizens' movement to put a "three strikes" initiative on the ballot failed -- until the NRA stepped in with financial, organizational and grass-roots support. From there, it's taken off, and the NRA has been deeply involved all along. With the NRA's $40,000 contribution to Mike Reynolds' organization, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of NRA magazine publicity promoting it and countless California NRA members and activists all doing their part, you could have said NRA was a crucial element in the California "three strikes" victory.

The NRA's 3.4 million law-abiding members deserve that recognition.

WAYNE R. LaPIERRE

Executive Vice President

National Rifle Assn.

Washington

All the praise and all the complaints about Los Angeles are justified.

It's a beautiful city, it's hell on Earth, it exemplifies every dream and every excess of the human race and its destiny is to run into problems sooner than the rest of us. Los Angeles pioneered freeways, earthquake-proof construction, the catalytic converter and air-pollution emission trading. It is working hard on multilingual, multiracial human relations.

The next problem that L.A. has to solve ahead of other cities is growth. There is a limit to the number of people, buildings, cars, smokestacks that can be crammed in between the mountains and the sea. At some point the growth of Los Angeles will stop. There are two ways it can stop. One is that the city becomes so ugly, so polluted, so overwhelmed with the problems caused by growth that more people and businesses move out than move in.

The other way is to stop growth deliberately, with the intention of having a city that is not only manageable, but responsible to the large hinterland from which it draws its resources and to which it returns its wastes. No city has ever done that. In a land where freedom of movement is a right, and where growth is the supposed solution to all problems, the question of how to develop without growing, to differentiate, to innovate, to get better without getting bigger has never been taken seriously.

But it is the ultimate question before all of us, with L.A. out in front. The next challenge for the incredible spunk and drive of L.A. is not how to keep growing against all bounds -- that was the problem of the 20th Century. The problem of the 21st is how to live good and just lives within limits, in harmony with the Earth and each other. Great cities can rise out of cruelty, deviousness and a refusal to be bounded. Livable cities can only be sustained out of humility, compassion and acceptance of the concept of "enough."

Can any member of Congress honestly say that decision-making in the White House will be improved, that systematic wrongs will be righted, that the American people will gain enhanced respect for their leaders or that any other gain will be achieved from holding hearings on the Whitewater affair? The idea of a "serious examination of the issues" by Congress brings a smirk to the face of anyone over 12 years old. Such is the result of media-driven politicians and scandal-driven media, which together dominate and corrupt the political process in our country today. My qualifications to offer objective comment may be in doubt; as a central figure in the Iran-Contra hearings, a bias would not be unexpected. I would only offer that I'm prepared to condemn both parties.

Time and again during the Iran-Contra hearings, there were examples of congressmen who had been kept well-informed -- who knew everything I did about Ollie North's activities -- looking down at me from the dais, intoning with false gravity, questions to which they knew the answers, criticizing policies and actions for which they had been devoted advocates months before. Theater, pure theater.

We know what those hearings produced: a popular outpouring for North, the basis for his escaping successful prosecution; and no initiatives, laws or rules that hold any promise of preventing the same thing from happening again. Let's face the facts, congressional hearings present opportunities for Congress to get on the evening news back home -- period.

Scholars have identified the roots of our political decline over the past 30 years. They include loss of confidence among Americans in the very idea of "reposing special trust and confidence" in political leaders, which started with a President's abuse of that trust during the Gulf of Tonkin episode and the Vietnam War. Popular mistrust of politicians deepened with episode upon episode of lying by public officials over the bombing of Cambodia, Watergate, congressional check-kiting and Iran-Contra.

The angry expressions of voter backlash to these events unfortunately, haven't done much to help. The election after Watergate of a huge tide of young "reform-minded" congressmen who swept away the seniority system did more harm than good. So-called election reform gave us political-action committees, which have led to everyone having a voice in Washington except the majority of the people. The separate but related phenomenon of each legislator now having his or her own financial base has left the party leaderships and machinery much less powerful and much less able to deliver votes to a President or to a cause. It also gives a President less incentive to bother trying to engage with them if they can't deliver.

In times of crisis, our country has been extraordinarily fortunate to have produced heroic leaders -- men or women of vision and courage who were not susceptible to the temporary lure of political expediency. I'm convinced that those in office today are capable of doing the right thing.

What would be your reaction if the following events occurred?

Sen. Robert Dole engages privately in heart-to-heart talks with President Clinton. The larger point Dole would make would be that both men face only two choices. One choice is hearings, which will produce much confusion and one awful sentiment among Americans: that their leaders are playing political games again. The alternative is for the President to acknowledge errors. With a pledge from Dole to discontinue the push for hearings (probably with the President's agreement to accommodate a few GOP legislative priorities), Clinton agrees to go before the people and lay everything out (to Dole's satisfaction).

On the same day, Dole makes a statesman's speech, recalling the aforementioned benchmarks of decline over the past generation and his wish to set a new course in our political discourse.

There was a time not so long ago when a President of one party -- Dwight Eisenhower -- could engage candidly with congressional leaders of the other -- Lyndon Johnson and Sam Rayburn -- and argue but in the end agree that they shared a responsibility to govern, not to engage in sustained playground fights with one another. The political upside of that kind of behavior -- Dole's and Clinton's numbers would go way up immediately -- is as clear today as it was then. But it does take courage to do the right thing.

Some people save the first dollar they ever earned; I have my first lipstick. In my closet is a large box of lipsticks, a few kept for more than three decades. Most are useless as cosmetics, but they are reminders, as exact as excerpts from my diaries, of what I used to be and how I came to be what I am now.

My passion for lipstick goes back to childhood. One of my early memories is of standing before a mirror trying to color my mouth with a red crayon. I liked to open my grandmother's handbag, search for her Tangee, and swivel it slowly up and down. I still recall the sweet fragrance and vivid orange color that somehow became muted when applied to the lips.

Although I don't associate a particular lipstick with my mother, I remember her process of application: upper lip, lower lip, blot, reapply. She now wears lipstick if my sister or I pick it out for her, but she's never shared our delight in going to cosmetic counters and trying on different shades for the better part of an afternoon, always seeking the perfect hue with the perfect sheen that will transform our faces, and thus our lives, forever.

Often it's not the color but the name that lures me. Who could resist Honey Amber, Plum Silk, Iced Rubies? I'm seduced by the rhetoric of lipstick, the way the adjectives kiss the nouns. Even Susan Brownmiller, whose book "Femininity" is strongly anti-cosmetic, can reel off the names of the five shades she wore in high school. Yet she maintains that "a brightly painted mouth" never did anything positive for her face, conversation or kissing. For me, a lipsticked mouth can dramatically enhance all three. Perhaps Brownmiller gets by just fine with a swipe of Vaseline, but my lips cry out for color.

I'm not alone in thinking that lipstick improves my words, maybe even my mind. A colleague who teaches philosophy swears that her lectures grow dull as she nervously gnaws off her lipstick. A poet assures me she finds it impossible to write unless her lips are glossed. My friend Terry insists she could never have learned a syllable of French without her rouge a levres: "Lipstick makes it easier to pronounce eu. "

You discover much about yourself by looking at your old lipsticks. "Was I really like that?" you ask. "Was I once brave enough to use up almost a whole tube of Stormy Scarlet?" Sometimes I like to dig through the box in my closet. The past is hidden there, a clue in every hue.

I find the Golden Brandy I wore in college, the Soft Sea Spice my sister wore on her wedding day. Here's the burgundy that perfectly matched my coat one winter. More memories, long abandoned, return as colors become flowers -- geranium and hibiscus, lilac and violet. And every shade of roses, roses, roses. To stimulate remembrance, Proust had his madeleine: I have my Maybelline.

Many of the cases are so worn that I can no longer read the names on the bottoms. A few must have changed color over the years. Would I really have purchased a blue lipstick? Here's one I can't part with because my father bought it for me. Goodness knows how many decades I've had this Mucho Gusto Coco Loco, and yet it still smells like fresh chocolate.

Some of the lipsticks I've saved so long have never been used at all. Why haven't I tossed them out? Because lipstick fuels not just our memories but our great expectations, our dark desires. It helps narrow the distance between the real and the imagined self. I always convince myself that next summer I will be tan and that shade I've never worn will at last look right. Or I might yet become dramatic and be able to get away with fiery fuchsia and torchy red. This Bare Berry didn't look good on me but was dazzling on Cheryl Tiegs on a magazine cover in the spring of 1980. Maybe I'll try it again.

I have never agreed with those who suggest that cosmetics are camouflage. Makeup isn't a way to cover your face, but to discover it. Lipstick isn't a means of oppression, but of expression. Do feminists wear it? Read my lips.

"A More Perfect Union" is specifically addressed to heterosexual readers. "Why Straight Americans Must Stand Up for Gay Rights" is the book's provocative subtitle, and it is more correctly described as a book about human rights than "gay rights," a term the author himself uses.

"As an invisible minority, gay men and lesbians also need civil rights protections," argues Richard D. Mohr, "in order for them to have reasonably guaranteed access to an array of fundamental rights which virtually everyone would agree are supposed to pertain equally to all persons."

Homophobia, Mohr asserts, is merely another expression of the same ugly bias that is sometimes directed at Jews, African Americans or Latinos. And gay bashing is "a form of vigilantism that bears a striking resemblance to the lynching of black men."

Thus defined, gay rights is part of the civil rights movement in America, a movement that is entitled to the support of blacks, Jews, Latinos and every minority that has known the sting of hatred, violence and discrimination.

Mohr, a professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois, gives us an all-embracing manifesto that starts out as an essay on the philosophical and jurisprudential underpinnings of civil liberty and quickly escalates into an unrestrained call to arms for gays and straights alike in the name of "gay justice."

Mohr is blunt and unsparing in his arguments in favor of gay rights. While he is hardly an in-your-face activist -- and even though his prose is always courtly and well-considered -- Mohr is not the least bit shy about demanding that gay men and lesbians be afforded the freedom to pursue their own vision of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For example, Mohr condemns the closing of gay bathhouses as a prophylactic against the spread of AIDS precisely because, as he puts it, such meeting places are so important to a sense of community and identity among gay men.

"With some slight exceptions like the gay choral movement, gay political organizations, and . . . . AIDS support groups, sex is the only mode in which gays in current culture are allowed to identify themselves to themselves," he writes. "Self-respect, such as it is, for gay men in our culture is often the product of a robust sex life."

Similarly, Mohr devotes a good deal of his book to the suggestion that "committed gay relationships" ought to be recognized as legal marriages. He argues that "gay life, like black culture, might even provide models and materials for rethinking and improving family life." And then he makes the startling proposition that "a commitment to monogamy" is one condition of marriage that is not necessarily an element of gay marriage.

The central argument in "A More Perfect Union" is rooted in the constitutional right of privacy -- the same concept that is the basis for the right of women to seek an abortion. As Mohr reads the right to privacy, it assures all Americans, men and women, gay or straight, the freedom to express themselves through their sexual identity without fear of a law against abortion or a law against sodomy. Even the threat of AIDS, he seems to argue, is no reason to abridge the right of sexual freedom.

"If independence -- the permission to guide one's life by one's own lights to an extent compatible with the like ability on the part of others -- is, as it is, a major value, one cannot respect that value while preventing people from putting themselves at risk through voluntary associations."

Again and again, Mohr draws intriguing linkages between sexuality and politics. Mohr depicts "coming out" as not merely a moment of self-discovery and self-revelation, for example, but also an overtly revolutionary gesture.

"Far from signaling immorality," he writes, "coming out to others affords one of the few remaining opportunities in ever more bureaucratic, technological and socialist societies to manifest courage."

How does the advocacy of gay rights work to the benefit of "straight America"? Mohr holds out the bland promise of a better world for all of us if only we can acknowledge that gay men and women are entitled to genuine civil liberties and not merely the back-to-the-closet policy of "Don't ask, don't tell."

"Society would be richer for acknowledging another aspect of human diversity," he exhorts. "Families with gay members would develop relations based on truth and trust rather than lies and fear. And the heterosexual majority would be better off for knowing that they are no longer trampling their gay friends and neighbors."

Still, Mohr does not quite deliver on the straightforward promise of his subtitle -- he tells us why we should stand up for gay rights, but not why we must do so. To a reader who is not already convinced, the distinction may turn out to be crucial.

TELEVISION

Oscar Ratings Hold Steady: ABC's coverage of Monday night's Academy Awards ceremonies garnered almost identical ratings as last year, which was the highest-rated Oscar telecast in 10 years. Monday's program earned a 31.1 Nielsen rating (meaning it averaged about 29.3 million homes from start to finish) and attracted 49% of available viewers. Last year's show got a 31.2 rating with 51% of the viewers. ABC estimated that about 78 million people nationwide watched at least part of Monday's show.

*

Pilots, Pilots, Pilots: More than 100 new shows are being considered for fall by the four networks. Some big names in ABC pilots are Kelly McGillis, Kirk ("Growing Pains") Cameron, Patricia ("thirtysomething") Wettig and Howie Mandel. At CBS, they are Rita Rudner, Cybill Shepherd, Dolly Parton, Dudley Moore, Cheryl Ladd, talk-show host Montel Williams and, in two sets of co-starring roles, Olympia Dukakis and Lorraine Bracco and Hal Linden and Suzanne Pleshette. NBC has projects with Gene Wilder, Martin Short, Marlon and Shawn Wayans, O.J. Simpson, Patty Duke and, as co-stars, Melissa Gilbert and Cicely Tyson. The biggest names Fox has are Don Adams and Barbara Feldon in a new version of "Get Smart."

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'Geraldo' Suit: Geraldo Rivera and the production staff of his TV talk show were sued in Los Angeles Superior Court by a man claiming he was reunited with his birth mother on the air against his wishes. Brent Jasmer says he had an agreement with the show's producers that he would only talk about his search for his mother and would not be reunited with her on the air. He alleges breach of contract, bad faith, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress. PEOPLE WATCH

Pavarotti Performs: Opera star Luciano Pavarotti performed in the Philippines Monday night, gulping down what his doctor said were as many as 37 pills before his show, which had been postponed from Friday because of a cold. Although he stepped away from the microphone to cough during pauses in the music, attendees said the tenor still hit the high notes. "I came here tonight to give all I can," a feverish Pavarotti told the cheering crowd. "I never thought it possible to arrive to this last song." The Manila show had been criticized for ticket prices as high as $900.

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Dudley Moore Arrested: British-born actor Dudley Moore was arrested at his Venice home Monday night after a woman identifying herself as the actor's girlfriend claimed he "battered" her, police said Tuesday. Moore, 58, was booked for investigation of domestic abuse and released on $50,000 bail. Police said the district attorney's office will decide whether criminal charges of "cohabitational abuse," a felony, will be filed. Ironically, it was Moore who first involved police in the incident by calling in what police termed "a possible domestic dispute" at about 7:35 p.m. A short time later, another call came from Moore's residence, this time from the unidentified woman. Police said a preliminary investigation found the woman had "sustained minor but visible trauma to the neck area" from a "physical altercation" with Moore.

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Gov. Stern?: Radio bad boy Howard Stern instantly became the best-known challenger to Mario Cuomo when he announced plans Tuesday to run for governor of New York. And he appeared to be serious, offering a platform that included passing the death penalty, getting road crews to work only at night and staggering highway tolls to prevent traffic jams. Once these three goals were achieved, Stern said, he would resign and turn the state over to his as-yet-unnamed lieutenant governor. Stern said he hopes to run as a Libertarian candidate, but he didn't address potential problems with federal regulations that would require New York stations carrying his syndicated show to give equal time to his opponents. "I'm going to win," he told his roughly 3 million listeners nationwide. "I'm going to be the next governor of New York." POP/ROCK

Chili Peppers Suit Dropped: A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday threw out a former band member's lawsuit against the Red Hot Chili Peppers, ruling that guitarist Jack Sherman had waited too long to attempt to collect damages from his expulsion from the band in 1985. Sherman claimed he was wrongly kicked out of the group and was not paid his full share of profits from the Grammy-winning band's first two albums to which he contributed. Sherman had contended he was unable to bring the case within the three-year limit because of debilitating childhood abuse that made him passive, but the judge discounted that argument. QUICK TAKES

Madonna is ready to enter the major leagues. In the upcoming issue of New York magazine, the pop star says she wants to buy a National Basketball Assn. franchise. On the top of her shopping list: the Chicago Bulls, followed by the Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat and Orlando Magic. . . . Film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert pulled out of a scheduled appearance on the "Arsenio Hall Show" Tuesday night because the talk-show host "never distanced himself from anything (Nation of Islam leader Louis) Farrakhan said" on the program three weeks ago, Siskel said. The film critics were scheduled to give a post-Oscar review. . . . Pop star Morrissey will be the first music act to play Los Angeles' refurbished Olympic Auditorium. Tickets for the April 8 show, a preview of his upcoming tour, go on sale Thursday. SHAUNA SNOW

The Mark Taper Forum's latest P.L.A.Y. (Performing for Los Angeles Youth) production, touring Southland public venues and schools, turns out to work quite nicely as a complement to the clown hit "Fool Moon," finishing its run Sunday at the Doolittle Theatre.

"Harold's Big Feat," a short comedy created and performed by Wolfe Bowart and directed by Peter C. Brosius, is billed as "a day in the life of an Everyman clown." Bowart, a professional actor with a trim athletic build, gives a skillful comic performance that starts giggles sputtering as soon as he walks on stage in red nose and nightshirt.

Bowart plays a music-loving clown named Harold, combining slapstick and other nonsense with facile timing and just a hint of European-flavored pathos. But he can't understand how to play the clarinet, no matter how loudly young audience members shout advice; his violin snaps, and his accordion rips. Surely he'll be able to get the hang of his new piano?

Not without a struggle. This is no ordinary piano.

The big brown upright (designed by Martin Zboril, who also did the cartoony set), has eyebrows, arms, toothy keys and a mind of its own. The mad interplay between clown and piano builds to a comic crescendo until Harold is swallowed by the musical monster, then returns a changed man, in top hat and tails, with a newfound talent.

Bowart's sojourn inside the piano, represented by shadow puppetry, slows the pace a bit, and the piano manipulation was somewhat clumsy at a recent performance at the Los Angeles Public Central Library's Mark Taper Auditorium. But the show triumphs thanks to Bowart's cleverness, timing and confident interaction with the audience, punctuated by talented composer Michael Silversher's whimsical sound design.

Victoria Petrovich did Bowart's clown costumes, and Michael Gilliam provided the mood lighting.

* "Harold's Big Feat," Natural History Museum, Exposition Drive, Saturday at 2 p.m. and April 2 at 1 p.m., $5-$7 . (213) 972-7392. Also at Angelica Lutheran Church, 1345 S. Burlington, Los Angeles, on April 9 at 3 and 5 p.m., free . (213) 382-6378. Running time: one hour.

A performance by Luciano Pavarotti will be the main feature of "A Tribute to Henry Mancini -- A 70th Birthday Party," April 19 at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion.Julie Andrews, Quincy Jones, Dudley Moore, John Williams and Andy Williams also will be part of the program honoring the composer. A highlights film of Mancini's career, produced by Jack Haley Jr., will also be shown.

The event, as well as a post-concert gala dinner, will benefit the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Tickets will go on sale in early April. Information: (310) 206-6431.

Kyle (Duane Martin) is a high school basketball phenom in Harlem who wants to be a college whiz and an NBA all-star. Irked that the big college recruiters have yet to sign him, he showboats on the court in the closing games of his final season. It's bad teamwork but great to watch: Kyle is totally fulfilled as he soars through the air.

"Above the Rim" would have been better had it stuck with Kyle's love for the game and depended less on a mess of tired melodrama about his involvement with a brutal drug dealer, Birdie (Tupac Shakur), and his estranged brother Shep (Leon), who had been a great neighborhood basketball star before he skipped town. It's not that this material is inappropriate to Kyle's story; it's just that it never comes to life in the way the basketball scenes do. That's the problem with sports movies: If the ball-playing footage is any good, the rest of the action tends to look like filler.

Director Jeff Pollack, who co-created NBC's "Fresh Prince of Bel Air," shoots the basketball scenes with vigor and understanding. (Some sports movies look as if they were directed by couch potatoes.) But he isn't aided by Barry Michael Cooper's script, which has Kyle rebounding among confrontations with his mother (Tonya Pinkins), his coach (David Bailey), Shep, Birdie and just about everybody else. He's supposed to be an Angry Young Man pulled between crime and ethics, but he doesn't seem to be all that angry. His fights have a trumped-up-for-high-drama feeling.

The film is much better when it drops the arch theatrics and just moves along to the great rap soundtrack. The hang-loose scenes between Kyle and his dotty friend Bugaloo (Marlon Wayans) are the best not only because they seem the most realistic but also because they don't make a big fuss about how socially conscious they are.

They make you want to shoot a few hoops.

* MPAA rating: R, for strong language and violence. Times guidelines: It includes much cussing and graphic violence.

*

'Above the Rim'

Duane Martin: Kyle

Leon: Shep

Tupac Shakur: Birdie

David Bailey: Rollins

A New Line presentation. Director Jeff Pollack. Producers Jeff Pollack and Benny Medina. Executive producer James D. Brubacker. Screenplay by Barry Michael Cooper and Jeff Pollack. Cinematographer Tom Priestley Jr. Editors Michael Ripps and James Mitchell. Costumes Karen Perry. Music Marcus Miller. Production design Ina Mayhew. Set decorator Paul Weathered. Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes.

Sparked by a double-dose of "Home Improvement," ABC sailed to its second win in as many weeks in the prime-time ratings, according to figures released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. A new episode of the sitcom, starring Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson, was No. 1 and a repeat was No. 9 among last week's 94 network programs.

ABC had three other shows in the Top 10, including its 2-week-old news series "Turning Point." And its new sitcom "Thunder Alley," despite losing 13% of its opening-week audience, still finished No. 11 with the "Home Improvement" episodes bracketing it.

The debut of "Someone Like Me," NBC's new comedy about a teen-age girl, ran second in its Monday time slot and finished No. 32 overall. But NBC said the show posted the highest ratings of any entertainment program this season among girls 12 to 17.

Fox, meanwhile, was crowing about the ratings for "Melrose Place," which finished second in its Wednesday time period. But Tuesday night continues to be an abyss for Fox: A special hosted by Magic Johnson attracted only 7% of the viewers and ranked 94th for the week. Southland Ratings

Here are A. C. Nielsen's Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. Each rating point equals 50,064 households. 04,05,22,09,08 Program Station Rating 1. Home Improvement KABC 22.3 2. Seinfeld KNBC 21.1 3. 60 Minutes KCBS 20.9 4. The Simpsons KTTV 20.8 5. Frasier KNBC 18.9 Grace Under Fire KABC 18.9 7. Roseanne KABC 18.5 8. Beverly Hills, 90210 KTTV 16.4 9. The Sinbad Show KTTV 16.3 10. Turning Point KABC 15.9 Weekly Averages

ABC 12.9

CBS 11.2

NBC 10.7

FOX 7.3 Season to Date

CBS 14.3

ABC 12.4

NBC 11.2

FOX 7.2 LEE MARGULIES

* A fund-raiser for Palmdale mayoral candidate Ron Saldivar and Palmdale City Council candidate Lydia Guzman Saldivar will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at O'hara's restaurant, 2710 E. Palmdale Blvd., Palmdale. Donation is $20 with reservations or $25 at the door.Reservations: (805) 285-3612.

* State superintendent of education candidate Delaine Eastin will speak at a dinner meeting of the National Women's Political Caucus of the San Fernando Valley beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at China 28 restaurant, 17337 Ventura Blvd., Encino. Cost is $15 per person. Reservations: (818) 763-4161.

* Mark Boos Benhard, Republican candidate for the 24th Congressional District, is scheduled to speak at a North San Fernando Valley Republican Assembly meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Galpin Ford, 15555 Roscoe Blvd., Van Nuys. Reservations: (818) 719-8828 or (818) 226-6829.

Once or twice a year, the elements all come together for a perfect moment. The planets align, and something special happens on the ice.

Once or twice a year, Stu Grimson scores a goal.

Grimson, the 6-foot-5 Mighty Duck enforcer, broke the longest streak without a goal in the NHL this season when he scored his first goal at 19:16 of the second period of a 4-3 loss to Dallas at Reunion Arena Tuesday night.

But the playoff hopes of Grimson and his teammates slipped a little further into the distance as they fell six points back with 11 games left after San Jose tied Pittsburgh.

"It was all for naught," Grimson said. "It doesn't really feel that thrilling when it doesn't count for much. It's a lot better when you can assist on a winning cause. It takes the edge off it. I really thought it might have been the lift we needed, but it turned out it wasn't."

The goal -- only the fourth of Grimson's 242-game career -- set off a celebration as Grimson skated in front of the bench, high-fiving with teammates.

"It was a beaut," Coach Ron Wilson said, after Patrik Carnback put a pretty pass on Grimson's stick on the right side of the net, and Grimson handled it deftly at his feet to beat goalie Darcy Wakaluk.

Grimson hadn't scored since Dec. 31, 1992, a stretch of 106 games without a goal. That is not the longest streak in the NHL -- Philadelphia's Rob Zettler, for one, hasn't scored in at least 125 after not scoring all last season.

But Grimson's streak this season was distinguished by how many games he has played without scoring a goal, showing the team appreciates his work enough to put him out there almost every night. The goal came in his 71st game. Only eight skaters who have appeared in at least 50 games haven't scored. Only two who have played at least 65 games -- Dallas' Doug Zmolek (70) and Ottawa's Gord Dineen (68) -- haven't scored.

Dallas took a 3-1 lead with the help of Mike Modano's 43rd and 44th goals -- both on power plays -- but Grimson's goal cut it to one just before the end of the second period.

But the spark he hoped for didn't come. Derian Hatcher made it 4-2 at 2:23 of the third, and the Ducks' third-period comeback was stopped short.

They went on the power play with 2:12 remaining when Hatcher was called for holding, but they didn't capitalize until it was too late. With the Ducks using an extra attacker in the final 1:18, Carnback scored off a rebound with 7.9 seconds left.

"I didn't know how much time was left, but when I saw seven seconds, I understood it was over," Carnback said.

The Ducks' goaltending situation, seemingly resolved when Ron Tugnutt was traded to Montreal last month, has changed again. Guy Hebert's brief hold on No. 1 is over.

Tugnutt's replacement, Mikhail Shtalenkov, has been sharp since arriving and has started the past three games. Wilson says he's essentially back to alternating, with Hebert set for the next game, though a standout performance can earn a goalie another start.

"Guy's worked hard in practice lately and I think he's gained some respect for Mikhail that might have been lacking," Wilson said. "Mikhail played well again. There's nothing wrong with having two good goalies."

There's nothing wrong with having a tough guy who can knock in the very occasional goal, either.

"Obviously scoring this late in the season, there were a lot of nights where it was starting to get kind of frustrating," said Grimson, who has contributed five assists for a career-high six points. "The opportunity has been there. I've had some near-misses, so you have to be encouraged by that. I just don't want to put myself in the position psychologically now where it's, 'OK, the pressure's off, and I can float.' I'd like to make that kind of contribution every night." Ducks Notes

Left wing Troy Loney will join the team in Boston today after remaining in Anaheim with his wife, Aafke, for the birth of their son, Clint Teagan, on Monday. . . . About $400,000 was raised at Fan Fair, a team fund raiser for the Disney GOALS youth hockey program.

Every so often, someone will wonder if I happen to know, "What's Steve Garvey doing these days?" Particularly in springtime, when camps are training baseball players to be half the player Garvey was, inquiring minds will be curious as to what Garvey is up to, whether instead of running the bases he is running a business, or running for office, or what?

Garvey is the new publisher of Sport magazine.

Journalist Steve has been on the job at the L.A.-based magazine for a few weeks now, ever since the January earthquake, in fact.

"That was my first day at work," he remembers. "I was supposed to start that morning, but the quake hit us around 4:30. Well, you know me, mister never-miss-a-game. I get dressed and go to the office on time.

"The guard is standing there at the building saying, 'What the heck are you doing here?' He's looking at me like, 'We had a little earthquake around here this morning, buddy, in case you hadn't noticed.' '

Garvey was eager to get to work, same as always. This is his spring training in the magazine business. He intends to be a hands-on publisher, not some figurehead.

Sport is one of the most venerable monthlies in the magazine trade, one that in the past has known much success. But black ink or red, it was in need of some new blood.

Corporate executives got the idea of bringing in someone who would be an ideal crossover choice, someone who could exist comfortably in each of a sport magazine's worlds -- sport and magazines. Garvey was a natural. He was someone who could be as at ease inside a boardroom meeting with business leaders and advertisers as he generally has been with writers and photographers.

"It just seemed to be the perfect idea at the perfect time," Garvey says.

Already he has taken an active role in a new design for the magazine, and will reshape some of its editorial content. He also will write a publisher's column in each issue.

One of the first issues he could address, were it not so self-serving, could be, "What's wrong with those Hall of Fame voters?"

I can only speak for myself when I say that Garvey has gotten one of my votes for baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown ever since he became eligible. So far, though, I have not been able to successfully push him over the top for the necessary number of votes, any more than I did Orlando Cepeda.

Anyone who reviews Garvey's numbers would be hard-pressed to explain why he isn't a Hall of Famer. His batting totals alone are noteworthy, but when you take into account his astounding fielding percentages at first base, his World Series and All-Star achievements and his consecutive-game streak, it is not easy to ascertain exactly where Garvey is lacking.

Then again, as they say, if getting there was easy, everybody would do it.

I asked if Garvey had ever weighed making a comeback after his retirement, a la Jim Palmer. After all, he kept himself in pretty good shape. Probably could have padded his numbers a bit.

He said: "I did think about it after my injury healed. But the first team I contacted told me, 'We can't offer you a contract, but you could come down and try out.' And the next team I contacted told me, 'We can't offer you a contract, but you could come down and try out.'

"To me, that was another example of the collusion among baseball executives. Every one would give exactly the same answer, in virtually the exact same words."

Back when he was playing for the Dodgers and later for San Diego, there was no telling where Garvey's post-career interests might take him. He dabbled in broadcasting, ventured into various business areas and had often expressed a curiosity about politics. There was some much-publicized upheaval in his personal life, then a quiet time when he didn't make the news much.

Now he publishes it. Sport magazine used to sponsor the trophy presented to baseball's most valuable players. Now, the National League's most valuable player of 1974 is running Sport magazine.

"I've gone over to the other side," Garvey says.

No, not really. The man can never be a true sports journalist. He works hard and dresses well.

Former NBA referee Earl Strom in his book, "Calling the Shots, My Five Decades in the NBA," recalled working a college game at the old Madison Square Garden in New York.

"A woman sitting on the end line was giving me (grief) the whole game. Right near the end she stood up and yelled, 'If you were my husband, I'd feed you poison mushrooms.'

"I said, 'Lady, if I was your husband, I'd eat 'em.' "

*

Trivia time: Who holds the NCAA tournament record for highest career field-goal percentage?

*

Sleepskating: Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe, writing about Boston's slow start in a recent 4-2 loss to to Pittsburgh:

"The Bruins came out like 20 skating Barney Fifes."

*

Conventional wisdom: From Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Morning News: "The late Jimmy Cannon wrote it several years ago, but it has never been more true than today:

" 'The trouble with the big leagues is that there aren't enough big leaguers.' "

*

Calling 911: Milwaukee pitcher Steve Sparks recently suffered a dislocated left shoulder in a most unusual manner. He was trying to tear a telephone book apart with his bare hands after a demonstration by a California motivational group called Radical Reality.

"This is one of the freakiest injuries I've seen," trainer John Adam said. "And a bit annoying, because I had to look up a (phone) number later."

*

The Big O's: Michael Jordan, who is now a minor leaguer, began his baseball career with the Chicago White Sox by going 0 for 14 in spring training. Did he ever have an 0-for-14 game in the NBA?

Jayson Stark of the Philadelphia Inquirer asked statistical whiz Harvey Pollack of the 76ers and he got a short answer: Get real.

Only two players in the NBA -- Tim Hardaway, 0 for 17, and Rodney McCray, 0 for 15 -- shot so many blanks during Jordan's entire career.

Jordan's worst shooting night: a three for 17 in 1986-87.

*

Queen who? Dizzy Dean, as the St. Louis Browns' announcer, when the Queen of The Netherlands took a seat in the stands below him:

"I don't know what all the commotion down there is, but it has somethin' to do with a fat lady."

*

There's a limit: Pittsburgh Manager Jim Leyland on Cincinnati owner Marge Schott throwing a birthday party for her St. Bernard, Schottzie, before a Pirates-Reds exhibition:

"I ain't singing 'Happy Birthday' to a no dog."

*

Clip this: Orlando General Manager Pat Williams on the Magic's rookie guard, Anfernee Hardaway:

"Five years from now, he'll be the most exciting athlete in the game. Like with Magic Johnson, every time he touches the ball, you'll hear the crowd oohing and aahing."

*

Trivia answer: UCLA's Bill Walton, 68.6%, 1972-74.

*

Quotebook: Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller on Jordan: "He's not a natural hitter. He couldn't hit a curveball with an ironing board." MAL FLORENCE

Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson each scored 25 points as the New Jersey Nets beat the Clippers, 105-102, Tuesday night for their sixth straight home victory.

P.J. Brown scored six of his 12 points in the final 1:44 and grabbed 16 rebounds for the Nets, who have won 14 of their last 16 at home.

New Jersey opened the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run to take an 84-79 lead.

The Clippers pulled to 97-95 on a three-pointer by Dominique Wilkins with 1:36 left before Brown hit a jumper to give the Nets a four-point lead.

Wilkins, who finished with 33 points, got a three-point play with 1:09 remaining to make it 99-98. Armon Gilliam hit two free throws to give the Nets a 101-98 lead, but Elmore Spencer's dunk off a pass from Wilkins with 38 seconds left cut New Jersey's lead to one again.

A jumper by Brown and two free throws by Anderson helped the Nets take a 105-102 lead. The Clippers had a chance to tie in the closing seconds, but Mark Jackson missed a three-pointer.Ron Harper and Spencer each scored 21 for the Clippers.

The Nets only made 34 of 90 shots (38%), but they outrebounded the Clippers, 70-49, including a 27-13 advantage on the offensive glass.

"We struggled tonight," said Net Coach Chuck Daly. "They're a very tough team to defend and we struggled to get it done offensively. P.J. was the open guy tonight. He hit two big shots."

Anderson said he has tried to encourage Brown to take the open shot.

"I keep telling P.J. to drill those shots and that's the bottom line. We all know he can make them," Anderson said.

Brown, whose 12 points was one shy of his season high, said he took Anderson's advice.

"Kenny told me not to lose my confidence and to take the shot if it was there," Brown said. "At the end, I took those shots with confidence and that's the whole key to this game."

Clipper Coach Bob Weiss said rebounding was the difference.

"This was a frustrating loss," he said. "We scrapped but just couldn't keep them off the offensive boards."

Wayne Gretzky is going to break the NHL goal-scoring record any minute now, but, funny, I have always admired him more for his assists. . . .

He broke the NHL assist record six years ago. . . .

He has led the league in goals four times and in assists 12 times. . . .

He hasn't won a goal-scoring title since 1987, but is about to win his fourth assist title in the last five years. . . .

He is Magic Johnson on a fast break, usually preferring to feed a teammate rather than shooting. . . .

Gretzky lends a helping hand off the ice, too. . . .

His charitable contributions are numerous, and most are made without attention being called to them. . . .

He is a tireless promoter of his sport. . . .

He makes my job more pleasant by giving thoughtful, quotable answers to questions, often even after losses. . . .

Prediction for tonight's King-Vancouver game at the Forum: Gretzky will get goal No. 802 and assists Nos. 1,647, 1,648 and 1,649. . . .

Craig Janney's Canuck career sure was disappointing. . . .

Cam Neely won't play another game for the Boston Bruins this season, but I would still vote him NHL most valuable player. . . .

The Mighty Ducks must not be very confident about their playoff chances if they trade their only Western Conference All-Star, defenseman Alexei Kasatonov, to St. Louis for a junior player and a sixth-round draft choice. . . .

The New York Rangers now lead the Kings in former Edmonton Oilers, 7-5. . . .

You have to be impressed when Dodger pitching coach Ron Perranoski, not given to hyperbole, says rookie Darren Dreifort's fastball moves better than any right-hander's he has ever seen. . . .

Pitching in the Pittsburgh Pirates' minor league camp is Damon Allen, brother of Marcus and most valuable player in the Grey Cup last year as a quarterback for the Edmonton Eskimos. . . .

For the first time, baseball season will open on a Sunday night, St. Louis at Cincinnati on April 3. . . .

The guy carrying the biggest stick in the majors is third baseman Charlie Hayes of the Colorado Rockies, whose bat weighs 38 ounces. . . .

A young Baltimore Oriole to watch is Jeffrey Hammonds, the left fielder from Stanford. . . .

*

Two of the 16 finalists for the Wooden Award, Clifford Rozier of Louisville and Khalid Reeves of Arizona, will meet Thursday in the West Regional at the Sports Arena, which used to be home court for Wooden's UCLA Bruins. . . .

Of course, the prohibitive favorite is Glenn Robinson from Wooden's alma mater, Purdue. . . .

Jason Kidd -- a brilliant playmaker and defender but a mediocre shooter -- figures to be selected second, third or fourth behind Robinsion in the draft. . . .

Consider yourself a college hoops fanatic if you can recite the names of the teams remaining in the National Invitation Tournament. . . .

The two-point conversion rule is another reason the Raiders should pick a running back in the first round of the draft, or, if they have the money after cutting some veterans at other positions, sign a free-agent runner. . . .

If Burt Bacharach's Soul Of The Matter faces Powis Castle, the Santa Anita Derby won't be missing a beat April 9. Powis Castle is owned by the Vistas Stables of Motown's Berry Gordy. . . .

Even though Strodes Creek and Numerous missed the two major prep races for the Santa Anita Derby, I'm not discounting them for one simple reason: trainer Charlie Whittingham. . . .

Thumbs-up to ABC for putting good-humored Al Trautwig on its World Cup announcing team. . . .

Herbie Hide's seventh-round knockout of Michael Bentt that sent Bentt to the hospital didn't exactly flatter Tommy Morrison. . . .

Bubby Brister could become the Jody Reed of the NFL. The quarterback who turned down a $2-million contract from the New Orleans Saints might re-sign with the Philadelphia Eagles for $1 million. . . .

The defensive tackle expected to be drafted No. 1 overall by the Cincinnati Bengals -- 6-foot-4, 313-pound Dan Wilkinson of Ohio State -- ran 40 yards in 4.72 seconds at the scouting combine. . . .

Among free agents who have worked out for the San Francisco 49ers is Tony Bennett.

With three consecutive winning records and the school's surprising run through the NCAA tournament, Tulsa Coach Tubby Smith is one of the hottest coaching prospects around.

Tennessee has asked for permission to meet with Smith, and outgoing Tulsa athletic director Rick Dickson said he has received a couple of other feelers.

"We're just telling everybody they need to wait until basketball is over," said Dickson, who will leave next month to become athletic director at Washington State. Tulsa will play Arkansas in the Midwest Regional semifinals Friday night in Dallas.

Smith said he is willing to listen to offers, "but I'm really going to listen to the University of Tulsa first." He said that Tennessee was an offer he would listen to, but he declined to elaborate.

"This is where I want to be at this point," Smith said. "I think we've got a program well on its way to being what we all hope we can do. You've got to do the best job you can where you are. If you do, people are going to recognize you're doing a good job, and you're going to always be in demand. That's what I want to do."

Smith was left with no returning starters when he took over for J.D. Barnett, but still managed a 17-13 record and lost by three points in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament final. The next year, Tulsa learned it was banned from postseason play only three days before the season started because of NCAA violations by the track team.

This year, Tulsa won the MVC regular-season title and 20 games for the first time since 1987. Throughout the season, Smith has had a five-year contract extension on his desk. Smith said he hasn't signed it because he wanted to concentrate solely on basketball.

*

Starting forward Donyell Marshall has a sprained ankle and has been unable to practice, Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said. However, he said there is no ligament damage and not much swelling, and team doctors expect Marshall to recover in time for Friday's game against Florida.

Rick Barnes, who coached Providence to the Big East tournament championship this year, was hired to replace Cliff Ellis as coach at Clemson.

Ellis said in January that this would be his last season at Clemson after 10 years.

Western Kentucky's Ralph Willard is expected to be hired at Providence within a week, The Providence Journal-Bulletin reported.

Barnes was 108-76 in six seasons at Providence and took the Friars to three NCAA tournaments and two NITs. Providence, 20-10 this year, ended its season Thursday with an NCAA tournament loss to Alabama.

Clemson ended the regular season 15-14 and lost to Duke in the second round of the ACC tournament. The Tigers beat West Virginia in the second round of the NIT Monday night and will play Vanderbilt tonight.

No matter what happens at the Sports Arena on Thursday night, Missouri Coach Norm Stewart is in better shape than he was the last time the Tigers played Syracuse.

"This is a better deal for me," Stewart said in Columbia, Mo., on Tuesday.

But when the Orangemen beat Missouri, 83-80, on March 24, 1989, Stewart was in no shape to be behind the bench. He had undergone treatment for colon cancer and a diseased gallbladder and was too weak to even think about getting back to coaching.

"I was just trying to get well," he says.

Stewart, 59, has made a full recovery and will not miss the final 16 matchup this time around, although he acknowledges that while he hasn't slowed down much, there is a difference. He said the simple knowledge that he is "on the right side of the grass" has given him a new perspective.

"I'm not as instinctive as I used to be," he said.

The Tigers, seeded No. 1 in the West, are making their fifth trip to the final 16. Their best finish under Stewart was in 1976, when they lost in the regional finals to Michigan.

*

Louisville Coach Denny Crum says defense has been the difference for his Cardinals this season.

"We've not gotten any credit for our defense," Crum says. "Nobody thinks of Louisville playing defense, but defense is what has carried us."

Louisville has limited 21 opponents to less than 42% shooting and 40.5% overall in 33 games. The Cardinals also average nine steals.

Louisville, which has won eight of its last nine games, will be tested by an Arizona offense that is averaging 90.2 points. The Wildcats have made a school-record 258 three-point shots.

The National Invitation Tournament is not a consolation prize for every team in its field.

When it's your first postseason appearance in 36 years in Division I, the NIT is serious and losing is devastating.

"There are 13 kids down here, and they are all crying because it means a lot to them," said Gonzaga Coach Dan Fitzgerald after his Bulldogs (22-8) were beaten, 66-64, by Kansas State (19-12) at Manhattan, Kan. "I told them this was something that we will remember for the rest of our lives."

Askia Jones scored a game-high 22 points, including two free throws with 4.9 seconds to play, to preserve the win for Kansas State, which now plays Fresno State.

Bradley 79, Old Dominion 75 -- Deon Jackson scored 27 points and Bradley (23-7) rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to beat the Monarchs (21-10) at Peoria, Ill., and advance to a quarterfinal game against Sienna on Thursday.

Siena 89, Tulane 79 -- Doremus Bennerman scored 33 points for the second consecutive game, leading Siena (23-7) past the Green Wave (18-11) at Albany, N.Y.

Fresno State 68, Brigham Young 66 -- Seth Marshall sank two free throws in the final 11 seconds, lifting the Bulldogs (21-10) over the Cougars (22-10).

Today's practices for the teams in the NCAA West Regional at the Sports Arena will be open to the public, with no admission charged. The practice times:

Syracuse: Noon

Louisville: 1 p.m.

Missouri: 2 p.m.

Arizona: 3 p.m.

Castaic and Casitas might be the lakes for trophy-sized largemouth bass, but Riverside County's Lake Perris seems to be the place for regular bass.

"Guys have been catching 25 bass a day," said Mark Hamann, an employee at the lake.

The bass have moved into the shallows to spawn. They are averaging only 14 inches, Hamann said, but there are exceptions. Ted Ford of Los Angeles landed an 8-pound 12-ounce bass while fishing a Power Worm at the dam, and Gary Marshman of Murrieta caught a 6-pounder while fishing a plastic worm at the east end.

"Free Rudy!"

That was the cry for the last few weeks in Rancho Cordova, until a 100-year-old Maine lobster presumably destined for the dinner table was shipped back to its home waters and set free.

The giant lobster, caught in a fisherman's net and flown west to Rudy's Hideaway, a restaurant in the Sacramento suburb, spent weeks in a tank before arrangements could be made for it to be flown back east. Rudy, as the crustacean had been dubbed by restaurant personnel, was released Monday at an undisclosed site off New Hampshire.

"I was told he arrived in good shape," said Steve Ryan, owner of Rudy's. "He was lively when he got there, and when he saw the ocean he became even more lively. He was released and then he really took off."

Ryan thought he was merely getting an unusually large lobster from his East Coast broker, who normally ships 2 1/2- to 3 1/2-pound specimens. He had no way of knowing that when the giant crustacean arrived, so would the TV cameras and protesters.

"We found out after it arrived that it was not so much an 18-pound lobster, but a 100-year-old lobster," Ryan said, adding that Rudy "would have probably fed a small neighborhood."

An animal-rights group got involved in the lobster-liberation movement, and with Ryan's permission made plans to have Rudy sent back to the Atlantic.

Just as well, Ryan said. "It was the size of the Buick. It had huge claws. We probably would have needed a buzz saw to get through the shell."

*

Strong winds practically blew the Del Mar off the water, but a fishing trip promoting next month's Santa Monica Bay Halibut Derby wasn't a total bust.

The crew gave the fishery a boost of sorts by releasing 100 hatchery-raised fish into the bay.

"They were all 8- to 10-inch fish," tournament chairman John Bourget said.

The trip was cut short when a huge wave slammed against the side of the boat shortly before noon.

"It was choppy at first, but we caught five nice halibut," Bourget said. "Then all of a sudden one big, big wave came in and soaked half of the guys. After that, the skipper said it was time to head in."

The derby, proceeds from which benefit youth groups and the halibut hatchery project, will be held April 16-17. Details: (310) 450-5131.

*

Barracuda have made their annual springtime showing at various locations from San Diego to Palos Verdes, an indication that bottom-fishing for sluggish rock cod and rockfish will soon give way to surface fishing.

One of the better bites has been at Horseshoe Kelp outside of L.A. Harbor, where large female barracuda are mixed in with smaller fish. The Matt Walsh returned with 42 fish on Saturday and the First String had 25 on Monday.

There is a catch, though.

"You have to have the anchovies for bait if you want to catch them," said Mark Larson, a spokesman at L.A. Harbor Sportfishing. "And they've been hard to come by."

Strong winds hampered the fishing effort Tuesday.

*

The Golden Gate appears to have finally lost some of its luster.

The popular fishing area off Cabo San Lucas had been the site of an outstanding marlin bite since last November, but seasonal winds appear to have finally shut it down.

"The water turned green and the mackerel the marlin were feeding on have disappeared," Mario Banaga of the Pisces Fleet said. "So far (Tuesday), only one boat had some fish, three yellowfin tuna . . . small ones, about eight pounds."

Banaga said there is an abundance of larger tuna offshore and when the winds let up, the Cabo fleets should have no trouble finding porpoises and the tuna that feed beneath them.

Briefly

MISCELLANY -- The Inland Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation will hold a seminar and calling contest Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Sizzler in Corona. Details: (909) 985-5896. . . . Pacific Edge in Huntington Beach will hold a seminar covering all aspects of trailering boats into Baja California on Saturday at 11 a.m. Details: (714) 840-4262. . . . The Fly Fishers Club of Orange County will hold a casting clinic Saturday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at William Mason Park in Irvine. Details: (909) 598-7905. . . . The Claybird Classic, a sporting clays contest for amateurs, will be held Sunday at Coto Valley Shooting Club in Coto de Caza. Details: (714) 589-5000.

Geronimo Berroa, a non-roster outfielder who now is batting 17 for 34. hit two home runs to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 5-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Phoenix. . . . Brian Jordan hit a three-run homer as the St. Louis Cardinals ended a 20-inning scoreless drought with a 9-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox in St. Petersburg, Fla. . . . Will Clark's second home run of the game, a two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth, gave the Texas Rangers a 4-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in Port Charlotte, Fla.

Tino Ray Younger, girls' soccer coach at El Modena, and Harry Hutcheson, girls' coach at Capistrano Valley, announced their resignations Tuesday.

Younger stepped down after four years to concentrate on coaching in college; Hutcheson resigned after two years to work on getting a full-time teaching job.

Younger, who led the Vanguards to their first girls' soccer league title this season, also is an assistant coach at Cypress College. Cypress advanced to the State championship game last season.

Younger was named the Southern Section Division II coach of the year this season. The Vanguards finished 20-6, losing in a quarterfinal to Esperanza. Younger's record at El Modena was 53-27-14.

Hutcheson, who coached the boys' junior varsity for eight years, had a 39-10-8 record with the girls' varsity. MARTIN BECK

Whether they score 68, 78 or 28 points against New York, the Chicago Bulls aren't giving the Knicks any respect until they do once what Chicago has done for the last three years -- win an NBA title.

"The Knicks talk about respect a lot, but the only way they'll get it from us is to win a championship," Scottie Pippen said Tuesday night after the Knicks beat the Bulls, 87-78, at New York for their 10th consecutive victory.

The Knicks held the opposition under 90 points for the ninth time during their longest winning streak since they won 11 straight in 1972-73.

Hubert Davis scored 24 points for New York, including a 3-pointer with 1:51 left that capped a decisive 7-0 run.

Denver 108, Milwaukee 94 -- Mahmoud Abdul Rauf scored 22 points and Dikembe Mutombo had 14 rebounds and six blocks in the Nugget victory at Denver.

LaPhonso Ellis had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who outscored the Bucks, 33-18, in the third quarter. Eric Murdock led Milwaukee with 30 points.

Phoenix 124, Miami 118 -- The Suns rallied from an 18-point deficit against the Heat at Phoenix and won the game in overtime. A.C. Green had seven points and three rebounds in the overtime.

Kevin Johnson sparked the comeback, scoring 24 of his 35 points in the second half and overtime.

Minnesota 83, Houston 81 -- Chris Smith rebounded his own miss and scored with five seconds left to lift the Timberwolves over the Rockets at Minneapolis.

Stacey King scored 19 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked a career-high seven shots for the Timberwolves.

Charlotte 125, Philadelphia 91 -- Alonzo Mourning and Dell Curry scored 24 points apiece at Charlotte as the Hornets posted their largest victory this season and sent the 76ers to their 19th loss in 20 games.

Muggsy Bogues had 12 points and 11 assists for Charlotte. Jeff Malone paced the Sixers with 16 points.

Cleveland 93, Indiana 61 -- The Pacers were held to their lowest point total ever in their loss to the Cavaliers at Richfield, Ohio.

The 61 points were the third fewest scored by an NBA team since the 24-second clock was introduced in 1954. The lowest output since then was 57 by Milwaukee against Boston in 1955.

Golden State 117, Orlando 116 -- The Warriors overcame a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter at Oakland and beat the Magic on Billy Owens' tip-in with 21 seconds remaining. Chris Webber then blocked Dennis Scott's shot in the lane with just over five seconds left.

The Magic argued to no avail that Webber should have been called for goaltending.

Seattle 105, San Antonio 89 -- Sam Perkins scored nine of his 27 points in the fourth quarter at Seattle as the SuperSonics beat the Spurs for the third time in a row this season.

Gary Payton had 21 points and six assists for Seattle.

David Robinson led the Spurs with 27 points and eight rebounds. Willie Anderson added 18 points.

Portland 96, Sacramento 94 -- Clyde Drexler scored with one second remaining at Sacramento as the Trail Blazers snapped a five-game road losing streak. Drexler scored 28 points for Portland. Lionel Simmons led the Kings with 26.

The first John R. Wooden Classic, featuring a game between UCLA and Kentucky, will be held Dec. 3 at Anaheim Arena, it was announced Tuesday. Kansas will meet Massachusetts in the second game of the doubleheader.

UCLA and Kentucky have not met since the 1975 NCAA final that marked Wooden's last game as a coach and his 10th national title. Both games will be nationally televised, the first starting at 10:30 a.m. Tickets will go on sale in June.

Wooden joined three of his most famous former players -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton and Michael Warren -- for Tuesday's announcement in Anaheim.

"I'm flattered and proud," he said. "You have to keep your ego in the proper perspective, but I'm glad they saw fit to name this event in my honor. I think it can become something very worthwhile."

It has been a busy past seven months for Randy Ryan, who will serve as the event's president, and J.T. Visbal, who will be executive vice president. The two dreamed up the event and organized it.

Ryan said response from college coaches has been positive.

"It certainly didn't take lot of effort to get people involved who wanted to honor Coach Wooden," Ryan said. "Every major basketball program that we've talked to has indicated that they want to participate whenever they're invited."

Ryan said no commitments have been made after the first year.

The presence of Abdul-Jabbar, Walton and Warren at a news conference underlined the magic Wooden's name adds to the event.

"John Wooden and the word classic go hand in hand," Walton said.

Warren, noting Wooden's philosophy, said playing was more important than awards.

"That's why I think having an event of this type named after him is so fitting," he said.

It took almost three years, but USC has finally returned to the top of college baseball's rankings.

The Trojans, who entered the week 21-6 overall and 8-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division, are ranked No. 1 by Baseball America for the first time since May 6, 1991.

Last weekend, USC won two of three Pac-10 games against Stanford, the first time since 1981 that the Trojans won a series at Palo Alto.

USC, which has won 12 of its last 13 games, is in first place in the Pac-10 Southern Division with a half-game lead over California.

"Being ranked No. 1 is not going to bother us because teams are always out to get us anyway," said senior infielder Lionel Hastings, who was seven for 13 with a home run and five runs batted in against Stanford. "That's just part of playing at USC."

Aaron Boone is batting .384 and Walter Dawkins has hit nine home runs for the Trojans, who feature one of the country's best offensive lineups. The key to the Trojans' success, however, has been a pitching staff that has compiled a 3.16 earned-run average. Freshman Randy Flores, a left-hander, is 4-0 with a 1.46 ERA.

"He's shown a lot of moxie for a freshman," USC Coach Mike Gillespie said. "He's not intimidated by any situation."

USC is hoping to ride its No. 1 ranking to a Pac-10 title, a regional championship and its first trip to the College World Series since 1978. The Trojans will try not to stumble tonight against Loyola Marymount or this weekend against UCLA, which is 6-17 overall and 2-4 in conference.

"They've scuffled in a big way," Gillespie said of the Bruins. "But they're most definitely going to win some big games and ruin someone's season."

*

Trivia time: If former Wichita State right-hander Darren Dreifort makes the Dodgers' opening-day roster, he will become the third player from the 1993 draft to break into the major leagues. Who were the first two?

*

Welcome to L.A.: Sixth-ranked Wichita State is completing its first regular-season visit to California since 1983, and Shocker Coach Gene Stephenson sounds as if he will be glad to leave Southern California behind.

"I asked our driver how long it would take to get from our hotel in Costa Mesa to Cal State Fullerton," Stephenson said. "He told me, 'It could be 40 minutes or it could be gridlock.' I said, 'Gridlock? What's gridlock?'

"We don't have gridlock in Wichita."

What the Shockers have, once again, is a team that appears capable of reaching Omaha for the College World Series. After winning two of three against 14th-ranked Long Beach State last weekend, Wichita State (11-5) opened a two-game series against fourth-ranked Fullerton that concludes tonight.

Stephenson, in his 17th season at Wichita State, has built his program into one of the nation's best. The Shockers, the 1989 national champions, regularly draw crowds of 5,000. Stephenson has popular radio and television shows. Even pitching coach Brad Kemnitz has a radio show.

Next year, Long Beach and Fullerton will visit Wichita.

"We do enjoy coming out here," Stephenson said. "As long as the people we play return the favor."

*

Got your number: Pepperdine's 2-1 victory over Fullerton last week was the Waves' eighth in a row against the Titans, a streak that dates to 1990 and includes the 1992 national championship game.

"I can't explain it," Pepperdine Coach Andy Lopez said. "I wouldn't even know where to start."

Pepperdine begins an important three-game West Coast Conference series Friday against first-place Santa Clara, which entered the week 17-9 overall and 8-1 in conference. The Broncos have not won a conference title since 1978.

Fullerton (19-5) opens Big West Conference play Friday at San Jose State. Long Beach (17-5) travels to Nevada, and UC Santa Barbara (9-16) travels to New Mexico State in other Big West openers.

*

Trivia answer: Left-hander Brian Anderson of the Angels, the No. 3 pick overall out of Wright State, and left-hander Jeff Granger of the Kansas City Royals, the fifth pick overall out of Texas A&M.

*

Howard's end: Cal State Northridge outfielder Kevin Howard entered the week having hit four homers in his last six games.

The run started two weeks ago when he hit a grand slam in a come-from-behind victory over Hawaii to help the Matadors complete a Western Athletic Conference series sweep. Howard was one for 11 in the series before his homer.

"I don't get that excited -- that's not really my game plan," Howard said. "I just watch the game and kick back."

Howard hit for the cycle and added an additional homer in a nonconference victory over Hartford, then homered against Cal State Sacramento last weekend. He is batting .283 with six homers and 30 RBIs. The Matadors (15-2) play host to Fresno State this weekend.

Dodger left-handed reliever Steve Wilson was released Tuesday after clearing waivers.

Wilson, 29, had never equaled the success he had in helping the Dodgers down the stretch in 1991.After the Dodgers had claimed him on waivers that September from the Chicago Cubs, Wilson did not give up a run and yielded only one hit in 11 games, a total of 8.1 innings. But he faltered early during the 1992 season and lost confidence, as did Manager Tom Lasorda.

Wilson struggled as a starter at triple-A Albuquerque last season before suffering torn knee cartilage. He pitched well in winter ball and was average this spring, but left-handed reliever Gary Wayne has pitched 11 scoreless innings in eight appearances and taken the lead for the spot in the bullpen.

The Dodgers will pay Wilson $88,525 of his non-guaranteed $360,000 contract.

*

Pedro Astacio never really had a chance in Tuesday's exhibition against the Atlanta Braves at West Palm Beach. Raul Mondesi dropped a fly ball and Dave Hansen booted another play in the first inning before Astacio gave up a triple and three singles, falling behind, 5-0. The game was stopped in the top of the eighth inning because of rain, with the Braves winning 9-1. . . . Chan Ho Park and Darren Dreifort are both expected to make the trip to Los Angeles when camp breaks next week. MARYANN HUDSON

Todd Elik scored at 12:36 of the third period to give the San Jose Sharks a 2-2 tie at Pittsburgh Tuesday night, ending the Penguins' three-game winning streak.

It also moved the Sharks (65) another point ahead of Anaheim and the Kings, both with 59.

Mario Lemieux returned from a five-game absence to score one goal and set up the other in the third period. The point allowed the Penguins to move into first place ahead of the Montreal Canadiens in the Northeast Conference.

Philadelphia 6, St. Louis 3 -- Rod Brind'Amour had two goals and an assist, and Mark Recchi continued his torrent scoring pace with two assists to lift the Flyers at St. Louis.

Recchi, who is four points away from his third 100-point season, has scored 16 points in his last nine games on four goals and 12 assists.

The win moved Philadelphia ahead of Florida in the Atlantic Division, but the Flyers still trail Washington by five points for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Detroit 3, Chicago 1 -- Nicklas Lidstrom and Vyacheslav Kozlov scored first-period goals and Chris Osgood made 19 saves to lead the Red Wings to a victory over the Blackhawks at Detroit.

The win moved Detroit back into a first-place tie in the Central Division and Western Conference with Toronto. Meanwhile, Blackhawk left wing Michel Goulet, who suffered a severe concussion last Wednesday night, was released from the hospital.

Quebec 5, Boston 3 -- Craig Wolanin, Garth Butcher and Mike Ricci scored consecutive goals in the second period as the Nordiques rallied for a victory at Quebec, sending the Bruins to their fifth straight defeat.

New York Islanders 5, Tampa Bay 4 -- Vladimir Malakhov's goal 3:59 into overtime capped a five-goal rally as the Islanders came back from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Lightning in Uniondale, N.Y.

Washington 4, Hartford 1 -- Joe Juneau had a goal and two assists in his first game with Washington, and the Capitals dominated Hartford in a victory in Landover, Md.

New York Rangers 4, Calgary 4 -- A goal by newly acquired Stephane Matteau with 13.6 seconds left in the third period earned the Rangers a 4-4 tie with the Flames in Calgary, Alberta.

Maybe Angel first baseman J.T. Snow should have seen it coming.

Those early days of spring training, when Eduardo Perez and Bo Jackson stayed after practice to field ground balls at first base, should have been a clue.

"The writing was on the wall then," Snow said Tuesday. "I knew something was up. I just couldn't quite figure out what."

Snow, heralded as the second coming of Wally Joyner last season, might be spending his final days in an Angel uniform this week. He could be traded as early as Friday for New York Met pitcher Anthony Young. If not, Montreal and Pittsburgh, have expressed interest.

"It really bothered me when I first heard about it because I really want to stay," Snow said. "But I talked to a few of the veteran players and they told me this is something I can't control, so why worry about it until it happens."

Snow was summoned to the offices of Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi and assistant Tim Mead, where he was told the Angels do not want to trade him, but that something has to give.

"I realize now, more than ever, that this is a business," Snow said.

Relief pitcher Craig Lefferts, after reading in the newspaper that he is on the verge of being released, met privately with Manager Buck Rodgers.

Lefferts apparently had no idea that his job was in jeopardy.

"I've just been working on my sinker," said Lefferts, who has a 22.50 ERA. "I haven't even been concerned about my fastball, but you better believe I am now.

"I know I've got to go out and show them I'm still capable of pitching."

It made little difference in the Angels' 11-7 exhibition defeat by the Chicago Cubs at Mesa,Ariz. Lefferts gave up four hits and three earned runs in his only inning.

"I told him that he better start using that fastball because we haven't seen a major league fastball yet," Rodgers said. "It hasn't even been close. He better start getting guys out now."

Even if Lefferts starts to show improvement, the Angels probably will trade him and keep Lee Guetterman, who is 1-1 with a 6.75 ERA.

*

It may be only spring training, but the Angels are starting to become embarrassed by their 3-15 record, losing six consecutive games.

"Three wins," Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina said, "that's pitiful. I haven't been on a team that's gone 3-15 in my life."

John Dopson has unofficially become the fourth starter. He yielded nine hits and five runs -- four earned -- in five innings against the Cubs. He joins Mark Langston, Chuck Finley and Phil Leftwich in the rotation. . . . Young, who was scratched from his last Met start because of a strained groin muscle, pitched on the side for the second consecutive day with no discomfort. He is expected to make his next start Thursday or Friday, after which the Angels will decide whether to trade Snow for him.

Mark Leiter, the leading candidate to become the fifth starter, will make his Angel debut tonight against the Colorado Rockies. Leiter, who underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery last September, was examined Monday by Dr. Lewis Yocum and pronounced fit. He will make at least two appearances before the Angels make a decision by March 29.

The Angels reduced their roster to 32 players Tuesday by sending infielder P.J. Forbes and catcher Mark Delasandro to their triple-A Vancouver team. . . . American League President Bobby Brown visited Rodgers before Tuesday's night game against Arizona State. . . . The Angels, who had gone seven games without a homer, got homers by right fielder Tim Salmon and catcher Greg Myers. BOB NIGHTENGALE

Cal State Fullerton scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and held on to beat Wichita State, 3-2, Tuesday night at Titan Field.

After the Titans (20-5) loaded the bases with two walks and an error, pinch hitter Sal Mancuso singled in a run and Dante Powell followed with a two-run double for the go-ahead runs.

The Shockers (11-6) scored once in the first and once in the eighth.

Mike Parisi (5-1) struck out six and allowed two earned runs in seven innings before being relieved in the eighth by Ted Silva. Silva struck out four in two innings to earn his sixth save of the season.

Brian King and Mark Kotsay each had two hits for the Titans.

In other nonconference baseball:

Pepperdine 5, Chapman 2 -- Led by Ryan Christensen, the Waves built a 5-0 lead. Christensen had two doubles, one RBI and three runs scored.

Jason LeBlanc pitched six scoreless innings, striking out six while allowing three hits for Pepperdine (15-11).

Allister Ray pitched 6 1/3 innings for Chapman (7-15), allowing five runs, three of which were earned.

Concordia Irvine 10, Concordia Portland 4 -- Doug Senne and T.J. Wilcoxson each had two hits and scored two runs as the Eagles (6-8) won their sixth consecutive game.

Concordia Portland's record is 11-13.

Two Orange County businessmen were having dinner last year when the conversation turned to John Wooden.

That was no surprise. One, Randy Ryan, is a former vice chairman of the John R. Wooden Awards, and the other, J.T. Visbal, is a longtime admirer of the legendary UCLA coach. What could be done, they wondered, to help further perpetuate the Wooden legacy?

The idea that sprang to life was a college basketball event called the John R. Wooden Classic. And a little more than seven months later, the two announced Tuesday that the first Classic has been scheduled Dec. 3 at Anaheim Arena.

The doubleheader will feature Kansas against Massachusetts and UCLA against Kentucky. The Bruins and Wildcats have not met since the 1975 NCAA final, which marked Wooden's final game as a coach and his 10th national title. NBC will televise both games, the first starting at 10:30 a.m. (PST).

Wooden was on the dais along with three of his most famous former players -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton and Michael Warren -- for Tuesday's announcement.

"I'm flattered and proud," he said in his typical low-key style. "You have to keep your ego in the proper perspective, but I'm glad they saw fit to name this event in my honor. I think it can become something very worthwhile."

The last seven months have been busy for Ryan, who will be the event's president, and Visbal, who will be executive vice president.

"Within a couple of days of our conversation, Randy had talked to Coach Wooden about it," Visbal said. "The ball was really rolling down hill after that. I resigned from my (advertising) company and went to work full time on it." Ryan became involved with Wooden though his friendship with Richard (Duke) Llewellyn, senior vice president of the Los Angeles Athletic Club and national chairman of the Wooden awards program.

"We're very excited that we're able to bring an event of this type to Anaheim and Orange County," said Ryan, who grew up in Anaheim. "We had many other arenas contacting us, but we felt it was very important to have the event in Southern California, where Coach Wooden's family can attend. . . . And we consider the Anaheim Arena the premier arena in the country."

Four players from Southern Section Division I champion Marina will head the North team in tonight's Orange County All-Star girls' soccer game at 7:30 p.m. at Chapman University.

Rhiannon Tanaka, Amy Rubenstein, Camy Crouch and Allison Hambrick will represent Marina in the game, which features standout senior players.Players whose high school coaches are members of the Orange County Girls' Coaches Assn. are eligible to compete. North Roster

Rhiannon Tanaka (Marina), Amy Rubenstein (Marina), Camy Crouch (Marina), Allison Hambrick (Marina), Lindsay Light (Capistrano Valley), Kim Thompson (Capistrano Valley), Kim McKay (Capistrano Valley), Erin Daley (Capistrano Valley), Amy Moreno (El Modena), Kristi Hales (El Modena), Laurie Fritz (Kennedy), Sherry Simala (Fountain Valley), Kristin Ruzzi (Fullerton), Stefanie Hughes (Corona del Mar), Cheryl Williams (Corona del Mar), Joy Pelletier (Brethren Christian). South Roster

Erin Bailey (Edison), Christine Tyler (Edison), Shellee Stucker (Edison), Michelle Kaping (Edison), Julie Koudelka (Edison), Tiffany Brown (Santa Margarita), Jamie Hannefield (Santa Margarita), Tracie Manz (Estancia), Jackie Connelly (Estancia), Tita Tavares (Estancia), Jill Pool (El Toro), Camie Ramey (El Toro), Chrissy Whalen (Mater Dei), Heather Hough (Mater Dei), Sondra Carlson (Laguna Hills), Sarah Lang (Laguna Hills), Julie Tibbitts (Laguna Hills), Meagan Fleener (Newport Harbor), Jenny St. Sure (Newport Harbor), Janee Sansone (Ocean View), Jaime Greiner (San Clemente). MARTIN BECK

Corby Bouchard pitched a perfect game in University's 13-0 Sea View League softball victory over Corona del Mar Tuesday at Corona del Mar.

Bouchard struck out three. She also had two hits and scored two runs for University (4-6, 1-0).

In Sunset League softball:

Huntington Beach 13, Edison 0 (5, mercy) -- Stephanie Noffsinger pitched a no-hitter and had a triple and three runs scored for No. 6 Huntington Beach (6-1, 1-0). Edison fell to 1-5, 0-1.

To appreciate this devilish baseball game Tuesday, simply look at the Valley College line score: Six runs, six hits, six errors.

It was the kind of game Stephen King could appreciate.

Valley and Pierce combined for 15 errors and when the final popup was gingerly caught, Pierce stumbled away with a 14-6 victory in a Western State Conference South Division game.

"Wasn't that the ugliest game you've ever seen?" Valley Coach Chris Johnson asked. "They made more errors but we managed to make ours at key times."

The sloppy fielding overshadowed an excellent performance by Pierce left-hander Adam West (3-3), who gave up five singles and struck out 11 in eight innings. Right-hander Chris Frith-Smith pitched a scoreless ninth for the Brahmas (10-8, 6-3 in division play).

West also struck out 11 in a 15-6 win over the Monarchs on March 10 at Pierce.

With the score tied, 3-3, Tuesday, the Brahmas blew the game open with three runs in the fourth, three in the sixth and four in the seventh.

Third baseman Lou Tapia provided the crushing blows with two-run doubles in the sixth and seventh. He also had an RBI double in the fourth against starter Shaik Nabi (2-2).

Tapia is eight for 10 against Valley this season, including six doubles. He was five for five with three RBIs on March 10.

Pierce second baseman Cesar Martinez and first baseman Kevin Milligan also had big days.

Martinez was two for four with a two-run triple and scored four times. Milligan was three for three with a double, two RBIs and three walks.

Valley (6-12-1, 4-5) could not take enough advantage of the Pierce mistakes with the glove and stranded 10 runners. David Stevenson and Amani Smith each had two hits.

The Monarchs scored their final three runs in the seventh without a hit but with the help of four errors and two walks. Tapia had two errors in the inning and four in the game.

Bill Kernen, the Cal State Northridge baseball coach, says his team has the free-market system all messed up. The Matadors don't understand that credits are far better than debits in simple economics.

"I'm opening up a gift shop," Kernen grumbled. "But there's one difference. We give everybody the merchandise for free."

The Matadors went bust again Tuesday, allowing runs in each of the last four innings as ninth-ranked Long Beach State rallied to win in 10 innings, 5-4, in a nonconference game at Matador Field.

There was nothing cheap about the last two 49er runs. Former Westlake High standout Tim Falsken homered to lead off the ninth to tie the score, 4-4, and Nate Vopata did likewise for what proved to be the game-winner in the 10th.

Yet Kernen maintained it should never have come to that. He certainly had a point -- Long Beach (18-5) managed all of three singles off right-hander Rick Orr over the first seven innings, yet trailed only 3-2.

Orr gave up three runs over 7 1/3 innings, one earned. Even the earned run was tainted: One of Orr's knuckle-curves skidded to the backstop for a wild pitch with two out in the seventh as the 49ers closed to within 3-2.

"It's a tough pitch to control," said Orr, who walked eight, struck out six and tied a school record with four wild pitches.

Northridge still held a 3-2 lead in the eighth when third baseman Tyler Nelson threw away a grounder by Kirk Pierce for a two-base error. Pinch-runner Steve Rivera took third on a wild pitch, and after a walk, Orr was replaced by Jason Vargas.

Vargas (1-1) retired Ramon Smith on a grounder, but Rivera scored from third to tie the score, 3-3. Northridge (15-13) moved back ahead, 4-3, in the bottom of the eighth on Joey Arnold's run-scoring single with two out.

Falsken's homer leading off the ninth ended a long power drought by the 49er third baseman. Falsken missed the first 10 games with a hamstring pull, then homered on the first pitch of his first game. He didn't go deep again until he unloaded on Vargas.

The opposite-field shot hit by Vopata to open the 10th, his first, didn't seem all too dangerous when it left the bat. But left fielder Brian Vasey kept drifting in reverse until he ran out of room at the wall.

"I thought it was a popup," Vargas said. "It just kept on going back. . . . I just couldn't put (the game) away."

Neither could the offense. While holding a 3-1 lead, the Matadors botched sacrifice-bunt attempts in the sixth and seventh to short-circuit potential rallies. Northridge stranded 10 and had a runner picked off second with none out in the sixth.

"(Long Beach) did nothing offensively," Kernen said. "It was Christmas again."

Nothing seemed to go as planned for the El Camino Real High baseball team, even before its game against Granada Hills on Tuesday.

As both teams' players stood at attention awaiting the national anthem, El Camino Real Coach Mike Maio discovered the field's sound system was broken. Maio improvised and led the players in the pledge of allegiance.

Then El Camino Real had to face the music.

Granada Hills pitcher Josh Goldberg tossed a three-hitter to outduel ace Randy Wolf, 1-0, in the Northwest Valley Conference opener for both teams.

The defeat was El Camino Real's first in 13 games and Wolf's first defeat in eight starts dating to May 4, 1993.

"It's a reality check," said Wolf, a senior left-hander. "I pitched all right, but there were a lot of things I wish I did better."

Wolf (3-1), last season's City Section 4-A player of the year, struck out eight, worked his way out of several tight spots and allowed only five hits. Unfortunately for El Camino Real (5-1), one of those hits was a run-scoring double by center fielder Jimmy Landress in the third inning.

Landress drove a fastball from Wolf into the left-center field gap, driving home Bryan Weinstein from second base.

Granada Hills (5-1) hung on thanks to Goldberg (3-1), a senior left-hander.

Twice El Camino Real baserunners advanced to third base with two out, but both times Goldberg retired the next batter. In the fourth, he got Matt Tays on a called third strike, and in the sixth knocked down Tays' comebacker with his bare hand and threw him out to end the inning.

"I've been looking forward to this for a while," Goldberg said. "I came out and I was, boom -- strike! Everything was working. I kept throwing strikes and I stayed on throughout the whole game."

He was aided in the sixth by third baseman Eddie Kinsler, who made a diving catch of Steve Riback's leadoff pop fly.

"That was the play of the game," Granada Hills Coach Darryl Stroh said. "If he doesn't make that play, El Camino Real probably scores.

"(Goldberg) pitched a great game. They don't get any bigger than this."

Agoura High baseball Coach Bryan Maloney wasn't sure who his starting pitchers would be once the Marmonte League season began.

Last Thursday, Cary Gallardo made half of that decision easy.

After starting the season as the closer, Gallardo pitched a no-hitter against Van Nuys in his first start. Not surprisingly, Maloney named him the starter for today's league opener at Thousand Oaks.

"I was setting him up during the preseason to be the closer," said Maloney, whose team lost four of its first five games. "But since we weren't in the situation to use him as a closer, I thought I'd have him start and see how he handled it.

"He ended up going in there and throwing a doozy."

Gallardo, a senior right-hander, struck out eight and walked four, two of which were erased by double plays.

"The rest of the team was happier for him than he was for himself," Maloney said. "He shows no expression, never gets excited about anything. He's a very low-key type of kid." EAST VALLEY LEAGUE

Left-Handed Compliment

Roosevelt surprised Sylmar in more ways than one last week.

First of all, Sylmar Coach Gary Donatella figured he'd save ace Carlos Velazco for the championship game and throw junior varsity pitchers against host Roosevelt on Thursday in a semifinal game of the Sylmar tournament. Roosevelt responded with 19 hits in a 16-9 victory.

Secondly, the ground rules at Roosevelt seem to change depending on the number of left-handed batters in the lineup. The umpire told Donatella that Roosevelt had only one left-hander last year and any hit that cleared a 270-foot fence in right field was ruled a double.

A year later, Roosevelt is featuring five lefties. Guess what a ball hit over the right-field fence is now? A home run, of course. And Roosevelt batters hit three -- including a grand slam.

"All of them were routine fly balls on our field," said Donatella, whose team has no left-handed hitters.

*

Poly (5-1) has made great strides in a year and is proving to be one of the better teams in the region. Last year the Parrots were outscored, 55-8, in their first five games, all losses. In the same span a year later, the Parrots have outscored their opponents, 24-10. Coach Chuck Schwal attributes the turnaround to a more experienced, close-knit team.

"It's a totally different team," said Schwal, who is in his second year. "Everybody gets along this season."

Unity has its merits, but pitching is even more important. Last week, Hugo De La Torre (4-0) and Jerry Delgado (1-0) threw three-hit shutouts against Agoura and Granada Hills.

In a Valley Pac-8 Conference opener against Van Nuys on Monday, De La Torre tossed a two-hitter and extended his scoreless inning streak to 22. ALPHA LEAGUE

A Pitch for Success

Hard to believe L.A. Baptist is 5-2 considering only two players are batting over .300. The keys? Pitching and defense.

The Knights' earned-run average is 1.14. Matt Hernandez (3-0) and Nate Laufer (2-1) are keeping the team in games. Hernandez, 10-0 last season and an All-Southern Section selection, has 24 strikeouts in 21 innings and has given up only 10 hits and one earned run. Laufer has been scouted by the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants.

The Knights have turned six double plays. Except in an 8-7 loss to La Canada, the defense has been exceptional. L.A. Baptist committed eight errors against La Canada but only four in the five victories.

Infielders Matt Barker, Jeff Baumsteiger and Zack Hernandez are playing well. FOOTHILL LEAGUE

Bulldog Effort

Call Ramiro Alvarez's performance inspired. The Burbank pitcher did it all in a 2-1 victory over Fairfax last week. He threw a two-hitter, went three for three, stole home for the Bulldogs' first run and drove in the winning run with a single.

Alvarez, normally a relief pitcher, entered the game with an ERA of 11.00. CAMINO REAL LEAGUE

Bouncing Back

Bell-Jeff hit rock-bottom before finally recording a victory. The Guards lost their first four games, including a 20-2 bashing at the hands of Valley Christian before defeating St. Genevieve, 8-7.

"At least we didn't throw the towel in after that horrible loss," said Coach Craig Sherwood, who was hired in early February. He is still getting to know the players. It hasn't been easy.

"It's been a learning experience on both sides," he said. Around the Leagues . . .

* Camarillo's Jake Spahr enters today's game with hits in his last six at-bats. Through seven games, Spahr is batting .480 with eight RBIs.

* Canyon is off to a 2-4-1 start, but Mike Bland is off to the races. The sophomore second baseman is batting .550 and has a .667 on-base percentage.

* Village Christian is 7-1 behind Dave Gustafson and Mike Spielman, both of whom are batting .556. Mike Gallegos is hitting .500.

* Granada Hills center fielder Jimmy Landress is batting .529 with seven RBIs through the Highlanders' first five games.

* Moorpark soccer player Jared Kira suffered a broken leg in a Southern Section all-star game Sunday. Kira, a senior defender, was an All-Southern Section Division V selection last season.

Kennedy Cosgrove and staff writers Jeff Fletcher, Irene Garcia, Dana Haddad and Paige A. Leech contributed to this notebook.

Jessie Davenport

SCHOOL: Thousand Oaks

SPORT: Softball

YEAR: Junior

SEASON AT A GLANCE: Davenport (4-1), a hard-throwing right-hander who played behind Carrie Russell last season, has given up 10 hits in 35 innings.She has not given up an earned run.

WEEK AT A GLANCE: Davenport lost bids for perfect games in the seventh inning of two Marmonte League games last week. Against Channel Islands, she was perfect through six innings before surrendering a single. She struck out nine and finished with a two-hitter. Two days later against Royal, Davenport was perfect through 6 2/3 innings before facing Royal's toughest hitter, Tricia Pohlert, who tripled. Davenport finished with a one-hitter and seven strikeouts.

Ray Daryabigi

SCHOOL: Chatsworth

SPORT: Baseball

YEAR: Junior

SEASON AT A GLANCE: Daryabigi, a junior left-handed pitcher and outfielder, has an 0.49 earned-run average and is 3-0. As a hitter, he is 15 for 28 (.536), has scored eight runs and driven in eight.

WEEK AT A GLANCE: Daryabigi pitched a three-hit shutout with nine strikeouts against University in the first round of the Sylmar tournament Tuesday. Two days later, he drove in three runs in a semifinal victory over Bell, and in Friday's championship game against Roosevelt, he went four for four with two doubles in a 14-5 victory. For the week, he was seven for 10 with six runs batted in. "We've shortened his swing this year because he's more a contact guy," Coach Tom Meusborn said.

Aaron France pitched a three-hitter as Cypress beat Riverside, 8-1, Tuesday in Riverside and moved into first place in the Orange Empire Conference baseball race.

France (7-0) struck out six and didn't allow an earned run for the Chargers (19-5, 6-2), who are percentage points ahead of Riverside (17-5, 7-3).

Augie Ojeda and David Trentine each had three hits for Cypress.

In other Orange Empire baseball games:

Golden West 6, Orange Coast 5 -- Phil Ruhl hit a three-run double in the top of the seventh inning to cap a rally by Golden West (10-11, 4-6). Garrett Vitale had two hits, including a two-run home run, and scored two runs for Golden West. Mando Fonseca had three hits, including a triple, and scored a run for Orange Coast (3-15, 0-10).

Saddleback 8, Fullerton 2 -- Rich Kleckner was three for three with two runs batted in and Tim Wolter added three hits and three runs scored for the visiting Gauchos. Jeff Biron (3-1) pitched 5 2/3 innings to earn the victory for Saddleback (11-7-1, 6-4). John Gardikis had two hits and scored twice for Fullerton (11-10-1, 5-5). Zeke Barrios (3-2) took the loss.

In the South Bay Classic baseball tournament:

Rancho Santiago 13, East Los Angeles 5 -- Jason Minici had three hits, four RBIs and scored two runs for Rancho Santiago (18-5) in the semifinal victory.

Cypress, So.

Baseball / Pitcher

Crabtree has been one of the hottest pitchers in the state in recent weeks. He pitched an eight-hitter, giving up an unearned run in a 6-1 victory Sunday over Riverside, the state's fourth-ranked team.He had 11 strikeouts and no walks. Crabtree, a right-hander from Savanna High, was coming off a complete-game 5-2 victory over Rancho Santiago that stopped the Dons' 12-game winning streak. Crabtree (3-2) has 52 strikeouts and only nine walks in 47 2/3 innings. He hasn't walked a batter in his last 18 1/3 innings.

Other notables:

* David Biddinger, Saddleback, was six for 12, including three home runs, drove in eight runs and scored three as Saddleback won one of three games.

The defending champion Canadian duo of Isabelle Brasseur, who is skating with a cracked rib suffered in the Lillehammer Olympic Games, and Lloyd Eisler trailed the Russian twosome of Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov after the short program in the pairs competition at the World Figure Skating Championships at Chiba, Japan.

"When you're in competition, you don't want to quit," said Brasseur, who is skating against the advice of her coach and doctor.

Jenni Meno and Todd Sand of Costa Mesa, Calif.,were sixth and Kyoko Ina of Guttenberg, N.J., and Jason Dungjen of Troy, Mich., were 14th heading into tonight's long program, which accounts for two-thirds of the total score.

Also today, Canada's Elvis Stojko hopes to improve on a string of second places -- at the Olympics, the 1993 World Championships and the 1993 national championships -- when the men skate their short program.

*

The attorney for Jeff Gillooly, Tonya Harding's former husband, has told the Oregon State Bar that his critical remarks about her last month are protected by his right to free speech.

Ron Hoevet's comments accusing Harding of complicity in the assault on rival Nancy Kerrigan had drawn 30 official complaints, many from other lawyers. The bar is considering whether to discipline Hoevet, one of Portland's most prominent criminal attorneys.

In another development, Harding's lawyer dismissed a report that the figure skater wants to skate in a competition in France in May. Bob Weaver said Harding might want to return to skating, but not as soon as May because of her probation for pleading guilty to having knowledge about the attack on Kerrigan. Basketball

Jason Kidd, California's sophomore All-American point guard, has scheduled a news conference today and reports in Bay Area newspapers have said that Kidd will skip his final two collegiate seasons to make himself available for the NBA draft.

Said Cal Coach Todd Bozeman, "I can't comment on it because that would take away from (Kidd's) announcement. But you can't keep them in college forever. If you could, Lew Alcindor might have spent 10 seasons at UCLA."

Bozeman added that another Cal player, junior forward Lamond Murray, would hold a news conference later. Murray, a third-team All-American, is also expected to leave Cal early to try his luck in the NBA. Football

The Denver Broncos have turned down quarterback John Elway's offer to take a salary cut so the team can maneuver under the NFL salary cap.

Elway will be paid $3 million for the 1994 season and, under NFL salary cap rules, his $6 million signing bonus is prorated against the length of a new four-year contract. That means he will account for $4.5 million of the Broncos' $33.8 million available for player salaries.

Matt Simon, offensive coordinator at New Mexico, was hired as head coach at North Texas University, a Division I-AA school hoping to advance to Division I-A.

Kicker Eddie Murray became the third member of the Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys to leave, signing a two-year, $1-million deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. Tennis

Conchita Martinez, the defending champion and top-seeded player, beat Helen Kelesi of Canada in the second round of the $400,000 Virginia Slims of Houston, 6-3, 6-2.

Martinez, unbeaten in five matches in the Houston tournament, had four aces and won 69% of her first-serve points.

In other first-round matches, Veronika Martinek topped Dominique Monami, 6-2, 6-3; Bettina Fulco-Villella beat Laura Golarsa, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Wiltrud Probst defeated Caroline Kuhlman, 6-3, 6-4; and Sandra Cacic stopped Spain's Virginia Ruano-Pascual, 7-5, 6-0. Hockey

Chicago Blackhawk left wing Michel Goulet, who suffered a severe concussion in a game at Montreal's Forum last Wednesday night, was released from a hospital in Montreal. "I don't think I'll be playing hockey before the playoffs," Goulet said. Southland Report

The Long Beach Sports Council has filed a $35,000 lawsuit against the Women's Professional Volleyball Assn. to recover money the council says is owed from last summer's Coors Light tournament in Long Beach.

The suit alleges that the WPVA breached its contract with the sports council by failing to pay costs and perform certain services.

UC Irvine women's basketball assistant Marcus Carroll has been released from his contract after one season with the Anteaters.

Melanie Richardson outdueled Sara Griffin, the Southern Section's most valuable player last season, and host Camarillo High defeated Simi Valley, 1-0, Tuesday in a Marmonte League softball game.

Simi Valley (8-1, 2-1 in league play) is ranked No. 1 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports.

Richardson (8-1), a sophomore, pitched a one-hitter and had eight strikeouts. Julie Borchard singled home Jessica Ziese in the first inning for Camarillo (8-2, 2-1).

Thousand Oaks 1, Agoura 0 -- Jenny Bottomly singled to drive in Allison Bowman with two out in the eighth inning of a Marmonte League game at Agoura. Jessica Davenport allowed four hits for Thousand Oaks (6-1, 3-0). BOYS' VOLLEYBALL

Thousand Oaks d. Royal, 15-11, 8-15, 12-15, 15-8, 17-15 -- The Highlanders' 66-match Marmonte League winning streak was snapped by the host Lancers (6-0, 5-0).

Jason Hartman had the final kill of the seesaw match. BASEBALL

Burroughs 1, Canyon 0 -- Jim Bassett pitched a no-hitter and scored the only run of the Foothill League opener at Burroughs. Bassett (1-3) struck out eight and walked two.

Crescenta Valley 5 , Muir 1 -- Senior left-hander Jim Parque came within one out of pitching a perfect game, yielding a seventh-inning home run in a Pacific League game at Muir.

Parque (3-0) struck out 12.

Kasey Canale had two hits for Crescenta Valley (4-1, 2-0). John French hit a solo home run.

Bishop Diego 8, Fillmore 7 -- The Flashes (1-5) committed four errors in the first inning, leading to six unearned runs. Fillmore Coach Tom Ecklund, whose teams have won four section titles, said six players have quit the team -- four infielders and two pitchers.

Palmdale 2, Ridgecrest Burroughs 0 -- Left-hander David Glick pitched a three-hitter, striking out 11 in a Golden League game at Palmdale.

Chatsworth 2, Cleveland 1 -- Tony Montiel's two-run single in the first inning at Chatsworth proved decisive in the Northwest Valley Conference game. Jim DeBiase (3-1) hurled a three-hitter.

Taft 5, Kennedy 4 -- Taft overcame a 4-0 second-inning deficit to win the Northwest Valley Conference opener at Kennedy.

David Helman delivered a bases-loaded infield single and Chad Marriner added a sacrifice fly in the seventh for Taft (5-4).

Oak Park 11, Crossroads 5 -- Camron Marcarelli was three for three with three RBIs.

Reseda 7, San Fernando 5 -- Matt Rutter's grand slam in the fifth led the Regents (4-0-1) in a Northwest Valley Conference opener.

Moorpark 11, Santa Clara 1 -- Brian Garrettson had three hits and five RBIs for Moorpark (4-1, 2-0) in a Frontier League game. Baseball Top 10

Rankings of Valley-area high schools by sportswriters of The Times: 05,04,04,16,14,05 Rk LW Team League W-L 1 2 Simi Valley Marmonte 4-1 2 3 El Camino Real West Valley 5-1 3 5 Crescenta Vly. Pacific 4-1 4 1 Chatsworth West Valley 7-2 5 NR Granada Hills North Valley 5-1 6 NR Palmdale Golden 6-1 7 NR Poly East Valley 5-1 8 NR Notre Dame Mission 6-1 9 NR Alemany Mission 6-2 10 NR Newbury Park Marmonte 4-3

The Southern Section will decide Monday whether it will back a California Interscholastic Federation proposal that would grant students immediate athletic eligibility when they transfer under new open-enrollment laws.

On May 6, the Southern Section and representatives of each of the CIF's other nine sections will determine the policy.

"The CIF has been meeting with legislative analysts and the feeling is that students who transfer under these laws ought to be immediately eligible," said Dean Crowley, Southern Section commissioner.

Crowley predicted, however, the new CIF policy probably will stipulate that students who transfer by means other than open enrollment will continue to lose a year of eligibility.

Under current CIF rules, a student who transfers without changing residence loses one year of varsity eligibility.

Open-enrollment laws, which will take effect in June, allow students to attend any school in their district that is not full.

The City Section is formulating its own proposal, Commissioner Barbara Fiege said.

"At the moment, there are discussions about the rules and we intend to come out with a proposal in May," she said. Water Polo

Rich Corso, the Harvard-Westlake High water polo coach who also coaches the U.S. national team, is taking the U.S. squad to France today to compete in a major international tournament.

The eight-nation French Open will feature the top teams in the world: Italy, Russia, Spain, Hungary and the United States.

"Anytime we can get a game like this, with this kind of competition, it's fantastic," Corso said. "These are the same teams that will play in the world championships in September and also in Atlanta (in the 1996 Olympics)."

The United States will train in Marseilles for a week and then play Russia on March 30, Italy on March 31 and France on April 1.

Former Harvard-Westlake star Jim Toring, who currently plays for UCLA and the national team, will not accompany the 13-man team, Corso said, because of final exams at UCLA. Baseball

Kirk Hagge, Crescenta Valley High shortstop, has committed to play at Cal State Fullerton next season now that he has scored the NCAA-required 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

"My brother Erick really helped me prepare for the SAT," Hagge said. "I studied every night for about a month and a half for two hours."

Hagge leads the Falcons with a .615 batting average. Cycling

Thurlow Rogers of Van Nuys on Saturday won the 60-mile Visalia Cycling Classic.

Fullerton, So.

Softball / Pitcher

Robles is proving to be one of the most versatile athletes in the Orange Empire Conference. She is the conference's best pitcher and among its leading hitters.She won three games, all by shutouts, and also was six for 10 with three stolen bases. Robles, from Santa Fe Springs St. Paul High, beat Riverside, 1-0, Monday. She came back Wednesday with a 2-0 victory over Saddleback, then beat Rancho Santiago, 4-0, Friday. Robles lowered her conference earned-run average to 0.19 with the three shutouts. She also raised her batting average to .444.

Other notables:

* Brandi Kossub, Orange Coast, won the 50-yard and the 100-yard backstroke and was on four winning relay teams as OCC dominated the Cuesta Invitational.

Check out the latest status report on the U.S. women's national volleyball team and try not to wince.

A young, inexperienced U.S. team, missing most of its top stars, lost its fifth consecutive match to China, 15-6, 15-13, 15-8, Tuesday night in front of 2,045 at the Bren Center.

The five-city California "Stars and Spikes" tour against the Chinese was supposed to be a coming out party, a learning experience, for some of the top young American players.

It turned into target practice for the Chinese, who feature four former Olympians. Tuesday night's sweep was the second by the Chinese, who won two other matches in four games.

China needed only one hour 25 minutes Tuesday night to drop the United States to 5-5 on the year, a mark the Americans hope to improve on as they leave today for the Canada Cup in Winnipeg.

The Americans, who went 15-27 last season after winning the bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics, played without former Olympians Caren Kemner, Teee Williams, Tara Cross-Battle and Elaina Oden, who are playing overseas, and Kim Oden, who has retired. All but Kim Oden are expected to return by June.

In the meantime, Coach Terry Liskevych, entering his 10th year with the team, is left with a starting lineup that features two Olympians -- outside hitter Tammy Liley and setter Lori Endicott -- and several former college stars with little international experience.

"This is a young team," Liskevych said. "We usually have a young group after each Olympics, and I think this group is way ahead of where we were in 1985 and '89. Once we get our veteran players back from overseas, we'll have a good team."

The Americans could have used those veterans Tuesday night.

After China built a 10-3 lead and cruised to an easy victory in the first game, the Americans blew a 13-8 lead in the second as China scored seven consecutive points. The Americans fell behind, 5-2 and 10-4, in the final game and were never in it.

Liley, a former Arizona State and Ocean View High standout, led the Americans with 14 kills, and Elaine Youngs finished with 11.

Youngs, a former All-American at UCLA and El Toro High, also finished with a team-high four aces. But her four errors in the second game were costly, and the United States struggled to get the ball set to her all night.

"The other night, Elaine was unstoppable," Liley said, "but tonight she wasn't. We have to work at being more consistent.

"I think it hurts that our veteran players aren't here. Elaine is a great player, but she needs Tara, Elaina, and Teee here to help."

In a move that sparked criticism from environmentalists, the Navy said Tuesday that it will begin next month detonating underwater explosives to test ship hull strength -- apparently one ship at a time -- in an area west of the Channel Islands that is teeming with marine life.

The announcement of the "ship shock" testing program, published Tuesday in the legal notice sections of several Southern California newspapers, comes just three weeks after Navy officials said they planned to put the tests on hold indefinitely.

According to Navy officials, the service is seeking to initially test only the Aegis-class destroyer John Paul Jones next month in an area about 120 miles west of Point Mugu. The testing site is rich with marine mammals including migrating gray whales, and a variety of sea lions, seals, dolphins, some of which are federally endangered.

"It would appear that we want to test one vessel at a time," said Lt. Cmdr. Frank Thorp, a Navy surface fleet spokesman in San Diego. "I haven't read the documents yet, I don't really know what's going on with this (public notice). I do know that we plan to proceed with the tests sometime in April."

The Navy on Tuesday also released a new environmental assessment of the proposed testing of the John Paul Jones.

Officials at the National Marine Fisheries Service, which granted the Navy a "letter of authorization" early last month for a five-year-long "ship shock" testing program involving several of the Aegis-class warships, said the announcement took them by surprise.

Scott Smullen, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent organization of the fisheries service, said Tuesday that he was unaware of the change in the testing schedule.

"This is the first thing I've heard about this," Smullen said.

A Navy spokesman at the Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station declined to comment Tuesday, saying they had not been briefed on the details of Tuesday's announcement.

Navy officials have acknowledged that a small number of mammals may be killed during the testing.

Joel Reynolds, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit environmental organization, said the Navy's move may be an attempt to "segment" the shock trials -- some of which involve the detonation of explosives as large as 10,000 pounds.

He said the plan may be a ploy by the Navy to minimize the heated criticism from environmentalists of the $38-million testing program.

"This doesn't free them of their responsibilities," Reynolds said. "This plan -- if that's what it is -- gives us no comfort just because they are saying they wish to do the tests one at a time. All that it means is that we will now have to fight both test proposals."

Earlier this month, fisheries officials -- reportedly at the Navy's request -- said they would place their letter of authorization for the testing plan on "indefinite hold" until a testing schedule was determined and the Navy officially requested the permit.

But Navy officials said Tuesday they now are in possession of the permit. Officials declined to name a date for the test. They explained the discrepancy over whether or not they held the actual permit as a matter of "semantics."

On March 7, the Ventura City Council added its voice to the growing debate over the testing by unanimously passing a resolution -- believed the first in the county by a City Council -- that implored the Navy to use caution while conducting the tests because of the ecologically sensitive nature of the proposed test area.

Alan Godley, a Ventura-based environmental activist and a spokesman for the Earth Island Institute, said Tuesday's announcement was both frustrating and confusing.

"I think they're trying to marginalize these tests," Godley said. "They're trying to reduce them so they might appear to be insignificant. That's not the case. What they're doing is significant and shouldn't be allowed."

The federally mandated testing procedure involves the detonation of underwater explosives at various distances from the ships to determine the strength of hulls, electronics packages in the ships and crew survivability. But before each test, extensive aerial surveys of the area will be done to check for marine mammals. If any are sighted, the tests would be moved or delayed, officials said.

Reynolds said that the resources defense council, along with legal representatives of other prominent environmental groups who are opposed to the tests, will continue to meet with Navy officials over the controversial proposal and have scheduled another meeting Friday in Los Angeles. FYI

The U. S. Navy invites public comment on its plan to conduct "ship shock" testing of the destroyer John Paul Jones. Comments must be received by April 1 and should be addressed to Commander, Naval Sea Systems Command, Department of the Navy, Attn: Cmdr. E. Valdes, DDG-53 Shore Support Site, P.O. Box 82207, San Diego 92138-2207. Faxes can be sent to (619) 556-0238.

Wearing kelly green polo shirts and clutching clipboards, more than a dozen retired, out-of-town volunteers are trudging the streets of Fillmore this week, tallying earthquake damage and helping local residents rebuild their quake-ravaged lives.

The group of about 14 volunteers from the Christian Reform Church based in Grand Rapids, Mich., has descended on Fillmore from across the West and Midwest. Working with local church groups and other volunteer organizations, they hope to assess the needs of local residents and then fill in the gaps that federal disaster aid won't cover.

"When there is a disaster, at first people are jumping in and helping everyone else, but soon, they have to attend to their own business," said Henry Smit, a retired physician who volunteers at the Grand Rapids headquarters of the Christian Reform Church. "We try to send people down to organize interfaith groups and help them take ownership of a particular disaster, because they're going to be faced with it for a long time."

During the next few months, Christian Reform workers and other volunteers plan to rebuild damaged homes around the city. Christian Reform volunteers will help primarily with construction and other repair work while local volunteers will assist with the renovations and help raise money to supplement grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The nationwide, church-based group has been responding to disasters since 1962. Volunteers receive training from the American Red Cross.

Last week, members of the Christian Reform group began visiting every house in Fillmore and Piru, going door-to-door and asking homeowners whose property was damaged in the quake what still needs to be done and what kind of help they need to do it.

Some, like Fillmore resident Guadalupe Pina, 41, and her mother, Juana, 76, aren't sure just how much repair work their $2,000 FEMA grant will cover.

On Tuesday, the Pinas outlined the extent of the damage to their Saratoga Street home for Christian Reform volunteers Clancy Lappinga, 73, of Redlands, and Donald Kraker, 70, of Phoenix, Ariz. Floors, doorways, windows, plumbing, the water heater and the air conditioner were damaged.

Even with all the destruction, their house was green-tagged.

"My mother still hasn't spent the (FEMA) money because she still has to look for someone to come and fix the damage," Guadalupe Pina said on behalf of her mother, who speaks only Spanish.

Before the earthquake, Guadalupe Pina and five of her six children rented a small home in the back yard of the main house, but the quake left that home so damaged it is uninhabitable. Technically, Kraker said, the volunteers could not help rebuild the house in back because it is not owner-occupied, and they are only able to work on houses that are inhabited by the owners.

Kraker helped Guadalupe Pina fill out a four-page disaster assessment form describing the damage to her mother's house. Her mother, she said, subsists on Social Security and Guadalupe's sister, Dolores, 36, and Guadalupe's daughter Lorena, 18, hold down jobs that contribute to a household income under $6,500 per year.

Kraker said afterward that the disaster volunteers may be able to help the family.

"There's probably things she's not showing us right now that could be fixed," he said. "There's also the possibility that she would buy the materials with the FEMA money and we would do the work."

Later in the day, Kraker and Lappinga turned in the Pinas' survey form, along with the many others they accumulated during hours of walking Fillmore's tree-lined streets.

The Christian Reform volunteers are due to finish their tallying by April 2 at the latest. Next, local volunteers will wade through the many surveys, sorting residents' forms according to type and severity of need. Then, as many communities eventually do, they may ask the Christian Reform volunteers to come back and help with the actual home rebuilding. Until this latest disaster in Fillmore, John and Bertha Vis of Grand Rapids have usually arrived for the construction phase of the volunteer effort. They drywalled in Des Moines, Iowa, last September following the epic Midwestern floods. A year ago January, in Homestead, Fla., John Vis, 63, repaired roofs of homes damaged by Hurricane Andrew, and Bertha Vis, 63, painted the homes' interiors.

Tuesday, they went door-to-door in Fillmore, filling out survey forms so later volunteers would know whom to help and what to bring.

Some residents, however, insisted they really didn't need any aid at all.

"FEMA money is more or less for poor people who want to cry on somebody else's shoulder," said Robert Eckert, 75, a retired janitor whose home, yellow-tagged by structural engineers, needs a new foundation, a new chimney and a new fireplace. "I'll make it on my own. It takes guts, but you've got to have that in life."

Despite the Vises' persistent offers to connect him with a FEMA office, Eckert insisted federal help would be more trouble than it was worth. "I went up there and I got three estimates and they wanted 10 and I said, 'Forget it!' " he said. "It's just all a pain in the butt."

Eckert said he will pay the contractor -- who has already begun work on the foundation -- out of income from his Social Security checks and some rental properties he owns, and from his savings. If necessary, he said, he'll apply for a loan from Bank of America.

"Well, you might want to look at this," John Vis finally said, handing Eckert a sheet of paper with a telephone number for the California Natural Disaster Assistance Program, which awards low-interest, deferred loans to property owners.

"Hmm, I never heard of this," Eckert said, his face brightening as he studied the sheet of paper.

"You know," he said with a smile, "I may give them a call."

The slowdown of development in recent years has left Oxnard without the cash to build new roads and fund other transportation projects needed to keep traffic moving easily through some areas of the city, the City Council learned Tuesday.

Scared off by a sluggish economy, few developers have broken ground in Oxnard as of late.

As a result, development-generated traffic revenues have declined from a projected $2.7 million to an actual $553,000 during the first eight months of fiscal year 1993-94.

And next year promises to be no better.

"We have seen over the past few years a decline in development in the city," Development Services Director Tim Nanson told the council Tuesday. "Many of the dollars we saw coming in to support our vision are not materializing."

The city's vision included major projects such as new interchanges for the Ventura Freeway at Rice and Rose avenues and a new freeway bridge over the Santa Clara River.

Nanson said the idea was that developers would form assessment districts and collectively pay for needed road work. But while some big developments -- such as the Shopping at the Rose complex anchored by Wal-Mart -- have been built in the city recently, not enough new projects have been built to fund roadway improvements.

Now, Nanson said, the city is in a tough spot: Does it stay the course and wait for development to fund the road improvements? Or should the city scrape up the money to pay for the work, with the hope that development will follow and reimburse the city's cost?

"First we were waiting for development," Nanson said. "Now we're thinking maybe we need the new roadway systems to attract the new development."

Earlier this year, council members had approved a fee reduction for new development from $348 per added trip to about $174. The council reasoned that the one-time fees, which had more than tripled since 1988, were inhibiting development within the city.

On Tuesday, council members were expected to help Nanson sort it all out.

But the council stopped short of providing formal direction, instead ordering city staff members to do more homework on the subject.

"I welcome the opportunity to have this discussion," said Councilman Mike Plisky, who blasted staff members for providing a sketchy report on the matter. "I think it is long overdue. But I think to sit here and deal with broad generalizations, without seeing the entire picture, is the wrong thing to do."

Still, council members talked generally about the need to re-examine the city's road development standards. By way of example, council members said perhaps narrower roads should be allowed for some projects as a way of lowering costs.

And council members stressed the need for city staff to more aggressively pursue grants and other sources of revenue to fund transportation improvements.

Above all, council members said the city needs to guard against ever again developing a plan for transportation projects without having a guaranteed source of money to pay for them.

"The current plan is not adequate," Councilman Tom Holden said. "We kind of danced around this a little bit, but we don't have the money to do the projects we promised to put in."

Added Mayor Manuel Lopez: "The philosophy was that people who caused the need for the improvements would have to pay for them. Now we just need a way to make sure that happens."

Nearly eight months after a gunfight erupted on a crowded Ventura beach and shocked many in the community, a teen-ager with Santa Paula gang affiliations went on trial Tuesday to face four criminal charges in connection with the ordeal.

A prosecutor told a Superior Court jury that 19-year-old Alejandro Garcia put hundreds of lives in danger -- including those of young, frolicking children -- when he blasted five shots toward members of the Bad Boyz gang near the south jetty at the San Buenaventura State Beach on Aug. 5.

Deputy Public Defender Todd R. Howeth acknowledged that his client fired the first shots, but said he was only responding to previous threats when he pulled out his .44 Magnum pistol in self-defense.

Although authorities initially investigated more than half a dozen suspects in the beach incident, they were only able to get charges in direct connection with the shooting to stick against Garcia.

Garcia's 19-year-old cousin, John Sosa, was charged with accessory after the fact for trying to hide the gun Garcia used in the shooting after the suspects were stopped by police, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kim G. Gibbons. Sosa's trial is pending.

Two of three men Garcia allegedly opened fired on were charged shortly after the shootout, but those charges were eventually dropped by a judge and a grand jury for lack of evidence.

The same grand jury charged Garcia with two felonies -- assault with a firearm and grossly negligent shooting -- and two misdemeanors -- carrying a concealed firearm and carrying a loaded firearm in public.

Garcia, who authorities say is not a gang member, faces nearly 12 years in prison if convicted of all the charges.

Gibbons told jurors that more than 200 people had flocked to the beach the morning of the shooting, drawn there by warm weather and a bright sun, and not expecting to be trapped in the middle of a potentially deadly gun battle.

He said Garcia drove his Chevrolet Blazer to the beach with Sosa, another cousin and a fourth person -- all affiliated with the Santa Paula-based Crazy Boyz gang, he said.

One of the Crazy Boyz spotted the Bad Boyz on the beach, Gibbons said, "and without hesitation (Garcia) pulled out a gun and blasted five shots."

He said one bullet hit the sand three inches in front of an innocent 12-year-old boy, who was playing with his 9-year-old brother.

Gibbons told the jury that the Bad Boyz started to flee, but that at least one of them turned around and returned three shots.

"After those three shots, the defendant and his friends got back into the Blazer," Gibbons said. "The defendant reloaded his gun before driving off."

As Garcia drove down Spinnaker Drive, he took his gun out again and fired once more before being pulled over by a Ventura police officer, Gibbons said.

Gibbons also told the jury that no member of the Bad Boyz was charged because witnesses could not agree on which one fired the returned shots. Police found the gun that was used to return fire, he said, but it had been hidden in the sand, which effectively wiped off any fingerprints.

As for Garcia, Gibbons said self-defense is no excuse for his actions because, among other things, he provoked the shootout.

"The evidence will show that . . . the defendant pulled his gun out first and started shooting," Gibbons said, dismissing the defense notion that Garcia only fired into the sand.

Howeth said Garcia and his friends had gone to the beach merely to fish.

After spotting the Bad Boyz, he said, Garcia shot into the sand because he had been victimized by those gang members previously.

Howeth said Garcia moved to Fresno to live with his grandparents in 1992 because of continual verbal and physical threats from the Bad Boyz.

He came back to Santa Paula the day before the beach shooting because his sister had given birth to a baby. He decided to go fishing Aug. 5, not expecting to face off with the Bad Boyz, Howeth said.

"It was shoot or be shot," Howeth told the jury. "He was frightened."

He called the trial "a case of a young teen-ager from Santa Paula who has lived under death threats from street thugs."

"Alex Garcia has waited for this day," Howeth said of the trial. "We are going to ask you for justice because the time has come for justice."

Ventura city leaders announced Tuesday that they are one step closer to reaching a settlement with homeowners over a lawsuit about who should pay for dredging the silt in the Ventura Keys.

After months of lobbying and negotiating with Keys residents, city officials have decided that there is enough support among property owners for a settlement to merit drafting a formal agreement.

Some Keys homeowners say they are tired of fighting and spending thousands of dollars in legal fees to contest who should dredge their back-yard canals. About one-third of Keys property owners have filed lawsuits against the city and county since 1991, when the council levied assessments on homeowners to cover dredging costs.

"I'm ready to settle," said David Harris, a vocal opponent of the city. "There are very few people who are enthusiastic about the settlement, but we don't have unlimited time, and we don't have unlimited funds. We've been worn down."

City officials said 229 Keys property owners support a settlement proposal that has been circulating since September. A formal settlement agreement is expected to be distributed in May for Keys residents to sign.

But the deal could still fall apart because there are at least 11 holdouts who are not in support of the settlement, and 68 homeowners who have not responded to the proposal. City leaders said they want all Keys property owners to sign the settlement.

"We hope they'll come to their senses," Councilman Gregory L. Carson said, referring to the holdouts. "This is a settlement with everybody, and there may not be an offer any more."

If all homeowners do not agree to the settlement, the council will have to decide whether to withdraw the offer and go to court, renegotiate the offer, or settle with some homeowners and continue fighting others in court, City Atty. Peter D. Bulens said.

Keys residents have maintained for years that they should not have to pay for dredging because runoff from the county's Arundell Barranca and 28 city storm drains is responsible for dumping mud and other pollutants into the waterways.

Although about 100 property owners have sued the city and county, the settlement is being offered to all 300 homeowners because city officials are hoping to ward off future lawsuits.

Dick Massa, a Keys resident who did not respond to the settlement proposal, is not in favor of it because homeowners would be responsible for maintaining the rock walls in their back-yard canals, which could be very expensive, he said.

The settlement also calls for reducing the average annual assessment from $1,733 per property to $685, with a guarantee that the fee will increase by no more than $64 per year.

The city would pay the $2.5-million dredging costs for 1992 -- which would otherwise be covered by the assessed fees on property owners.

In turn, property owners would agree to drop their lawsuits against the city and pledge not to file future lawsuits relating to the Keys pollution.

The city and Keys homeowners have already gone one round in court. Residents lost a lawsuit last year over whether the city has the authority to assess homeowners extra taxes to pay for dredging their canals.

Massa said he thinks that most homeowners will eventually sign the settlement, including himself.

"I'll probably knuckle under," he said. "The city could tie us up for 20 years in court. It's blackmail, really. If you sign the settlement, your assessment will be around $600. If you don't, it will be about $1,800. Who's not going to take that?"

Oxnard police have arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of shooting at a pickup truck with a man and his two young daughters inside, authorities said Tuesday.

Raymond Lara, of Oxnard, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.

Juan Rodriguez told police that he was driving in the 5500 block of Cypress Road about 7:50 p.m. Monday when someone fired several bullets at his pickup truck. No one was hurt, but a witness reported seeing two men running from the scene through a field on Saviers Road north of Hueneme Road.

Several minutes later, Officer Christopher Orsini spotted Lara running in the 200 block of West Clara Street. Lara refused to stop, and was tackled by Orsini in the intersection of West Clara and Courtland streets. Police found a loaded .22-caliber handgun in his right front pants pocket, police said.

Several witnesses later identified Lara as the person who fired the shots at Rodriguez's pickup truck, police said. Investigators do not know whether Rodriguez was the intended target, police spokesman David Keith said. JULIE FIELDS

A 21-year-old man who died Monday while rock climbing in Los Padres National Forest has been identified as Robert Patrick Billingsley of Maricopa, a Ventura County coroner's official said Tuesday.

Billingsley died from a head injury after falling about 250 feet while trying to scale a cliff known as the Sespe Wall along California 33 north of Ojai, sheriff's deputies said. He died instantly, said Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate.

Billingsley's 28-year-old brother, David, was climbing the same wall and had to be rescued after his brother fell.

Wingate said both men were free-climbing without ropes or safety equipment when the accident occurred. JULIE FIELDS

A North Hollywood couple has been sentenced to three years' probation for failing to pay $12,000 in payroll taxes for employees working at the now-defunct Scandia restaurant at Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, authorities said Tuesday.

Robair and Anette Altounian were sentenced March 11 by Ventura County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch to probation and ordered to pay back $12,000 in back taxes in lieu of serving jail time, said Rosemary Shorr, a spokeswoman for the Employment Development Department.

Shorr said the Altounians failed to pay taxes on up to 50 employees who worked at their restaurant between July 1, 1992, and April 30, 1993, when the business was shut down.

Shorr said the couple avoided paying taxes by not reporting that the people were working at the restaurant.

"That was the flagrancy of it," she said. "That's why the district attorney's office wanted to prosecute these people."

The Altounians were arrested in June, 1993, and pleaded guilty in December. JULIE FIELDS

Wearing newly shined shoes and crisply pressed uniforms, more than 100 Naval Junior Reserve cadets who underwent a military inspection at Hueneme High School on Tuesday appeared much better groomed than typical high school students.

But some weren't quite tidy enough for Naval Junior Reserve Cmdr. Daniel Jorvig.

Jorvig walked slowly up and down the rows of the student cadets, stopping to inspect each person from head to toe.

And he seemed to notice everything.

"Your hat is off to the left," Jorvig said to freshman Harold Hill. "You want to have the middle of the brim right over the bridge of your nose."

Such minutiae may seem irrelevant to the many students in the Naval Junior Reserve who said they have no intention of joining the military as adults.

But Jorvig, who is based at the Naval Training Center in San Diego, said a major goal of the Reserve Officer Training Corps is to instill discipline and teach students to pay attention to detail.

"It teaches them that small things are as important as the large things," Jorvig said. "You find out in life that the small things will get you in trouble. The large things take care of themselves."

In addition to learning the proper way to wear their uniforms, students in the Naval Junior Reserve program practice military drills with dummy rifles and do course work on subjects ranging from naval history to developing better study skills.

They also have to adhere to strict classroom rules. And students who break the rules during ROTC class undergo a common form of military punishment: pushups.

"If you chew gum in our class, you do pushups," said ROTC class instructor George Thompson, a retired Navy captain.

The strict regimen has won respect from other Hueneme High students who initially poked fun at their uniformed classmates, said junior Chris Lynch, one of a handful of students who watched the military inspection Tuesday.

"At the beginning of it everybody was making fun of them, but not anymore," Chris said. "Everybody knows how much they have to do: a lot of work, a lot of pushups."

For their part, some students in the ROTC class said they signed up for the course mainly to learn self-discipline. But many others said they had a less lofty motive for taking the course: ROTC satisfies Hueneme High's physical education requirement.

As 15-year-old Angie Robles said: "It gets you out of P.E." MAIA DAVIS

The Ventura County district attorney's office has decided to appeal a judge's decision to reduce a first-degree murder conviction that a jury had imposed on a Newbury Park man, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch on Friday lowered 27-year-old Todd Love's conviction to second-degree murder, saying prosecutors had not proved that the defendant planned to kill Frank Kish, 32.

Without premeditation, Storch ruled, Love was guilty only of the lesser count.

A jury found Love guilty in December of fatally shooting Kish, his sister's boyfriend, as 911 operators heard the shooting on the phone and taped it.

Deputy Dist. Atty Michael K. Frawley, who prosecuted Love, said Tuesday that the district attorney's office will appeal to the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Ventura.

Jurors said they found Kish guilty of first-degree murder because he called 911 operators before shooting his victim and announced his murderous intentions.

Frawley said prosecutors believe that it was unlawful for the judge to reduce the verdict and "act as a 13th juror."

A spokeswoman for Storch said the judge has a policy against commenting on pending cases. Storch is scheduled to sentence Love to a maximum 18 years to life for Kish's death on April 15. Under the original jury verdict, Love would have faced 28 years to life.

Frawley said California law does not allow judges to reduce jury verdicts that are based on "sufficient, credible evidence" from the trial record. He said prosecutors, in deciding to appeal, determined that Storch had decided to re-weigh the evidence in the case without proper basis.

"He's got to respect what the jury decides," Frawley said. He said prosecutors may wait until after the Love sentencing to file the appeal. DWAYNE BRAY

Moorpark residents will have their first opportunity at a City Council meeting tonight to speak out on a proposed new ordinance to limit growth.

The council is expected to adopt an ordinance after a series of public hearings over the next several months.The ordinance will take the place of Measure F, a growth-limiting initiative that expires at the end of 1995.

Residents adopted Measure F in 1986, during a decade when Moorpark's population more than tripled, increasing from 8,000 people in 1980 to 25,000 in 1990.

Since 1990, growth has come to a near standstill in the city, but local officials say the reasons have more to do with economic reasons than the restrictive growth measure.

"Nobody is building in a down economy," said Jim Aguilera, Moorpark's director of community development. "There's really no pressure for development."

But he said the city wants to be ready when the economy rebounds.

"The ordinance is meant to kick in when the economy rolls around and we again see pressure for growth," he said.

As with Measure F, the new slow-growth ordinance is expected to limit the number of houses built to no more than 500 in any given year until 2010, when the city will reach its planned maximum population of 41,000.

City officials expect that it will take at least two months of public debate to develop a final draft of the ordinance.

In addition to the ordinance, the City Council will discuss a measure to protect the area's ridgelines from development. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the council chambers of the Moorpark Community Center, 799 Moorpark Ave. SCOTT HADLY

A hearing scheduled Tuesday on a proposal to extend Thousand Oaks Boulevard from Los Angeles County 1,000 feet to the Ventura County line as part of the giant Ahmanson Ranch housing development has been continued until April 19.

Ray Ristic, a Los Angeles County regional planning hearing officer, continued the proceedings because he wanted more time to study the proposed roadway extension before making a decision.

"I want to go out and look at the site, and I also want to talk with county counsel regarding the development," Ristic said afterward.

During the 90-minute hearing, representatives of the city of Los Angeles and Calabasas as well as several homeowner groups discussed potential traffic problems that the development would create for surrounding communities. Ahmanson Land Co. officials also spoke about steps the developer plans to take to mitigate traffic congestion.

Ahmanson wants to extend Thousand Oaks Boulevard from Mountain Gate Drive in Los Angeles County across the Ventura County line, which would also require a permit to remove nine oak trees.

The extension would be one of two main entrances to the development, which calls for 3,050 dwellings, two golf courses and 400,000 square feet of commercial space to be built in the rolling hills southeast of Simi Valley.

The Ahmanson project, approved by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in December, 1992, has been stalled because of lawsuits filed by Los Angeles County and others who would be affected by the project.

A Ventura County judge, however, earlier this month upheld the Board of Supervisors' decision to approve the project and ruled that the development's environmental impact report met all state guidelines. Los Angeles County and the other eight plaintiffs in the suit are considering filing an appeal. CARLOS V. LOZANO

Two doctors fired from a clinic that serves the county's poor said Tuesday that they were unfairly targeted because they challenged the clinic's management over patient care issues.

Martha Gonzalez and Victor Pulido stood outside Clinicas del Camino Real in Oxnard near a florescent green sign that read, "We were forced to abandon our patients."

The doctors also handed out balloons with sad faces drawn on them to children entering the clinic with their families. It was their second day of public protest over the job action, Gonzalez said.

"This clinic purports to champion the cause of the Hispanic community and here are two excellent Hispanic doctors who are fired," Gonzalez said.

Pulido said Clinicas' patients will face longer waits for appointments and lose continuity in their care because he and Gonzalez were terminated.

The doctors clashed with management when they protested a policy stating that Clinicas' physicians would not be paid if they left the clinic during a shift to care for indigent patients in the hospital, Pulido said.

"We get docked for our time lost serving in the clinic," Pulido said.

But Clinicas' Executive Director Robert Juarez said that is not true.

"That is a total falsehood," he said. "They have been paid for all amounts due to them."

Juarez said he cannot comment on why Pulido and Gonzalez were dismissed earlier this month because it is a personnel issue. But he said there was no unfair treatment.

He also contested the doctors' assertion that patient care will suffer as a result of their termination.

"All of our patients have access to other physicians that we have on staff," he said. KAY SAILLANT

Administrators and student leaders at Buena High School have met to discuss concerns over racist flyers found stuffed in student lockers, Ventura Unified School District Supt. Joseph Spirito said Tuesday.

"The principal has assured the student leadership that we don't tolerate this," Spirito said.

The leaflets were stuffed into about 1,800 lockers at the school over the weekend, he said. Students discovered them Monday morning and immediately notified faculty members, Spirito said.

Similar flyers have been found in lockers at several east county schools in recent months. The propaganda ridicules Latinos and carries a message of white supremacy.

"It was the sickest piece of literature I've ever seen," Spirito said.

Associated Student Body member Beth Denger said students were disgusted with the leaflets.

"I have a lot of friends who are minorities and they were very upset by it," she said. "A lot of people just crumpled it up and threw it away."

Police believe the flyers came from a white supremacist group based in West Covina. But officials don't know who put them in the students' lockers, Spirito said.

"It's unfortunate that we weren't able to catch them," Spirito said. "It's an open campus and anyone could have done it."

Similar flyers have appeared in soft drink packs, backpacks and pantyhose containers in stores in Ventura and Los Angeles counties since October, police have said.

The leaflets have been found stuffed into lockers at Royal and Simi Valley high schools in Simi Valley, and Westlake High in Thousand Oaks. KAY SAILLANT

Concerned with recent oil spills, Ventura County officials are seeking federal funds to conduct an inventory of local oil pipelines to find danger zones.

"Oil has always been a major issue in this county," Supervisor Maggie Kildee said during board comments at the supervisors' meeting Tuesday. "We need to get a handle on the pipelines. How old are they? How long have they been in place?"

Kildee directed Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg to secure federal funds for the inventory and return to the board with his findings.

She also requested that Wittenberg form a panel with county officials and oil company representatives to find ways to prevent future spills.

"It should be an interesting study," Wittenberg said.

Over the past three months, three oil spills in Ventura County have raised questions about the reporting system that state officials and environmentalists rely on to safeguard sensitive habitats.

The latest spill, a 30,000-gallon mixture of light crude oil and water, wound its way down a Santa Paula canyon and into the Santa Clara River on Saturday after overflowing from a Unocal storage tank.

In December, 84,000 gallons of thick crude leaked into McGrath Lake near Oxnard after a state park ranger and six other law enforcement agencies ignored early reports of the spill. Bush Oil Co. executives admitted that a pipeline leaked for three days before it was noticed.

And last week, local prosecutors served a search warrant at a Texaco facility in Ventura, suspecting that the oil company failed to report the true extent of a 370,000-gallon release of a petroleum byproduct.

Officials with the state Department of Fish and Game said they believe that the contaminant leaked from a ruptured Texaco pipeline near School Canyon Road north of Ventura.

"There are a lot of old pipelines people have forgotten about," said Supervisor Susan K. Lacey. "Those are the ones we need to look at." TINA DAUNT

A growing number of Ventura County political candidates are digging into their own pockets to finance their campaigns for some of the county's top elected positions, including two supervisorial posts.

So far, attorney Trudi K. Loh, who is running for the supervisor's seat being vacated by Maria VanderKolk, has poured $10,000 of her own money into the campaign, according to finance reports filed Tuesday.Loh reported total cash contributions of $14,475 received since Jan. 1.

Thousand Oaks Councilman Frank Schillo reported total cash contributions of $1,650, which included $1,281 of his own money. Malibu rancher Carter J. Ward loaned his campaign $1,445, while reporting no other campaign contributions.

Finance reports from former Ventura County Supervisor Madge L. Schaefer and taxpayer advocate H. Jere Robings, two other candidates, had not been received by the county elections office.

Meanwhile, Simi Valley Councilwoman Barbara Williamson, who is competing for the supervisor's seat being vacated by Vicky Howard, reported raising $11,224, far outpacing two rivals who also filed finance reports.

Williamson received $1,800 from the Public Employees Assn. of Ventura County and $750 each from Bromley Foods of Calabasas, Westwood Financial Corp., AKAI Construction Co. and several developers.

Simi Valley Councilwoman Judy Mikels raised $3,362, while parks official James Meredith reported a personal loan of $1,430. A finance report for Moorpark City Councilman Scott Montgomery was not available.

Three of six candidates for county auditor-controller also filed reports that were available Tuesday. Incumbent controller Thomas O. Mahon led the way with $7,094 in contributions; accountant Scott Weiss was second with $4,684, including a $2,300 personal loan; and accountant William Baker was last with $4,401, all of which he loaned himself. Reports for Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton and accountants Clifford Wigen and Richard Morrisset were not immediately available. CARLOS V. LOZANO

Simi Valley officials tonight will discuss plans to move ahead with development on the 67-acre lot where Simi Valley Days, the city's annual carnival, is held.

If the Planning Commission approves a series of suggested changes to the city's General Plan, the land at Los Angeles Avenue and Madera Road could become the site of a project that could include both residential and commercial buildings.

Development of the site would force Simi Valley Days organizers to find a new home for the event, which usually takes place in mid-September.

Officials from Simi Valley Days said they have long expected the land would be developed, but hope for the chance to use the property until a permanent home for the festival can be found.

"We have been looking, so far without success, for a place to locate the event for good," said David Yasman, last year's Simi Valley Days chairman. "It has become very difficult because of the buildup of the city."

City officials, who have been working with festival organizers to find another location for the event, said it is unclear how soon a development at the site would displace the festival.

Because many of the city's large parcels of vacant land have been developed, officials said it has been difficult to find a site as suitable for the festival as the present location.

"It's going to be tough for them to find something," said Laura Kuhn, deputy director of advanced planning. "There are other vacant parcels in the city, but not ones that are as large and as flat as the one they've got now."

But Yasman said he does not expect Simi Valley Days officials to oppose a development because the festival has been able to use the expansive lot for free for the past five years.

"I still think it will be a few years before anything gets going there, but they were very generous to let us use the land in the first place," he said. "I don't see us getting in the way of their plans now."

Tonight's debate will focus on dividing the land into four parcels, one for each of the three landowners and the fourth for a proposed post office.

Several attempts to build on the property before 1988 fell through, Kuhn said.

Since 1988, the parcels have been bound together by a long-range planning guideline for use of the entire 67 acres, but the owners have been unable to agree on a plan to develop the land together, Kuhn said.

Longtime Planning Commissioner Michael Piper said that despite the failures, the city is not opposed to a project going up on the site.

"I'm not sure why there hasn't been successful development of that piece of land," Piper said. "I can think of several occasions in which the city has granted the developers just about everything they wanted and still it didn't work out."

*

A spokesman for Great Western Bank, one of the three property owners, said he did not know why development has failed in the past.

"I'm not sure, but I know we have not had any real opposition," said John Tomakin, the Great Western spokesman. "Right now we're slating the land for a residential development, but it's still in its earliest stages."

The other landowners, Simi Valley Partners and Plaza International, could not be reached for comment.

Tonight's public hearing on plans for the property is scheduled for 7 p.m. in City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.

The Simi Valley City Council has reluctantly agreed to levy a $7.15 fee on every homeowner in the city for a federally mandated program to keep storm water from carrying pollutants through the streets.

City staff had recommended that the council charge nearly $20 per household to cover the $733,000 annual cost of the city's Storm Water Management Program.

But the council voted instead to lower the charge from $8 to $7.15 a year, which would raise about $265,000. The rest of the cost of the program will be paid out of the city Sanitation District's share of property tax revenues.

The program, required by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to control the spreading of pollution during storms, is administered by Ventura County officials.

Individual cities are responsible for collecting fees and handing them over to the county.

A large part of the fee pays for maintenance and operation of five water-monitoring stations in the west county. Two additional stations are planned for Simi Valley along the Arroyo Simi later this year.

In agreeing to impose the tax, council members said they were concerned about charging residents for a program required by the federal government.

"It's very difficult to sit here and look at a mandated program and figure out how you're going to fleece the people to pay for it," Councilman Bill Davis said.

Councilwoman Sandi Webb suggested that a notice be enclosed with residents' annual property tax bills informing them that the $7.15 fee is paying for a federal program.

"You have to let people know," Webb said. "Here's this tax; go yell at your congressman."

In a related matter, Mayor Greg Stratton asked the council to consider dropping a $25 fee that the city would charge residents who need to prove that they have been removed from the city's flood zone.

Last week, a federal agency reduced the city's flood zone in size, allowing more than 1,200 homeowners to drop federally mandated flood insurance.

Some insurance companies and bankers require a notarized letter before they will agree to drop the insurance, Stratton said.

The city usually charges for such letters, to cover the cost of looking up a property and confirming its status.

But since the requests will be concentrated in a small area in the middle of the city, the workload for city staff should be minimal, he said.

"It's all going to be on one map," Stratton said. "And while we have the map out, it's very cheap to go over and look at it and figure out if you're in or out."

Garry Campbell says he was NOT trying to steal that bright yellow Ventura County fire engine in front of his house just after midnight Tuesday in Thousand Oaks.

He just wanted to move it because its idling motor was keeping his four children awake, he said.

As Campbell threatened Tuesday to sue the Sheriff's Department for falsely accusing him of vehicle theft, authorities argued that his drive of less than 100 yards in the county's fire engine endangered the life of a heart-attack victim.

And it could cost Campbell up to a year in jail if he is convicted of interfering with an emergency crew, said Ventura County Sheriff's Detective Dave Ehrlich.

There are two versions of what happened.

Both begin with the same scenario: 50-year-old real estate consultant meets late-model, chrome-yellow fire engine.

By all accounts, the crew from Ventura County Fire Co. 31 pulled up in the 4200 block of Palomino Circle and parked in front of Campbell's house just after midnight, leaving the truck in neutral with the motor on.

"Someone left a firetruck in front of my house with the engine running and no one around," Campbell said angrily. "It felt like an earthquake."

After 10 or 15 minutes of rumbling, Campbell said, he called 911, thinking the truck might have been stolen and abandoned.

Then he went outside.

Seeing no one, he climbed into the engine, put it in gear and drove it down the block. He hopped out and walked back up the street, he said.

On the way home, he saw someone climb into the truck and back it up toward his house again, Campbell said, "And I tried to wave at them to say something to please don't park it in front of my house, but they ignored me."

Moments later, sheriff's deputies arrived and arrested him, he said.

"It was a stupid thing to do," Campbell admitted. "But I just wanted to get the noise away from the house so my kids (ages 12 to 23) could go back to sleep. They had to get up early and go back to school."

Company 31 Engineer Doug Beving tells a different story.

The company had examined Campbell's neighbor for heart trouble and was ready to load the man into a waiting ambulance when Beving walked outside to fetch the gurney, he said.

"I heard the engine revving up, I went inside and I wasn't counting noses so I didn't know we were all in there. And then someone said, 'Somebody else is driving the engine off!' " recalled Beving, a 20-year veteran firefighter. "I went out, and he'd already driven it around the cul-de-sac and was heading down the street."

Its air brakes still engaged, the truck was moving slowly, Beving said. So he ran after it and caught up just as it stopped at the intersection of Valley Springs Drive.

"I didn't know who was in it at the time, I just made up my mind that whoever was in it has gotta come out," Beving said. "I grabbed the door and pulled him out and said, 'Hey, what are you doing?' and he comes back with 'Well, what are you doing here?' "

Beving climbed back into the truck and prepared to back it up to the heart attack victim's house, he said, but Campbell ran around to the passenger side and tried to climb in.

Beving said he stomped on the brakes twice, hoping the truck's momentum would slam the passenger door shut before Campbell could get in. Finally, he said, he pushed a panic button that automatically radioed sheriff's deputies to signal that a firefighter was in trouble.

"It was strange behavior, I didn't know what to think," Beving said. "We've got one of the newest engines in the county, and I didn't want to see it disappear on us."

Told this version of the incident, Campbell replied, "Interesting story. . . . It's just absolutely untrue."

No matter what happened, said Detective Ehrlich, Campbell had no business moving the county fire engine.

Ehrlich said he plans to ask the district attorney to charge Campbell with interfering with an emergency crew, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail. And maybe joy-riding, too, he said.

"There's a hell of a lot more social impact than the loss of an engine or the embarrassment of (the firefighter)," said Ehrlich. "There was a man's life up at the end of the cul-de-sac on the line, too, and Mr. Campbell doesn't care because his kids have to sleep."

Ehrlich added, "Have him explain that his behavior was OK to the heart attack victim . . . next door."

"It didn't happen like they said it did," Campbell said. "I'm going to have my lawyer call the sheriffs. I'm going to sue them all for defamation of character."

The heart-attack victim, Beving said, was driven to Westlake Medical Center by ambulance. The fire engine was returned, safe and sound, to Company 31's station.

A Thousand Oaks developer's 12-year battle to build on a 47-acre lot in Newbury Park hit yet another setback as city planners reversed a ruling that would have allowed a commercial project to be built there.

The Planning Commission's vote, taken late Monday, could limit construction on the environmentally sensitive land, wiping away zoning for a shopping center and sharply reducing the number of homes permitted on the property. The decision still needs to be approved by the City Council.

Nedjatollah Cohan and his son Albert Cohen, who have fought and lost countless battles with the city over the property at Reino Road and Kimber Drive, were furious at a decision they called a "shot from the hip."

"This is ridiculous," an angry Cohen said after the meeting. "They had nothing to support this decision. It's politics, plain and simple."

But the commission, on a 3-2 vote, decided that another shopping center in Newbury Park was unnecessary and the wetlands on Cohan's property needed greater protection.

"It's pretty tough to cram a shopping center down people's throats when it's clear they don't want it," Commissioner Marilyn Carpenter said. "It's also clear that there is a strong expression of community will in terms of preserving these wetlands."

Carpenter said she agreed with a 1993 recommendation by then-Mayor Judy Lazar, which said a shopping center would require "a sea of asphalt" that could threaten the property's sensitive natural habitat.

Commission Chairman Irving Wasserman, who voted with Carpenter and Commissioner Linda Parks, said hundreds of Newbury Park residents have expressed a desire to see the wetlands preserved.

Because the items before the commission required a change in the city's General Plan, Wasserman said the normally nonpolitical commission was correct in taking some degree of public expression into account.

"Somewhere, the needs and desires of the community have to be a factor," Wasserman said. "Community opinion is what has shaped the General Plan and shaped the way this city looks."

But Cohan argued that the public did not know the facts about his property and brought in a battery of financial experts to testify to the benefits of developing the land.

After the speakers had finished, Commissioner Forrest Frields said he was convinced there was a need for commercial development at the site.

"I think the commercial viability of such a project has been amply demonstrated," Frields said. "I think it is appropriate for us to consider the need for commercial development here, and I'm sorry that we're going to see this voted down on a 3-2 vote."

Equally frustrated was Commissioner Mervyn Kopp, who, after sitting quietly through most of the meeting, became extremely vocal in opposition of the zone change.

"I am totally, 100%, unalterably opposed to the motion (to change the zoning)," Kopp said. "I say, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' "

Kopp said he believed the commission would appear inconsistent because it approved Cohan's development plans in 1992. Those plans were later overturned by the City Council.

After the council's decision, Cohan sued the city -- he lost and the case is now on appeal -- and Cohan's son said this decision may lead down the same path.

"We're just going to have to sue the city again," Cohen said. "All this is an effort to get us to sit down and negotiate and we won't do it. It's our land."

Cohen said what upset him the most about the decision was that in the 12 years he has been fighting the city, the wetlands on his property have multiplied.

The wetlands, which now stretch in two large branches through the center of the land, are the result of drainage from developments around the property.

"We have waited and waited, and now, all of a sudden, we have willows on our property and that's it," Cohen said. "Now they say, 'Sorry Mr. Cohen, but now we have to preserve the willows.' "

Foulk, Patsy R., 62, of Ventura, homemaker. Ted Mayr Funeral Home, Ventura.

Cole, Ethel B., 89, of Ventura, retired receptionist. Ted Mayr Funeral Home, Ventura.

Tackett, Earl Dean Jr., 39, of Port Hueneme, service technician. Conejo Mountain Memorial Park, Camarillo.

Ventura County obituaries are published free of charge as a public service to readers. Obituaries are based on information provided by mortuaries.

FOREIGN STOCK MARKETS: Stock index trends in native currencies and in dollars adjusted for currency fluctuations. The dollar-adjusted returns are what U.S. investors would realize.

Source: Morgan Stanley Capital International MEXICAN STOCKS

* Investors responded with a buying frenzy to the news that Manuel Camacho Solis has decided not to run for the presidency in August. The Bolsa index rocketed 128.91 points, or 5.4%, to 2,511.92, the biggest one-day rise since January, 1991.

* The market had been sinking for weeks on expectations that Camacho, the peace commissioner negotiating with Mexico's southern rebels, would challenge the ruling PRI party's candidate. His decision not to do so ends fears of a messy campaign that could derail the PRI's long-term economic plan. Analysts warn that the government still faces the challenge of reviving the economy in the short run.

The Bolsa Index Tuesday closes: 1,949.51

Source: D.A. Campbell, Times wire services SPOTLIGHT: INDIA

The economy has improved drastically in the past three years as a result of reduced tariffs, a devalued currency and new export-oriented and foreign investment policies. Finance Minister Manmohan Singh recently proposed further reforms, including cutting customs duties, widening rupee convertibility and easing taxes.

Sources: Bank of America, World Information Services

House Approves Bank Branching Bill: The House approved a bill to revamp decades-old regulations that limit the ability of banks to run branches across state lines, a move that would pave the way for coast-to-coast banking. Similar interstate branching legislation easily cleared the Senate Banking Committee last month and is awaiting a final vote by the full Senate.The Clinton Administration supports the plan. The House bill would permit healthy banks to acquire any bank in any state one year after enactment. After 18 months, banks with subsidiaries around the country could merge them into a unified branch system. State legislatures would have three years to adopt laws that would exempt their state from the plan. And banks could establish branches in any state that allows such a move.

Some useful addresses, phone numbers and publications for doing business in Malaysia:

OFFICIAL FOREIGN OFFICES

Embassy of Malaysia

2401 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20008

(202) 328-2700

The Embassy of Malaysia can answer questions about visa requirements and advice about business and trade issues.

Malaysian Consulate

350 S. Figueroa St., Suite 400

Los Angeles, CA 90071

(213) 621-2991

The local office of the Malaysian Consulate can assist with common questions; other questions may be referred to the Malaysian Embassy. A consul investment official can provide basic information about doing business in Malaysia.

Malaysian Trade Commissioner

Malaysian Consulate, Commercial Section

350 S. Figueroa St., Suite 400

Los Angeles, CA 90071

(213) 617-1000

The trade commissioner can provide detailed information about industrial and investment opportunities in Malaysia.

U.S. Embassy

376 Jalan Tun Razak

Kuala Lumpur 50444

(60-3) 248-9011

After-hours emergency number:

(60-3) 248-9409

TRADE CONTACTS

These agencies can assist businesses or offer locations and special incentives.

American Business Consul

Unit 15-01 Level 15

Amoda 22 Jalan Imbi

Kuala Lumpur 55100

(60-3) 248-2407

Fax (60-3) 243-7682

American Assn. of Malaysia

241-B Jalan Ampang

Kuala Lumpur 50450

(60-3) 248-9211

Ministry of International Trade and Industry

Block 10 Jalan Duta

Kuala Lumpur 50622

(60-3) 254-0033

Malaysian Industrial Development Authority

Wisma Damansara, 3rd-6th Floors

Jalan Semantan

Kuala Lumpur 50720

(60-3) 255-3633

Fax (60-3) 255-7970

Ministry of Finance

Block 9, 10th Floor

Government Offices Complex

Jalan Duta

Kuala Lumpur 50592

(60-3) 254-6000

Fax (60-3) 255-6264

Ministry of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs

Bangunam KUWASA 16th-20th Floors

Jalan Raja Laut

Kuala Lumpur 50350

(60-3) 293-3733

Fax (60-3) 291-1157

Bank Negara Malaysia

Jalan Dato Onn

Kuala Lumpur 50480

(60-3) 298-8044

Fax (60-3) 291-2990

MALAYSIAN STATES

Some of Malaysia's 13 federated states have industrial centers for investment and trade. Here are two.

Kedah State Economic Development Corp.

Wisma PKNK, 14th Floor

Jalan Sultan Badlishah

Alor Setar 05710

Kedah Darul Aman

(60-4) 712-455

Fax (60-4) 712-957

Perak State Economic Development Corp.

Wisma Wan Mohamed

Jalan Panglima Bukit Gantang Wahab

Ipoh 30904

Perak Darul Ridzuan

OFFSHORE INVESTMENTS

In 1989, Malaysia made the island of Labuan a free port and International Offshore Financial Center for offshore banking and investment.

Labuan Development Authority

Wisma Oceanic, Level 11

Jalan O.K.K. Awang Besar

Federal Territory of Labuan 87007

(60-87) 417-863

Fax (60-87) 417-861

Sources: Europa Publications; Malaysian Industrial Development Authority; U.S. State Department.

With its modern highway system, burgeoning industry and British-based system of laws, Malaysia is one Southeast Asian country that offers few impediments to the business traveler.

"Doing business there is very much similar to the United States," said Wan Hashim, vice consul of investments for the Malaysian Consulate in Los Angeles.

Business is conducted from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Business lunches are as common as they are in the United States. And there are no special customs to observe, such as bowing or gift giving.

Keeping religious customs in mind, however, is vital. Islam is the state religion, and you shouldn't plan a business trip that coincides with Islamic holidays, because most business people will not be in their offices. Also, many Malaysians fast during daylight hours throughout March in observance of Ramadan, making midday business meals inappropriate for that period.

Travel is also relatively safe in Malaysia. According to the U.S. State Department, major crimes against tourists are uncommon. However, petty crimes, including pickpocketing and purse snatching, are common in tourist areas, and credit card fraud rates are among the highest in the world.

Foreigners traveling in Malaysia are subject to the country's strict laws. For example, Malaysia has a mandatory death penalty for convicted drug traffickers. For more information on laws and traveling in Malaysia, you can contact the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur at (011-603) 248-9011. Getting Around

Malaysia is bordered by Thailand to the north and Singapore to the south. A modern highway runs the length of its western coast.

The country's major airline, Malaysian Airlines, offers international and domestic flights. Departures from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur, the capital, are scheduled every day except Wednesday and Friday. There are two flights on Thursday.

If you are traveling in other parts of Southeast Asia, the country is also accessible by train, bus or car from Thailand and Singapore.

The road system is modern, and all major international car rental firms have offices in Malaysia. (Although U.S. driver's licenses are acceptable, having an international license is advisable.)

Before taking the wheel, you should familiarize yourself with the road customs. For maps and information, visit the Tourist Development Corp. offices in major cities.

The best way to get around in large cities is by taxi. "It's busy, congested and very hard to drive," said Hashim, the vice consul. Taxis are cheap and readily available.

Most of the major business destinations are along the well-developed west coast. Major industrial destinations north of Kuala Lumpur include Ipoh, Alor Setar and Penang, each of which is about 45 minutes by air from Kuala Lumpur. Penang is the Malaysian equivalent of Silicon Valley, and many electronics firms based in the San Jose area have plants or offices in Penang.

Flights for Penang, Ipoh and Alor Setar leave Kuala Lumpur every hour or so. Major business destinations south of Kuala Lumpur include Malacca and Johor Baru. There are no flights to Malacca, but Johor Baru is about 45 minutes by air. The latter, across the border from Singapore and one of the country's most Westernized cities, is a frequent meeting place for Singaporean business people because food and lodging are less expensive. Money

You can exchange the Malaysian currency, the ringgit, at taxi and bus stands, airports, banks and hotels.

The exchange rate is set by the central bank, and the best rate is usually available at banks. There is no currency black market. Most large department stores accept traveler's checks. Lodging

Luxury business hotels in Kuala Lumpur include the Shangri La and the Regent Hilton. In Johor Baru, there is a Holiday Inn, and in Malacca, the Ramada Renaissance caters to business travelers. For more information on hotels and facilities, contact the Malaysian Division of Tourism in Los Angeles at (213) 689-9702.

For more information on investing in Malaysia, the Malaysian government is sponsoring a one-day seminar on investment opportunities June 7 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose.

The Minister of International Trade and Industry will be the keynote speaker.

For more information, contact the Malaysian Consulate Division of Investments at (213) 621-2661.

HEALTHY TABLE TALK: The California Medical Assn. hosts a special guest with health care on his mind today at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. President Clinton, via satellite, will answer questions from 13 carefully selected physicians who have concerns about the Clinton health-care proposal. . . . Says the association's president, David R. Holley: "We hope it will be like sitting down across the table and talking to the President."

BEYOND ARITHMETIC: Everybody knows the three Rs are reading, writing and arithmetic. But Nader Baroukh, a Chapman University junior who emigrated from Iran at age 7, suggests a fourth R fitting for an increasingly diverse culture: resolution. Baroukh suggests "we must begin teaching peaceful conflict resolution to all children," especially on racial issues. . . . Baroukh's ideas impressed the Harry S. Truman Foundation so much it has awarded him one of its prestigious $30,000 grants for graduate work at Notre Dame.

NICE SHOCK: Author Alvin Toffler will tell members of the American Electronics Assn. at the Irvine Marriott tonight that the "information" revolution is replacing industrial growth, and "brute force will give way to brain force, which will affect how we handle our armies." . . . . Toffler's "Future Shock" 24 years ago accurately predicted today's technological boom. The book still sells in the thousands each year. "It's like an oil well," says a happy Toffler. "Every year it just keeps on pumping."

THE BIG FOUR? How's this for a hot college basketball double-header: UCLA vs. Kentucky and Massachusetts vs. Kansas. That's the lineup announced Tuesday for the first John R. Wooden Classic on Dec. 3 at the Anaheim Arena. It's being put together by Orange County businessmen Randy Ryan and J.T. Visbal. Ryan says when he explained it was to honor Wooden, legendary former UCLA coach: "Teams couldn't come to me fast enough letting me know they wanted to participate."

Paul Touvier routinely extorted money from Jews and looted Jewish homes as a militia officer in Vichy France during World War II, according to court documents read at his trial Tuesday.

Touvier, 78, the first Frenchman to be tried for crimes against humanity committed during the war, denied requisitioning the homes and property of Jews in Lyons.He also denied extortion charges, made in depositions filed by four Jews soon after the Allies liberated France in 1945.

Touvier said he was a "victim of people looking for financial retribution after the war."

"They're all maniacs," he said in a raspy, high-pitched voice. "I don't agree with anything you've read. It's all fiction. (Those people) filed suits just to get money."

Touvier's memory was uncertain during the proceedings, and he fumbled for words.

Touvier, former intelligence chief for the Vichy militia, denied knowing that people were tortured with electricity one floor above his office or having worked with Klaus Barbie, the Lyons Gestapo chief.

Presiding Magistrate Henri Boulard led Touvier through incidents leading up to the executions of seven Jewish hostages near Lyons in June, 1944, under the Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis.

Touvier is accused of ordering the executions. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for murder.

Bill Harp, Emmy-winning set decorator for such long-running television series as "The Carol Burnett Show" and "L.A. Law," has died. He was 70.

Harp also owned Prop Services West, which supplied furniture and accessories for television and films. He died March 16 at his Hollywood home of a heart attack.

During his nearly four-decade career, Harp earned four Emmys and 24 Emmy nominations for sets on specials such as "My Name Is Barbra," with Barbra Streisand, and for series such as "Moonlighting," with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd.

He had a long association with Burnett, whom he met when they both worked for "The Gary Moore Show." Harp decorated Burnett's homes as well as the sets for her series and its spinoff, "Mama's Family." Burnett, who likened Harp to Santa Claus in appearance and to a child in behavior, said he also supervised the decoration of her Christmas tree each year.

"Bill was always there, a consummate professional and a brother," she said after his death. "I'll miss him."

Harp also worked on the respected "Omnibus" television series and "The Perry Como Show."

A native of Bastrop, La., he was recently honored with a "Bill Harp Day" in his hometown.

He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Louisiana State University and taught at the University of Georgia. During World War II, he was a flight navigator with the rank of lieutenant.

Harp is survived by his companion, Marshal Alan Philips; a brother, E.L. (Red) Harp; two sisters, Mary Nell Rogers and Katherine Talley, and seven nieces and nephews.

A memorial service is scheduled at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to the American Actors Fund or to Project Angel Food Los Angeles.

Dack Rambo, television actor best known for his role as Jack Ewing, cousin of the notorious J.R. on the popular series "Dallas," has died. He was 53.

Rambo died Monday at Delano Regional Medical Center near the San Joaquin town of Earlimart, where he grew up, and where he had a ranch.

He had resigned from his last role, as congressman Grant Harrison on NBC's daytime soap opera "Another World" in 1991, saying that he had tested positive for HIV and wanted to become a spokesman for AIDS patients.

"I feel so much better today having gone public with being HIV-positive. It's like freedom to me," he told The Times in an interview shortly after that resignation.

He described himself in the interview as being bisexual and said he had felt the onus of suspicion about being gay and vulnerable to AIDS when he appeared on "Dallas." That was from 1985 to 1987, at a time when the entertainment industry was awakening to the dangers of AIDS.

"I knew there were whispers going on behind my back. Either 'he's gay' or 'he's this or. . . .' And I thought: 'What the hell did I do?' " the handsome actor said in 1991. "People were just assuming. And people didn't really know anything about my private life."

Although leaving "Another World" was his decision, Rambo said he did so because he saw few employment opportunities in acting for people who were HIV-positive.

Born Norman Rambeau, Rambo and his identical twin brother, Dirk, grew up on a San Joaquin Valley farm. They were discovered by Loretta Young, who saw them sitting in church. She cast them in her prime-time television series "The New Loretta Young Show," and the twins were an instant hit with teen-agers.

They later sang as the Rambo Twins, styling themselves after the Everly Brothers. But the act ended when Dirk was killed in an automobile accident in 1967.

Dack Rambo went on to act, taking the role of Walter Brennan's grandson in the television series "The Guns of Will Sonnett," and the role of Steve Jacobi in "All My Children."

Despite his success in Hollywood, Rambo remained true to his roots. "I guess if I did anything else other than act," he once said, "I'd be a rancher."

Algerian security forces killed 190 suspected Muslim activists and arrested 167 in the first three weeks of March, the official news agency APS said.

APS, monitored in Paris, said the figure included 64 fugitives slain and 109 arrested after they escaped from the top-security prison at Tazoult near Batna in eastern Algeria on March 10.

Robert Sylvia has been promoted to general manager of the National Sports Grill in Buena Park. He was formerly assistant manager. Before joining the restaurant, Sylvia held management positions with the Grand Hotel in Anaheim and at Victoria Station.

Richard W. Gochnauer, an executive vice president of Dial Corp., was selected president and chief operating officer for privately held Golden State Foods, a $1-billion food processor and distributor based in Irvine. Before his five-year stint at Dial, Gochnauer served as president of a division of Universal Foods and as president of the international division of Schreiber Foods.

Karen Gordon Mills has joined the board of Armor All Products Corp. in Aliso Viejo, increasing the number of directors to eight. Mills is president of MMP Group Inc., a New York-based management consulting and investment banking company.

John R. Boyens has been appointed vice president of sales for TRW Business Credit Services in Orange.He was previously national director of distributor sales and Western region sales. In addition, Hal Muchnick was appointed vice president of marketing and business development. He had been director of Eastern region sales and service. Both are newly created positions for the company.

Most people are content to reminisce now and then about their childhood. Most writers have an uncontrollable urge to write about theirs. Science-fiction maven Ray Bradbury is no exception.

But, like the one bygone day Emily in "Our Town" chooses to revisit, Bradbury picks a summer day in 1928, a magical time when his alter ego, 12-year-old Douglas Spaulding, was suddenly goosed into growing up.

There are other similarities with Thornton Wilder's "Our Town." Bradbury's Greentown, Ill., is that long-ago, all-but-forgotten thing: innocent, naive and utterly charming small-town America.

In Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine," at Alternative Repertory Theatre, the town is the center of Douglas' universe. He is, as he is perfectly frank in admitting, "a wizard of wizards." He can make the sun come up and the birds begin to warble. He can make the town folk stop dead in their tracks when he hollers "Red light, freeze, don't move!"

It's a world that director Joel T. Cotter and most of his cast understand, seen through a rose-colored glass, tinted in antique tones, and bubbling with the charm memory often gives to the past.

That understanding is also evident in David C. Palmer's evocative lighting design and Gary Christensen's sound design. And Cotter's staging on ART's small playing area is full of the spirit of Bradbury's memory, and full of enough dramatic tricks to entrance even the impatient Douglas Spaulding.

Doug (Glenn Meek), his kid brother Tom (David Neilsen) and his best friend John Huff (Lindsay Irvine) are brightest in Bradbury's memory, and the action flows like a kaleidoscopic dream around them.

The images move into and out of their simple perception, like the machines at Lena Aufman's (Carole Hennessy) penny arcade, like the spinster Misses Fern and Roberta (Stefanie Williamson, Laurie Messerly) honking through town in their roadster, like the ill-fated trolley driven by Mr. Triddens (Tom Orr).

The play is almost like a piece of music being conducted by a mysterious stranger named Forrester (Jonathan M. Motil). He knows what's going to happen and smiles sweetly when the Greentown folks seem to recognize him but can't quite place where from.

*

Forrester knows about Doug's wizardry and his puppy love for the librarian Ann Barclay (Kathryn Byrd). And he knows about Doug's Grandpa's cellar, where the dated bottles of dandelion wine are aging.

Motil is a warm and nicely distracted, well-detailed Forrester, often in awe of his memories of his boyhood, and kind enough not to give his identity away to Doug too soon.

The performance, though, that carries the production is Meek's as Doug, fresh, full of bursting enthusiasm and wonder at the world's doing his bidding. Meek makes you believe in Doug every moment, with all your heart. It is a virtuoso performance.

Neilsen is expert at appearing 9 years old as Doug's brother. As John, who deserts Doug and causes the first crack in Doug's childhood armor, Irvine gives a fine portrayal of what every man remembers as the best friend of his boyhood.

The whole cast is adept at re-creating and peopling Bradbury's microcosm of the past, particularly Byrd's librarian, as warm and ingratiating as to make Doug's adoration believable.

The exception is Steve Willis, who plays Doug's Grandpa and doubles as the ancient Col. Freeleigh, who fascinates Doug with tales of his Civil War days and his adventures with Pawnee Bill. Willis obviously likes his roles, because he acts a great deal doing them, declaiming his lines with stentorian assurance, but never taking the time to build a characterization for either.

* "Dandelion Wine," Alternative Repertory Theatre, 1636 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends April 9. $16. (714) 836-7929. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes. Glenn Meek Douglas: Spaulding

Jonathan M. Motil: William Forrester

David Neilsen: Tom Spaulding

Lindsay Irvine: John Huff

Kathryn Byrd: Ann Barclay

Steve Willis: Grandpa/Col. Freeleigh

An Alternative Repertory Theatre production of Ray Bradbury's memory play, produced by Kathleen A. Bryson. Directed by Joel T. Cotter. Lighting design: David C. Palmer. Sound design/stage manager: Gary Christensen.

There are some plays that would be impossible to update. And a good thing, too. They belong in their period, they speak only of that period, and for today's audiences they make an emotional historical connection that history books can't come close to.

Noel Coward's "Private Lives" is one of those, a catalogue of dressing gowns, stem glasses, potent cheap music, a long-ago world whose feel, rhythms and aura have been re-created at the La Habra Depot Theatre with welcome attention to style by director Phyllis Gitlin.

Coward was accused early in his career of being "thin" and "brittle" -- which he was, and never more so than in this classic art deco comedy. Those are qualities on which Louise Martin (who plays Amanda) and Rick Watson (as Elyot) both have a firm grip. They handle the verbal (and physical) sparring of the reunited divorcees with expert control and a fine sense of the timing and rhythm so important to playwrights of high comedy.

Meanwhile, the small but very plum role of the French-speaking maid is turned, as it should be, into an amusing cameo by Tiffany Sauceda, who speaks the lines with enough authority to leave the impression that she might be Provencal , trying to be classy.

Larry Watts' settings for both the Riviera balcony where Amanda and Elyot unexpectedly meet and for Amanda's Parisian flat are just right: the balcony in pale marble with cupids on pedestals, the flat in the strong contrasts of art deco. With Tom Phillips, Watts also has designed a fine set of costumes. The women's period gowns are particularly notable.

But Brad Steward's lighting design is sometimes a bit garish -- as are the performances of Dani Ballew as Elyot's bride Sibyl and Mitchell Nunn as Amanda's groom Victor. Each is acceptable -- particularly Ballew for her fine comic sense -- but neither wears the period comfortably. Ballew has a tendency to screech when playing angry, and Sibyl is just too refined for that. Nunn plays Victor's pomposity with too much emphasis. As Coward himself said, both Sibyl and Victor must have qualities that would make it logical for Elyot and Amanda to have fallen for them (Coward cast the young Olivier as Victor).

Nunn and Ballew do manage a very good, very funny slow build to their final argument. And even their near-misses don't take the shine off this Amanda and Elyot, who glow with fondness for a time when theater still could allow itself to be thin and brittle, and totally entertaining.

* "Private Lives," La Habra Depot Theatre, 311 S. Euclid St., La Habra. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Ends April 2. $8-$10. (310) 905-9708, (310) 905-9625. Running time: 2 hours. Rick Watson: Elyot

Louise Martin: Amanda

Dani Ballew: Sibyl

Mitchell Nunn: Victor

Tiffany Sauceda: Louise

A La Habra Depot Theatre production of Noel Coward's comedy, produced by Chris Montgomery, directed by Phyllis Gitlin. Scenic design: Larry Watts. Costume design: Watts and Tom Phillips. Lighting design: Brad Steward. Stage manager: Terri Russell.

FEVERISH EFFORT: A few opponents of the Ahmanson development believe they have discovered the Achilles heel of the mini-city proposed for the Simi Hills: the deadly valley fever virus. The respiratory illness transmitted by spores kicked up from the soil has gained notoriety with a surge of cases and its first death in the county. And some Ahmanson foes smell a new vulnerability. . . . "We think that grading 53 million yards of earth could expose a lot of people to the illness," said Bill Bell, a member of an opposing homeowner group.

LAID AN EGG: The California Condor Recovery Program has reached another milestone, with the 100th condor egg laid in captivity. Meanwhile, wildlife biologists are trying to figure out how to keep a group of free-flying condors out of Ventura County's backcountry, their favorite haunt. . . . But even the newest condor, once it hatches and grows up, "could end up in Ventura County too," sighs program director Robert Mesta. "Regardless of where we release them, they will be in Ventura County."

AWARENESS: One by one, Simi Valley schoolchildren get their chance in a wheelchair. But what looks like a fun ride quickly becomes a frustrating challenge as they strain to get a drink from a faucet or open a bathroom door without getting up. . . . Every student at Garden Grove Elementary School will get a firsthand experience of living with disabilities this week (B4). . . . "This kind of training is terrific," said Hollace Wood of the Tri-Counties Regional Center. "Once you experience it, you won't forget it."

IT'S A RENTAL: "Schindler's List" has done remarkably well at the box office and promises to do well in home video rentals too. . . . (D1) Video sales and rentals generally outpace theater receipts, and "Schindler's" is the kind of searing, three-hour drama that many viewers prefer to watch at home. "It is a very powerful movie and it might be a little much for some people," said Jim Salzer of Salzer's Video in Ventura. By watching at home, he said, "they can take a pause."

The story was true, though it was premature.

On April 22, 1993, word came out that Randy Pfund was on his way out as Laker coach, and that owner Jerry Buss had asked Magic Johnson to coach the team.

It happened Tuesday, 11 months later, but Pfund still said he was surprised to be fired as coach of the Lakers.

"As you would expect, it is difficult news," Pfund said Tuesday night. "I still lean on the side of thanking Dr. Buss and Jerry West for the opportunity they gave me. Down theline with the whole Laker staff, they are nothing but good people. I owe a special thanks to Bill (Bertka) and Chet (Kammerer), my two closest coaching buddies.

"I knew when I took the job that there was a great challenge ahead of us."

The chief challenge was inheriting a team without a Magic Johnson.

Johnson has a similar challenge, because the Lakers said that the No. 32 jersey will stay retired to the Forum wall. He would not be a player/coach.

The coach on the floor under Pat Riley, Johnson is the coach on the bench, with Nick Van Exel and Sedale Threatt as his coaches on the floor.

Coach Johnson is a new title. He has not been an assistant.

"Magic is a very unique person," Pfund said. "He certainly has the credentials as a player to do a good job. As tough as it is for me, I wish him the best of luck."

Pfund had little luck in his time as head coach, having replaced Mike Dunleavy on the job after being assistant to Dunleavy and Pat Riley.

"There's been some exciting moments the last two seasons or so, and some tough moments," he said. "But I think the players and the staff all understood the tough challenge ahead of us. I appreciated the way the players had shown a willingness to face the uphill battle. This wasn't as much fun as slipping rings on your fingers like in the '80s, but I think they still played hard all the way."

Pfund says he has no immediate plans. But he did not discount the possibility of remaining with the organization that has employed him since 1985.

"I would always welcome the opportunity and would be more than grateful to sit down with Jerry (Buss) if there is an opportunity he sees for me.

"But for now, it is probably good not to have to figure out how to outrebound a team for a night."

Pfund was fired after the Lakers' 84-81 victory over the Miami Heat on Monday at the Forum, but he left Tuesday morning with the team on a charter flight to Dallas.

Ever the company man, he said that some issues had not been resolved -- specifically who would coach the next two games: at Dallas tonight and at Houston on Thursday.

That job fell to Bertka, his top assistant, and Pfund will return home today.

Johnson will take over Sunday, when the Lakers play Milwaukee at the Forum.

He will be an instant drawing card to a team that has had only two sellouts all season and that has averaged what Forum ushers say is a heavily padded 11,000 a game.

He will bring excitement.

He will bring Michael Cooper, his backcourt partner on occasions through the Lakers' glory years, as an assistant coach. It's a job Cooper wanted when Pfund was named coach, but Pfund opted instead to hire his old Westmont College boss, Kammerer, and Cooper became an assistant to Jerry West, the Laker general manager.

Whether Johnson will bring enough victories to get the team into the playoffs is another issue. The Lakers (27-37) are 5 1/2 games behind the Denver Nuggets for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, and there is talk around town about a lottery draft choice for the first time in franchise history. That talk is not coming from Jerry West, Laker general manager, who went into the team locker room at a game earlier this season and blasted the players for their lack of effort.

That last playoff spot saved Pfund's job last season.

His original contract was for three years, through 1994-95, and he was offered an extension last fall after the Lakers took the Phoenix Suns to five games in the first round of the playoffs.

But he never signed the extension until two weeks ago.

That one-year extension indicated that the extra year would not necessarily be as coach. Asked if that meant he could be cleaning the Forum men's rooms in that extra year, he laughed and said, "That's what took me so long to sign it, making sure they took that clause out."

Times staff writers Jim Hodges, Steve Springer and Helene Elliott contributed to this story.

* THE SUCCESSION: Magic Johnson will take over the Lakers on Sunday after Bill Bertka fills in for two games. A1

Questions, questions and more questions. Wayne Gretzky's mother, Phyllis, says that her son will pass Gordie Howe and become the NHL's all-time leading goal scorer with his 802nd tonight against Vancouver at the Forum, but even Gretzky's abilities don't extend to prognostication.

Gretzky, in his 15th NHL season, has set 60 league records, so he has some ideas about the whys, the whats, the wherefores and, well, the Howes of this latest quest. The immense pressure seemed to lift from his shoulders on Sunday at San Jose when he scored twice to join Howe at 801. Now, one does not seem to be the loneliest number for Gretzky.

"I want it to happen tomorrow night, believe me," Gretzky said on Tuesday at a Forum news conference to announce a three-year endorsement deal.

"I broke the one, the points record, in Edmonton. This one, I want to do here. It would be nice to have it happen here at home."

It all started for Gretzky against the Canucks. He scored his first NHL goal against Vancouver goaltender Glen Hanlon on Oct. 14, 1979, at 18:51 of the third period. Hanlon now is the Canucks' goaltending coach.

"It was a backhander," Gretzky said. "I came out of the corner and threw it over the top of Glen Hanlon. There's something special about any first goal you score in the NHL. You spend your whole life dreaming about it."

He said he was visualizing Sunday in San Jose about how he might score the record goal.

"For some strange reason, it was a backhand," Gretzky said. "Now, it'll probably be a tip-in or knock off my leg and go in. That's all right. In 20 years, they're all end-to-end rushes.

"I just visualized 801 being a big goal, and it was. I want 802 to be a big goal. The last thing you want to see is a 5-1 game and you score to make it 5-2 with a minute left. I don't see that in the cards."

Provided Gretzky doesn't score into an empty net, there will be a goaltender going into the record book with him. The Canucks have not announced a starting goalie but it is expected to be Kirk McLean. Gretzky has scored 12 goals against McLean and two against the Canucks' backup, Kay Whitmore.

San Jose's Arturs Irbe declined to speak to reporters after giving up 800 and 801, but King Coach Barry Melrose said Irbe will be long forgotten after Gretzky scores his next goal. "Arturs is safe," Melrose said, smiling. "That's our society. You don't want to be the guy who gives up 802. You're immortalized. Everyone knows who was pitching to Hank Aaron. You become part of the trivia."

The Kings' Kelly Hrudey was in goal when the St. Louis Blues' Brett Hull scored his 50th goal in 50 games on Jan. 28, 1992.

"Usually it's a good thing," Hrudey said. "You're usually pretty motivated not to let the goal in."

All of the Kings, of course, want to be part of hockey history. On Sunday, Warren Rychel suffered a broken nose in a first-period fight and sat out the rest of the game. "Yeah, my kids will say, 'What did you do when Wayne Gretzky tied the record?' " Rychel said. "Well, I had my nose and face in a bucket of ice for an hour and a half."

It could all have been over if King defenseman Marty McSorley had passed to Gretzky instead of scoring into an empty net at Hartford on March 2. Naturally, that has come up a few times. McSorley was practicing shooting into an empty net on Tuesday when he spotted Gretzky and said:

"You would have been pushed over the edge if I had given it to you."

But any anxious edge has passed for Gretzky, who says he is happy to be at 801. He has been telling his teammates to shoot if they get a two-on-one with him late in the game.

"There was something going around that after 802, I was going to quit," Gretzky said. "I see 900 goals. I see 1,000. I tell you, I'll try my best."

After five seasons, 146 games, maybe 700 practices, 1,000 recruiting phone calls and who knows how many miles traveled, Maryland basketball Coach Gary Williams did the strangest thing a few days ago.

He smiled.

Not a smirk. Not a grin. A smile. An actual, see-I-do-have-teeth smile.

Maryland assistant Art Perry was there at the Sunday staff meeting and saw the whole thing with his own two eyes.

"He was as relaxed as I've ever seen him in the last four years," said Perry, who came to Maryland a year after Williams was hired to rescue the Terrapin program. "People who don't know Gary won't appreciate that comment. But people who do will understand."

The people who do -- his assistants, his players, his family, his friends -- have watched as Williams painstakingly rebuilt not only a basketball program, but also an image gutted by the drug-overdose death of Len Bias and later, NCAA sanctions. And few times, if ever, did Williams look as if he enjoyed one moment of it.

Until now. Sort of.

Now, as an afternoon rain taps away at the Cole Field House roof, Williams stands near courtside and tries to put the long journey into perspective. From suicide mission to Sweet 16, that's what Williams has done here. His team, nothing more than afterthought, seeded No. 10 when the NCAA tournament began, now prepares to face third-seeded Michigan in Friday's Midwest Regional semifinal.

Someone asks if the events of the last two weeks -- Maryland's first tournament appearance since 1988, a first-round victory over St. Louis, a second-round triumph over Final Four candidate Massachusetts, Terp hysteria on campus and off -- diminishes the memory of the dark days, when Williams wondered on more than one occasion if he had made a career mistake.

"No," says Williams, almost in a monotone. "This is this year. Those other years, that's something that will never be made up. That was four years out of the five of my (Maryland) coaching career that will never be made up.

"But I'm happy now."

Thirty years ago, Williams played in this building. He came to Maryland in 1964 as a 6-foot, 170-pound guard from Collingswood, N.J. He left as the team co- captain, described as such in the 1966-67 Terrapin media guide: " . . . a fierce competitor with a heart as big as his chest."

Nothing has changed. Williams still considers himself the point man for a basketball program that desperately needed one.

When Bias died in the spring of 1986, and Coach Lefty Driesell was forced out shortly thereafter, and clumsy Bob Wade came in and completed the damage by violating NCAA rules during his three-year reign, there was no worse place to be than Maryland. It had been touched by tragedy and later crippled by NCAA probation that, among other things, kept the Terrapins from postseason play until this season.

Williams was there for some of the worst of it, when the NCAA delivered its harsher-than-expected sentence and left the Maryland program in little pieces. Williams, who had left a sweetheart situation at Ohio State, was supposed to glue it all together again.

"You had doubts," Williams says. "But you gradually get it resolved, that you just got to make this happen. That's what it eventually came to, that we were just going to make it happen. I didn't know how it was going to happen. I didn't know it would be probably this quick, but I felt that we could be good here."

It wasn't easy. During the first few years, Williams and his assistants couldn't get a top-rated recruit anywhere near the place. After all, who wanted to go where the summer Olympics were on television more often than Maryland. And don't think opposing Atlantic Coast Conference recruiters didn't mention it, either.

Williams didn't have a freshman starter in 1990. Or 1991. Or 1992. Donyell Marshall, now merely the second- or third-best player in the country, thought about signing with the Terrapins a few years ago. But with no chance of playing in the tournament until 1994, why bother?

Maryland's victory totals began to slide, from the pre-probation 19 to 16, to 14 and then 12. But despite the losses, Williams and Perry began to get players. Guard Johnny Rhodes, who was on every recruiter's list, and forward Exree Hipp, who wasn't, decided to take a chance on the Terps and were rewarded with starting positions as freshmen last year. The same thing happened this season, when forward Keith Booth and center Joe Smith signed on.

Now look at them: Hipp, Rhodes, Booth and Smith all average in double figures. Another sophomore, starting guard Duane Simpkins is also in double digits. And among the first three substitutes, two are freshmen -- swingman Nick Bosnic and guard Matt Kovarik -- and one is a sophomore, forward Mario Lucas.

As it turns out, the star of the team is the guy with the plain name -- Joe Smith. Rhodes, who needs a little help with his cliches, has called him, "our bread and water guy." Perry, who said Smith is the best player he has ever recruited, swears every ACC school was after the 6-10 newcomer from Norfolk, Va.

That isn't exactly true. According to Smith, who would know, North Carolina, Duke, Clemson and Georgia Tech weren't the least bit interested. And although Maryland was crazy about Smith, nobody could quite understand why Smith would be crazy about Maryland.

"A lot of my friends, when they found out I was coming here, they were like, 'Why you wanna go there? They just got off probation and they're not gonna be back for a couple of years,' " said Smith, who averages 19.7 points, 10.6 rebounds (25.5 points, 10.0 rebounds in the two tournament games) and was recently named the national freshman of the year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Assn. "But now that we're in the Sweet 16, they have had a change of mind."

Truth is, Smith wasn't so sure himself about this Maryland team. He thought they'd win enough games to make the tournament, but almost nobody -- Perry, Williams, Rhodes, etc. -- figured the Terrapins would still be playing March 25.

Except one player . . . Hipp. Back in November, before anyone knew how good Maryland would be, Hipp offered Baltimore Sun reporter Don Markus a prediction. Hipp said the Terrapins would win 16 or 17 games, finish in the middle of the ACC standings, earn an NCAA tournament invitation and advance to the Sweet 16.

"You mean the NIT," said Markus.

"No," said Hipp, "the NCAAs."

"I think you're crazy," said Markus.

Maryland' record: 18-11. Maryland's ACC finish: tied for fourth. Maryland's tournament record: 2-0 . . . and counting.

With 20 seconds to go in last Saturday's game against second-seeded Massachusetts, Hipp scanned press row in search of Markus. When he found him, Hipp smiled and mouthed three short words.

"Told you so."

For a few quiet moments Tuesday, a young, carefully built team bursting with promise stopped on a cool, cloudy Florida day to recall its somber past.

The Cleveland Indians lowered the flags to half staff at Chain O'Lakes Park, closed their clubhouse to outsiders, and observed a moment of silence in tribute to Steve Olin and Tim Crews, who died in a boating accident on Little Lake Nellie near here one year ago Tuesday.

But, once their spring training game against the Texas Rangers began, the Indians were determined not to dwell on sad memories.

"We just have to give the guys our best regards and go on with the day," said reliever Derek Lilliquist, who was a close friend of Olin's.

But the team couldn't escape troubling news -- Tuesday, relief pitcher Jerry DiPoto had a cancerous thyroid gland removed. "They're going to give me an iodine pill to burn out the rest of the cancer," DiPoto said. "In a couple of weeks, they'll go back in to see if the cancer has spread anywhere."

Still, with a farm system that is beginning to produce prospects, a front office that has plucked talent from other teams and fit it under tight salary restraints, and, most dramatic of all, with a new, state-of-the-art ballpark already triggering a ticket-selling boom, the Indians' are ready to forget their history of failure.

And a year after losing Olin and Crews, they tried to move beyond the tragedy, too.

"The grief is still there, the sorrow is still there, and I don't think it will ever leave," Manager Mike Hargrove said at a news conference held in the same room where he and General Manager John Hart spoke to reporters a year ago.

"The old saying, 'Time heals all wounds,' is not correct. But you get to the point where enough is enough. And we need to get on with our business."

Said Hart: "We've talked about it, and we will continue to talk about it. But we don't want to make this the issue of what we're doing this spring. We've had to move forward, and we have. We think we're doing the right thing."

Kevin Wickander, Olin's closest friend, was traded last May. Bobby Ojeda, the only survivor of the boating accident, was released in the off-season. Hart said it was best for both the players and the team not to be reunited at Winter Haven, and the accompanying memories, again.

Said catcher Sandy Alomar: "It was something we all had to deal with . . . and everybody got over it. I know the anniversary is here. Those guys, in one way or the other, if they could talk to us, they would want us to let them go. Their families we really care about, and we're not going to forget that.

"But it's time to let those guys go."

*

As much as 1993 was a lost season because of the trauma of Olin and Crews' deaths and the Indians' 14-30 start, they believe their strong backstretch run, bringing them to a final record of 76-86, is only the beginning.

The Indians, who have transformed hope into failure so many times before, are overflowing with talent and expectation once again.

Last year, the Indians had assembled a batting order full of young stars -- Carlos Baerga, Albert Belle, Sandy Alomar and Kenny Lofton, all of whom are 28 or younger and are potential most-valuable-player candidates -- that provided one of the league's best offenses.

But with perhaps the worst pitching staff in baseball, an exciting offense was not nearly enough.

"Personally, I went into (opening day) with a sense of loss," Hart said last week from his seat behind home plate. "I lost two good friends. I also went into it, I guess, with a sense of foreboding for the club itself because of the pitching problems that we were facing."

Now, with ace Charles Nagy healthy again and the acquisitions of Dennis Martinez, Chris Nabholz, Steve Farr and Jack Morris, the Indians believe their pitching staff is vastly upgraded.

Hart also settled an error-prone infield by acquiring Gold Glove shortstop Omar Vizquel from the Seattle Mariners and moved to protect Belle in the lineup by signing Eddie Murray to bat fifth as a designated hitter.

"These people in Cleveland, they've been waiting for a long time," Baerga said, "and I think they have a chance to have it this year."

This is a team that has finished no higher than fourth place in 26 years, that hasn't finished first since 1954 and hasn't been above .500 since 1986. This is a team that has lost 100 games three times in the past nine years.

Hart, who was hired to run the team in the middle of the 100-loss 1991 season, began the rebuilding process by locking up his young stars to contracts that eliminated arbitration years and ensured that the team would have a stable salary scale.

The stadium -- built in downtown Cleveland's new Gateway complex -- only makes the potential for Indian success grander. Temporarily being called Indians Park, the Indians clearly believe the ballpark will energize the ticket-selling audience like Baltimore's Camden Yards and Toronto's SkyDome did in their first season.

The Indians, who have drawn more than 2 million fans only twice in their history, already have sold 1.89 million tickets.

"A lot of this season is going to be about our new ballpark," Hart said. "As good as our team's optimism and hope is, it's going to be so special for the city and the north coast of Ohio to have a facility like this coming in.

"It's taken us from the smallest-market club in all of a baseball to a club that's more of a mid-sized market, we have some additional revenue streams. . . . I think it puts Cleveland where it should be. It's an original American League city -- the love affair has been re-established."

Whatever the name, the 42,400-seat baseball-only park should be far superior for players and fans to the drafty, cavernous 62-year-old Cleveland Stadium, their old 80,000-seat home.

"It was just that the old atmosphere was very tough. It was cold, it was right next to the lake, and it's so old," said Alomar, who jokingly suggests that the right-field stands at the new park look as if they were tailor-made for switch-hitter Baerga's left-handed home run swing.

It also could be ideal for rookie third baseman Jim Thome, a left-handed batter who hit 25 home runs in triple-A last season.

"This is the first time in the five years I've been here that people are showing respect for this ballclub," said Alomar, who has watched his brother, Roberto, earn back-to-back World Series rings with the Toronto Blue Jays. "I just need to get one ring," Sandy Alomar said.

Said Hart: "You look at the Indians, whether accurately or not, probably more accurate than not, it has been perceived as probably one of the poorer-run franchises in all of professional sports.

"I think the one thing that's happened in the last four, five years, is that people have to look at this franchise now as one that is a factor. We're stable. We've been very creative with our contracts, we've made good trades, we've got very good young players who are going to be here for a while, we're moving to a new ballpark.

"You know, in the eyes of the baseball world, we're a competitive franchise."

Does the signing of Martinez, Murray, and Morris mean that Hart and Jacobs think 1994 is the year it all comes together?

"We don't think it's all about this year," Hart said. "This isn't the be-all, end-all. Obviously, with the new ballpark and everything, this is an important year for us. But I don't think anybody's picking us to win it.

"I do think we certainly have a chance to have a breakthrough year."

Morris says he fully expects Cleveland to win the World Series in his first year with the team -- as Toronto and Minnesota did.

"I really think they're building the right kind of club," Morris said last week. "Similar to the team that they put together in Minnesota in '91, a team that a lot of people are overlooking, somewhat of an underdog. But people who have played against them the last few years realize what they've been doing here."

The Indians expect the day-to-day steadiness of Morris, Martinez and Murray to add a dose of stability to the younger players.

"We have young players and young guys are very excitable," Alomar said. "And sometimes young guys get off track together. And I believe we had too many young guys, we needed some older guys to settle us down."

The Indians' transformation from confusion to contender seems to have happened so suddenly, but not if you have been there through the years of frustration.

Back when Hart was hired, the team was bad, short of money and unexciting. They had some good players, but no future.

"We treated it almost like an expansion team," Hart said. "We recognized very early that we were not going to win with some of our established stars. We couldn't afford them, either. And we traded them off, starting with Joe Carter -- got Alomar and Baerga. Traded off (Tom) Candiotti, (Greg) Swindell, we went right on down the road.

"And after that, it's very exciting to be in this position. We'd much rather be here than be with a club like we had in '91 when we had no chance of winning and no dollars and we were trading people off. It was a disaster."

Hargrove says he is comfortable with his team's new role as a contender in the three-division American League.

"I'd rather have it that way than people cussing you because you're bad," Hargrove said. "I think the expectations, I think that's warranted. This is an exciting club. When we take the field every night, we have every reason to believe we should win the game we're playing that night. And I couldn't say that last year at this time."

A year ago, Hargrove says, his team limped into the season "emotionally drained."

"We, as an organization, have moved beyond that," Hargrove said. "That doesn't mean we'll ever forget Tim and Steve, but we just have a job to do."

In the second round of the NCAA tournament last Saturday night at the Sports Arena, USC's women's basketball team needed help in a big way.

So, the Trojans went to their best player.

With 32 seconds left and USC holding a 71-70 lead over George Washington, USC's players did the expected.

They gave Lisa Leslie the ball.

Leslie, at the high post, was guarded by 6-foot-5 center Martha Williams. Leslie drove down the right side of the key, stopped abruptly and made a six-foot jump shot.

The Trojans added free throws in the final seconds for a 76-72 victory, but Leslie's basket in her last L.A. appearance was the difference.

USC (25-3)advances to the Mideast regional at Fayetteville, Ark., against Virginia (27-4) on Thursday night.

If the Trojans move on, it will be with the help of the 6-5 Leslie, a strong candidate to win the Naismith Award as the player of the year for women's basketball.

"Lisa's the best player in the country," said Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer, shortly after Leslie and the Trojans defeated the Cardinal earlier this season.

And maybe the toughest, too, she might have added.

And that is something new.

A year ago, after Texas Tech's Sheryl Swoopes scored 33 points against USC in the West Regional at Bozeman, Mont., Leslie and USC had to watch as Swoopes' team won the national championship.

"I was really discouraged that night (after the Texas Tech loss)," Leslie said.

"I felt like I hadn't done enough, that I hadn't improved as much as I should have in my college career. I had the feeling I could be doing so much more."

She decided she could play tougher.

From the team's Dec. 1 opening victory at Northern Illinois in November, through winning the Richmond Tournament that same week and through a 16-2 Pacific 10 championship season, opponents have witnessed a tougher, more intense Leslie.

When pushed around underneath, she answered with an elbow. Foul trouble? So what? She'd always been in foul trouble.

Last Jan. 6 at Oregon State, Leslie was guarded by Kristina Lelas, a 6-5, 240-pound player from Croatia. On rebound plays, Lelas grabbed Leslie's forearm.

Finally, enough was enough.

As a rebound bounced away from both players, Lelas continued to hold Leslie's forearm. Leslie jerked her arm out of Lelas' grasp, then came back with a backhanded punch that caught Lelas on the mouth, knocking her down.

Aki Hill, Oregon State's coach, saying Lelas lost a tooth in the incident, demanded that the Pac-10 suspend Leslie. But because the referee was in proper position and made no call, conference officials took no action.

Quickly, word went around the league:

Don't mess with Leslie.

But then, you might expect a tough game from a player who was reared by a truck driver.

Leslie's father died when she was 12. When she was a young teen, her mother, Christine, hocked her house and bought an 18-wheeler. Today, she hauls coconut oil from Carson to City of Industry.

Leslie's game has also been helped by her 6-5 freshman backup, Michelle Campbell.

"In my first three years, I didn't have any help," Leslie said.

"(Former coach Marianne Stanley) would tell me if I was tired to just coast a bit, because there was no one on the bench. Now, I can play harder because of Michelle.

"If I have to come out for a rest, Michelle goes in there, blocks a shot and grabs a couple of rebounds.

"And I'm also stronger. I've been in a year-round weight-training program for two years now, and it's paying off. I just feel like I'm able to play hard for a longer period of time."

She also is helped by another freshman, 6-3 power forward Tina Thompson, the Pac-10's freshman of the year.

Thompson is a player with no flair or dash, but offers hard-nose play.

Leslie averages 12.3 rebounds, Thompson 10.5. No other Trojan averages more than 3.8. Combined, they are averaging 26 points -- but that figures to decrease in the tournament. USC is not a good long-range shooting team, making only 31% from beyond the three-point line. In tournament victories over Portland and George Washington, the Trojans were eight for 31.

But because of Leslie and Thompson, with almost four blocks combined per game, opponents are shooting only 36.9%.

But Leslie said this week she would like to see the team improve its three-point shooting against Virginia on Thursday.

"Teams are going to look at that (USC's low three-point shot percentage), and just decide to pack it in tight on Tina and I," Leslie said.

Another component to Leslie's game comes from the man in her life, 6-7 Lorenzo Orr of the USC men's team.

Often, a date is simply playing one-on-one in Lyon Center at noon.

"Lorenzo and I help each other," Leslie said.

"He's helped me stay out of foul trouble by telling me never to try and block the shot of someone I'm not guarding. And I've helped him by getting him to cut down on dribbling when he doesn't have to. We break down each other's tapes all the time."

When Leslie came out of Inglewood's Morningside High four years ago, few could resist calling her another Cheryl Miller. Now, Miller is her coach.

Both once scored more than 100 points in high school games. Both were USC All-Americans. Both were known for tough, intense playing styles.

But there is one difference.

Miller played on two NCAA title teams, 1983 and '84, by the time she was a senior. Leslie's teams are 4-3 in the tournament and haven't made it to the Final Four.

It's time, she figures.

"The George Washington game did a lot for us," Leslie said.

"None of us want the season to end now. Our team morale is high, we all have confidence in each other and the seniors have stepped up. Our experience is coming into play, and we have confidence in ourselves and each other."

Saturday will be the 15th anniversary of the last game of basketball Earvin (Magic) Johnson played before becoming a Laker. He played it for Michigan State in the NCAA tournament championship game March 26, 1979, against Larry Bird and Indiana State. He was 20, so much of his life was ahead of him, Los Angeles was another planet and the last thing on Earth he ever expected was that one day he would be the Laker coach.

He will make a fine coach. A splendid coach. A devoted coach. Who loves the Lakers more? Who loves basketball more? Who knows more about winning? Who knows more about the NBA? Who better to restore Showtime than the star of the show himself? Mr. Pfund is out and Mr. Fun is in. Earvin Johnson, arguably healthy, definitely wealthy and hopefully wise, is the new coach of the Lakers, effective this weekend.

Magic. Excuse me. Coach Magic. Now you see him, now you don't, now you do . . . don't . . . do.

Why now? I have no idea why now. Randy Pfund reportedly will move on to another assignment with the organization. Magic moves in, coat and tie. Hope he kneels on the sideline so the ticket-holders can see.

I have known Earvin Johnson for more than these 15 years. I have heard him called Earvin, E, EJ, Junior, Buck, Big Fella, you name it. Everything but Coach. I never thought I would call him Coach.

He never thought anybody would. He intended to play for the Lakers until his legs wore out, not his immune system. Then he thought he might own the Lakers sometime, or else own the team they were playing. He never minded being Magic Johnson and he wouldn't have minded being Mr. Johnson. He simply never expected to be Coach Johnson.

His first time inside the Forum, 1979, he got there ahead of everybody but Jack Curran, the trainer. He asked Jack if he could sit in the stands by himself. He sat there thinking of games he played at Everett High, back in Lansing, Mich., and about hey, look at me now. Curran called out to him several times before Earvin came out of his fog. He took the big fella downstairs into the dressing room. Magic saw golden shirts on hangers, with names on the back: ABDUL-JABBAR, NIXON, WILKES. He started crying.

"A lot of people thought I'd never get this far," he said later. "Not because they didn't support me, but because almost nobody back in Lansing had big dreams."

Stu Nahan and Jim Hill took him aside after his first news conference. A couple of TV vets, giving tips to the new kid in town. Told him to think about what he said before he said it. Told him what L.A. was like. Later on, Earvin said, Hill said to him: "Magic, there will eventually come a time when you won't play anymore. What do you see yourself doing when your playing career is over?"

Magic said: "Actually, Jim, I'd like your job."

Lo, these many years later, he has had other jobs. Been a Magic of many trades. Sat behind a mike. Peddled Pepsi. Endorsed all sorts of stuff. Ran camps for kids. Made a bid to buy an NBA franchise for Toronto. Barnstormed through Europe. Produced AIDS-education tapes and literature. Began his own one-on-one TV chat show, out to become the 6-foot-9 Barbara Walters. Guess maybe that one goes on the backburner for a while.

I don't know everything about Magic, but I know how much he misses basketball. How he needs to be around it. How whatever energy he has, whatever knowledge he has, compel him to bring it back to basketball. His world is as round as that ball.

But the timing. Oh, the timing. Magicians are supposed to have timing. So why now? Why 64 games into the season? If someone has to strip the fun from Randy Pfund, must it be today? It couldn't wait? Are the Lakers going somewhere we don't know about? Do they think they can still make the playoffs? Do they think Magic will bring them luck when the lottery Ping-Pong balls come popping out? No, the question isn't: "Why Magic?" The question is: "Why now?"

My enduring memory of Randy Pfund will be of him walking off that court after Monday night's Miami game, a winner. What a prince of a guy this is. What a way this is for him to go out. To find out after a victory that he was history. When I called his home phone number Tuesday night, the answer-machine recording ended with: "Leave me a good message." Wish I could have.

Earvin Johnson has not one whit more experience coaching than Randy Pfund had when the Lakers put him in charge. Randy struggled. Some of it was his fault, some of it was that he had a club full of rookies as raw as the coach, Doug Christie, George Lynch, Anthony Peeler, Nick Van Exel, a veritable no-star team. They traded Sam Perkins, discarded Byron Scott, were abandoned by A.C. Green. Every move was understandable. But the poor coach was stuck with what was left.

Coaching is a tough racket. That championship season at Michigan State, the team lost -- and I mean lost big -- to last-place Northwestern one night. The coaches were on the players' cases. The players were uptight. They held a team meeting, after which Magic said, "We told the coaches to stay off our backs and we would play harder. We said we'd start diving for loose balls and everything." They did.

Maybe this means Magic Johnson will be a John Lucas type of coach, turning the talent loose. Of course he is older now, has ideas. And he has no David Robinson, no Dennis Rodman out there. Of course, Magic wouldn't want one of his younger players to do what he did that one night, which was to protest Paul Westhead's strategy sufficiently to get the coach canned. "Shut up and pay attention!" Westhead once yelled in the huddle. "I am paying attention!" Johnson yelled back. "Either you start listening or you don't have to play!" Westhead said. Let us hope Coach Johnson never has this discussion with a player.

Did I really say Coach Johnson?

Guess I did.

Magic Johnson's a coach, Michael Jordan's a baseball player and Charles Barkley wants to be governor of Alabama. It isn't 1979 anymore, is it?

The NFL delivered a good swift kick to kickers Tuesday in one of the most dramatic days of rule changes in the league's 75-year history.

Not only did owners approve the use of the two-point conversion.

Not only did they move the kickoff back five yards to the 30-yard line.

But they also approved returning missed field goals to the point of the kick instead of the line of scrimmage. The seven- or eight-yard difference figures to keep many kickers on the bench.

"I feel like our legs are being tied together," said Gary Anderson, veteran Pittsburgh Steeler kicker.

Exactly the point, according to coaches.

"People who have all those great field goal kickers, now they are going to have to start checking things out a little closer," said Buddy Ryan of the Arizona Cardinals.

Although the two-point conversion is the first scoring rule change in league history, its impact probably will be overshadowed by the rule that essentially penalizes a team for missing field goals.

"The change there will be profound," Anderson said. "This is a rule about field position. Coaches preach field position. They will stop trying long field goals if it means lost field position."

Last year, officials were upset that kickers were successful on three field goals for every four touchdowns scored. Besides that, only 68.5% of kickoffs were returned, nearly 20% fewer than in 1978.

"So what they are doing is trying to punish the kickers for being too good," said Tony Zendejas of the Rams. "It's not right."

The new rules, and what coaches expect they will mean:

-- Two-point conversion from the two-yard line.

No more settling for field goals in the middle of the fourth quarter when trailing by eight points. More fourth-down conversion attempts, more gambling.

No more sitting on the ball while leading by eight points in the middle of the fourth quarter. More daring offense, less prevent defense.

What will not happen is teams using the two-point conversion to win in the final seconds after pulling within one point on a touchdown.

"That's what they have overtime for, ain't it?" Ryan said. "Depending on the situation, most people are going to kick the extra point and take a chance on the coin toss."

-- Moving the kickoff back five yards while lowering the tee from a maximum of three inches to one.

Fewer touchbacks, more long returns of more line-drive kicks.

More intentionally short kickoffs when teams realize that they can't stop these returns.

"If I'm playing Dallas and looking at Kevin Williams down there, I'm not kicking the ball to him," said Dan Reeves, New York Giant coach who was upset with the changes. "All this rule means is, more squib kicks."

-- Returning the ball to the spot of the kick on missed field goals, normally seven or eight yards behind the line of scrimmage.

Teams that automatically attempted field goals on fourth down and short from the 30-yard line will be going for first downs.

Teams that gave strong-legged kickers a shot from 50 yards or more will be deciding instead to punt.

"Quarterbacks everywhere today are jumping for joy," said Leigh Steinberg, agent for Troy Aikman and Steve Young, among others. "Last year, quarterbacks were complaining that the game should be taken off the kicker's foot and put back into their hands."

They will not be joined in their celebration by Reeves, who was openly angry at a rule that reduces the effectiveness of his specialty kicker, Brad Daluiso.

George Young, Giants' general manager, was a Competition Committee member who pushed for the new rules.

"To me, the public could care less about points," Reeves said. "They want competition. And can you tell me a better game than our game against Phoenix last year when Daluiso won it with a 54-yard field goal in the final seconds."

Other coaches openly dread the darker side of the new rules. In exchange for more offense, they have left themselves open to considerably more second-guessing.

"This leads to some very, very exciting plays . . . but when they are over, one of the coaches is going to get ripped," said Mike Holmgren, Green Bay's coach.

Don Shula, a Competition Committee member whose approval was vital to the passage of the rules, scoffed at the suggestion of coaches feeling more heat.

"I don't know how in the hell there can be more pressure on you than there is now," he said. "So why not? . . . The league needed more offense. We hope this will provide that."

The two-point conversion, which passed 23-4, with the San Diego Chargers not voting, could also mean a slight change in personnel.

The best conversion plays are run by option offenses, which currently do not exist in the league. Heroes could come from the unlikeliest places.

"I may just decide to put Sterling Sharpe at quarterback on a two-point play and let him run around a little bit," Holmgren said.

For kickers, there was some slight comfort after the turbulent day.

"You're down by two points, there's only one way to end a game," Gary Anderson said. "And that isn't changing."

Pro Football Notes

The Raiders are one of six teams that have contacted Leigh Steinberg about obtaining quarterback Jim Harbaugh, recently released by the Chicago Bears. . . . The Raiders will play the Denver Broncos in an exhibition game in Barcelona, Spain, July 31. . . . Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys' owner, told several writers in a hotel bar early Tuesday that "I'm sick and tired of hearing this Jacksonville stuff . . . I should have fired Jimmy (Johnson) and hired Barry Switzer," according to eyewitnesses. Johnson confronted Jones later Tuesday and received an apology.

John Shaw, Ram vice president, maintained that he still plans to notify the city of Anaheim on May 3 that he is terminating the Rams' lease effective Aug. 3, 1995. After that notification, Upon the announcement, expect Baltimore, St. Louis and Memphis to make their pitches for the franchise. Baltimore is still the clear favorite because of stadium lease problems in St. Louis and money problems in Memphis.

The U.S. Justice Department will announce today in Washington that a settlement has been reached in a dispute between the Black Coaches Assn. and the NCAA.

Details were not immediately known, and all sides have agreed to wait until today's announcement before discussing it, said USC basketball Coach George Raveling, among the most active and outspoken BCA members.

An NCAA spokesman, Kathryn Reith, warned not to "expect an 'X, Y and Z statement.' There are some things the leadership can't guarantee until they are passed by a convention. The NCAA's governance process is such that any major issue has to be decided by the convention."

The Justice Department offered to mediate when the BCA threatened to boycott some college basketball games in January to protest the lot of black athletes and coaches.

The issue came to a head at last January's NCAA convention, when delegates rejected a proposal that would have restored the scholarship limit in Division I men's basketball from 13 to 14 with a 191-119 vote. The BCA said the failure to approve the scholarship proposal served to further limit blacks' access to higher education.

The scholarship issue was simply one of several grievances the BCA had against the NCAA.

"It goes far beyond that," said Washington State Coach Kelvin Sampson on Tuesday, adding that he did not know the details of the settlement. "The biggest thing we were after was academic reform to make a more level playing field for athletes. And we want more minorities in decision-making jobs in the NCAA."

The mediators -- officials from the Community Relations and Civil Rights divisions of the Justice Department -- have organized two sessions with the disputing parties, one by teleconference and one in person.

The latter was held last week in Chicago when Drake Coach Rudy Washington, president of the BCA, Georgetown Coach John Thompson and Temple Coach John Chaney met with NCAA and Justice Department officials.

Once again, there will be a frenzied news conference at the Forum, and once again, the main man will be Earvin (Magic) Johnson.

When the cameras start whirring and the notepads start filling up today at 11 a.m., there will be much excitement. One of the greatest stars of the game of professional basketball will be back under the bright lights, although they will be shining on him along the sidelines this time.

And, as always with Johnson -- whose last few years in the limelight have included announcements that he contracted the AIDS virus, announcements that he would retire, then unretire, then retire again -- there will be lots of questions.

Such as:

-- Why is he taking over now? Was it a matter of owner Jerry Buss telling Johnson long ago that when he was ready, simply speak up? Did Magic speak up?

-- Is this timed so that (1) he can take over with the Lakers on a little bit of a winning roll but (2) also at a time when the playoffs are almost certainly no issue and Magic can learn for a couple of months without any pressure to win?

-- Why would the Lakers sign Randy Pfund to a contract extension through the 1995-96 season as recently as two weeks ago and then bring Johnson aboard? Is that simply Buss, being loyal to an employee -- Pfund -- whom he has said he wants to keep around in some capacity?

-- Is this the Lakers' answer to the need for some star quality to fill the frequently empty seats at the Forum this year? Does this mean that, because there is no way to get a real star player in the near future for Jack Nicholson to watch, the Lakers sent for a star coach? Or should that read: went for a star player as their coach?

-- What about Magic's health? And what about the things he said after his last retirement about getting worn down by questions about his health at every stop on the NBA schedule?

-- And, perhaps the biggest question of all: Can he merely sit there and watch, as his youngsters bumble and stumble and do all the things wrong that he wants done right, and not be compelled to put on a uniform again and fix things right out on the court, rather than from the sidelines?

"It may be politically incorrect to encourage competitive sports and emphasize winning because it is insensitive to the feelings of the loser. Wrong! To compete and try to win is to risk losing. That's healthy. We must teach our young people that it is necessary and worthwhile to risk failure to make an attempt at success. An excellent lesson of competitive sports is that if you lose today, you go back, strengthen your weaknesses, and try to win tomorrow."

Joel Bruce

Santa Ana

*

"The obsession with winning is at the core of what's wrong with the world today. People don't see the relationship between competitiveness and the violence which pervades this society from top to bottom.

"In the world of sports, we're not interested in playing or even watching a game just because we love the game, except for a few great (athletes). How many times have you seen someone switch the channel or leave the stadium because the score was 87-57 with three minutes to play. We don't care about the game anymore, just who wins.

"In life we have Watergates and Whitewaters and gang-bangers and jealous husbands and wives killing each other for the same reasons: They want to win at all costs, or because they're humiliated by losing. We see life as a struggle to be won or lost.

"Winning is not the only thing, just the final result. What we need to do is begin to look at life and sports like music. You don't listen to a symphony or a single song just to hear the last note. In fact, the last note is no more important than any of the others."

Waayl Salih

Rancho Santa Margarita

*

"What's wrong with winning? Winning at all costs is not right (i.e. illegal recruiting, ineligible players). Winning because you have a good program, good athletes, fine coaching and a winning tradition is right. No one likes to lose, period. Losing is not good.

"My son plays on a winning high school football team, with a winning tradition, with good coaching and good athletes. We enjoy winning. I am proud that we are winners rather than losers."

James Santoro

Yorba Linda

*

"The original Olympic Games ground to a shuddering halt due to the introduction of professionalism. Does the victory of our 'Dream Team' professionals at Barcelona ring a warning bell?"

Joe McGuigan

Laguna Beach

*

"There are certain conditions as to how much emphasis should be put on winning. Coaches who have teams that are young and inexperienced should use practice and game time to teach fundamentals that are necessary to win games. It should not be a time for scolding and pushing kids into something that may not be tangible at the time. Constructive criticism is the key.

"On the other hand, coaches who have teams with talent, experience and the desire to win should be able to push their kids to the next level of play."

Scott Enrico

Assistant football coach

Sunny Hills

*

"Yes, winning is everything. But only if winning is defined in a much larger sense, both on and off the court or the field. The definition of winner must include the development of balance and perspective as well as humility, camaraderie, loyalty, respect for self and others and grace under pressure. Yes, it's lots of fun to take first place. But the real winner does his or her best at all times. More narrowly defining the term winner -- to refer only to the guy with the most points -- makes us all losers. The obsession with getting ahead, no matter what the cost, weakens that sense of cohesion that is the essence of community."

Karen Evarts

Newport Beach

*

"Winning is the key to success and will be the foundation of many things yet to come. It is important to our society to be the best you can be. We all must pitch in to make winning the No. 1 priority for the kids' sake."

Abhishek Jain

Esperanza freshman

*

"Vince Lombardi's quote should be changed to, 'Striving to win isn't everything, it's the only thing.' That should be the most important objective of participation. Winning will be a result of striving to win. The problem we have is that too many people are focused on winning as opposed to the efforts to get there."

Allan Pollack

Santa Ana

*

"Winning is everything, but what is winning? In my mind, winning is mentally and physically being ready for the game and giving it all you've got."

Jade Jamison

Marina junior

*

"Many coaches and athletes say they are just playing sports for a good time, but it's a totally different story when game time comes around. They are not out there to have fun with their opponents, they are out there to win .

"Without this love of winning, sports lose their pizazz and attraction, and athletes lose interest. The bottom line is that without the will to win, sports are nothing."

Jeff Hui

Esperanza freshman

*

"Winning at the high school level should be secondary to learning the fundamentals of a sport and having fun. Winning is a byproduct of executing those learned skills. High school should be an arena for preparing student-athletes for college or professional careers. The ultimate goal of winning as a primary emphasis should be reserved for the professional level."

Eric Johnson

Huntington Beach

*

"With school choice now a reality, parents will be more likely to elect a school based on what they perceive to be the more successful sports program. Sadly, and often, the only measure of success is a school's win-loss record. Great athletes rarely transfer into losing programs. The successful sports program realizes that winning is not always synonymous with success, for the successful program continually meets the goals of the individual athletes, and for each the goals may be different."

Jack Houston

Mission Viejo

*

"Being a member of a sports team in high school is a realistic learning experience which educates students athletes on life itself. It offers opportunities to discover truths, such as:

-- You will receive only what you invest.

-- The need and respect for authority.

-- Cooperation among teammates is essential for success.

-- Life isn't always fair.

-- Everyone respects a winner.

"If one wants to be above average, it takes extra time and effort. As long as integrity isn't compromised, winners should be held in high esteem."

Bonnie O'Neil

Newport Beach

*

"In Indiana Coach Bob Knight's words, 'The will to win is not nearly so important as the will to prepare to win.' Aside from Knight's periodic lapses in personal conduct, his words express the greatest lesson to be learned from competitive spots.

"Vince Lombardi, Mike Ditka, John Wooden and Knight all insisted on discipline and focus, without shortcuts, to achieve their goals. That applies beyond sport."

Bill Seckler

Corona

*

"It's the spirit with which we participate in games -- as in life -- that counts far more than winning at any cost. As long as our society keeps insisting that there is only one winner in any game -- implying that everyone else is a loser -- we will always be that 'Ugly American' to the world. Let's open our eyes and see the damage we are doing ourselves."

Sam Sumanth

Placentia

*

"The most important argument against focusing on winning is that it takes the fun out of the game. Athletes should concentrate on developing teamwork and sportsmanship. High school players should be taught how to accept defeat gracefully. It's knowing that you've tried your best and given it your all is what sports should be all about. There is nothing wrong with wanting to win, but not at the expense of having fun."

Harmeeth Singh Uppal

Esperanza freshman

*

"Winning teaches kids to work hard to get what they want, but at the same time, they should be reminded that winning isn't everything. Losing teaches them to work harder the next time to win. A competitive attitude should be emphasized because you need to be competitive in order to succeed in anything you do in life."

Sabiola Nunez

Huntington Beach

*

"There's way too much emphasis on winning in high school sports. We're in high school to get a education. The reality is that not many of us will be successful in sports after high school. Kids are being falsely led to believe they'll be stars in pro sports just because they are in high school."

Geoff King

Tustin junior

*

"High school athletics should be a learning experience where athletes can get the fundamentals and improve themselves through play, hard work and practice. Winning games is great, but it's not that important at the high school level because you're still improving, trying to be the best that you can be."

William Martinez

Fullerton

*

"The desire to win needs to be replaced with the desire to play, learn and perform to the highest level possible at the time. Working hard at something, concentrating and improving skills should be the emphasis. When we play to our highest level, a win generally follows in sports, school and life."

Marvin G. Dennis

San Clemente

Emphasis should not be placed on winning, but rather on playing the game to the best of a person's ability, learning skills such as playing as a team, and enjoying the game.

As a freshman at Esperanza High School in Anaheim, I can think of a number of games that I have played in where the other team thought winning was so important they would use any and every means possible to achieve a victory, including dishonest tactics as well as excessively fouling their opponents.

Even in the regular physical education classes at school, when there is not an adult supervising or keeping score, students will tack on extra points to their own totals. When confronted, they argue they are correct and that you just were not keeping score properly.

Using dishonest tactics and cheating are not confined to only those players with less athletic skill. I have known excellent players who have resorted to cheating. Perhaps the poorer players need to win to make themselves feel better, while the good players need to win in order to retain their reputations as winners.

Although everyone likes to win, winning should not be the only reason a coach gives to his team for playing or the only reason that motivates a participant to play. Many are taught that winning is all-important, but if everyone concentrates on winning, athletes are often less likely to enjoy the actual playing of the game itself.

Almost everyone has been to a game where there was a parent in attendance who was obviously obsessed with winning. These rude spectators, who usually spend their time yelling at the referees, players, coaches or anyone else who might be in a position to prevent their child from winning, influence their children more than they might realize. If they are so obsessed with winning, why shouldn't their children be likewise?

At the high school level, students should concentrate on improving their playing techniques, especially if they are considering taking up the sport as a way to get into college or as a possible career. They should not be obsessed with obtaining more points or faster times than their opponents.

By playing on a team, a student can learn many things that will help him later in life: teamwork, setting and reaching goals, commitment and persistence. Future employers are not going to ask you on your job application if you or your team won a CIF Southern Section championship in high school. However, the skills and qualities you did develop during your playing days will prove very valuable.

High schools in Orange County with winning traditions in sports are schools with heavy parental involvement, schools that promote and support academics, athletics and parental ties. Winning is a natural result of this cooperation. It isn't that winning is emphasized; winning occurs because parents, kids, teachers and coaches are working together to mold future Americans.

Brea-Olinda, Mater Dei, Los Alamitos, Santa Margarita, Edison, El Toro, Estancia and Marina and many others are high schools with winning traditions in multiples of sports. They are also high schools with active booster groups, knowledgeable athletic administrators, student-centered coaches and involved parents.

Funding reductions, increased academic requirements, intra-district transfer policies, etc., do not become impediments at these schools; they become challenges that parents, athletes, teachers and coaches focus on together for solutions.

Winning at a family-centered school occurs because all four forces have made sacrifices and worked together.

Let's remember that until their junior year, most high school students don't drive. They're dependent on adults or the system to transport them to and from practice. The system, in the past 10 years or so, has collapsed; schools no longer provide bus transportation to and from athletic practices. The kids have to get there and get home on their own.

Schools that have parents who take their kids to swim practice year-round at 6 a.m., who pick up their kids from football practice at 7:30 p.m., who spend their weekends at cheerleading performances, band competitions, volleyball clinics or wrestling events are the winners.

The "have" schools of our county are in the majority, and they are successful winners because parents at those schools make major sacrifices in time, money or priorities.

A winning tradition becomes contagious when cheered on by all those involved. Coaches are a crucial ingredient in the mix, but so are committed parents, supportive teachers and dedicated athletes. Ask what makes Brea-Olinda's girls' basketball team click, Mater Dei's boys' program excel, Los Alamitos' football squad dominate annually or Marina's softball team win consistently: an interactive winning tradition supported by adults who respect students.

How much emphasis should be placed on winning at the high school level? As much emphasis as the partners involved wish to spend. After all, this is America: land of the free to choose, to sacrifice, to win!

Do we place too much emphasis on winning?

No. Understanding how to win is important. Knowing what it takes to set a goal and then reach it is invaluable in society.

Do we place too much emphasis on winning?

Yes. When a team reaches four consecutive Super Bowls and is branded a loser, our collective perception of winning is skewed.

Society is better served by a high school athlete who learns how to lose graciously than one willing to win at all costs.

That seems to be the problem with many of today's social ills, regardless of how small they might seem. The pursuit of victory develops the me-first attitude that permeates our society. I have grown up in the "Me Generation." Selfishness is the No. 1 problem in America today, and not just because we have stooped to allowing NBA players to compete in the Olympics.

Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan? Selfish.

Baseball owners? Selfish.

Sports franchise relocation? Selfish.

The stabbing of Monica Seles? Selfish.

Drivers who shoot at other drivers on the highway? Selfish.

Gangs recruiting their members? Selfish.

Turf wars? Selfish.

Israel-PLO? Selfish.

Erik and Lyle Menendez? Selfish.

Have a problem? Eliminate the competition. Have it your way.

Just win, Baby.

OK, you can't blame the Middle East on high school sports, but hear me out.

The most important function of our educational system is to advance a literate, clear-thinking society. But another function, whether education wants it or not, is to build character and help forge young citizens who appreciate winning, but are not consumed by it. The importance of practice and teamwork, of hard work and sacrifice, of preparation and strategy, of establishing viable working relationships despite interpersonal differences, are applicable to life beyond high school.

It is the high school athlete -- as well as the coach or teacher -- who is often the role model for the younger students in school.

Me? I looked up to Leonard Kadel, a senior at Olivehurst (Calif.) Lindhurst High while I was a freshman. Someone at Mater Dei is looking up to Miles Simon. Someone at Brea-Olinda is looking up to Nicole Erickson. And athletes aren't the only ones looking; there are others who it is hoped will appreciate the hard-work ethic that both those players exhibit.

It's important for everyone in society to know how to win. It's also important for everyone to know how to lose. When stories are made public of an entire junior varsity team threatened to be replaced because it lost one game it was expected to win, is that sending the right message or the wrong one?

Vince Lombardi is supposed to have said it: "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing." He was speaking of professional sports. I would hope that if Coach Lombardi were alive today, addressing your student body, he would amend that statement to: "Winning isn't everything."

It just isn't. There is failure in everyone's life. Learning to deal with it, learning how to move on, is terribly important. The best time to learn is while you're still young enough -- and willing -- to learn. Junior high and high school is a time when you're still young enough.

Might Angel reliever Donnie Moore still be alive had he been able to effectively deal with the home run he surrendered in the AL playoffs? Or, might he still be alive had fans been able to effectively deal with it?

I am surprised there haven't been more Donnie Moores, more people who crack under the pressure of losing.

I am not throwing away the importance of victory. I am not criticizing programs that yearly increase the standards of excellence in football, basketball, baseball or whatever.

But I refuse to indict those programs that are weak. For every team that wins, there is a team that loses. And the all-consuming desire to win creates asses in society. From my position as a sportswriter, I hear the comments of plenty of fans -- parents, particularly -- who are blinded by the pursuit of victory. I am embarrassed that somewhere on the playing field or court they have a child.

I sat next to a 15-year-old boy one game who cheered and jeered with every call for and against his team. At one point, the boy yelled at the referee, "You blew it, you . . . !"

Am I wrong to be worried? This was a high school girls' basketball game.

Of course, some people aren't concerned about what others think. And that's fine. But I have worked with those types of people and they are my least favorite. They are, typically, the most selfish. They are, typically, the ones who can't stand the thought of losing.

A new day's sun is lighting the sky, revealing a lush green countryside and a sprawling lake reflecting the billowing clouds above. Birds begin to sing.

The serenity of the morning is short-lived, however. Abruptly, in a collective roar of high-powered engines, bass boats by the dozens speed off.

The daily ritual has begun anew.

It's peak season at Lake Casitas, and the reservoir, rejuvenated after the drought by two years of steady rains, has been the hottest lake around for trophy-sized largemouth bass.

"It's good every year at this time, but this year has to be one of the best ever," marina manager Randy King says. "At other lakes a 10-pounder is a once-in-a-lifetime fish. We've been getting more than a dozen every week."

But lake regulars catch most of those fish, and they are a secretive yet fiercely competitive lot. A very large bass does not go unnoticed. Neither does failure to produce.

Marlin Spencer, a 53-year-old semi-retired cabinetmaker from Santa Barbara, is one such fanatic.

"I've fished here 20 years and I catch at least 10 bass (of) 10 pounds or more every year," Spencer says as he pulls his boat up to a point off an area known as Indian Mesa. The submerged trees and bushes beneath were home to an 11-pound 8-ounce lunker that charged the surface and inhaled one of Spencer's homemade lures the other day.

The lures are large jointed contraptions, painted to look like a trout and built to mimic one.

"There's nothing these bass like more than a trout swimming on the surface," Spencer says. "And when they come up, the water just opens up and there's nothing like it."

Spencer casts and begins the slow retrieve. The lure looks like a trout, but there is no sudden opening of water, only a gentle V-shaped wake following the lure as it swims back to the boat.

Spencer casts again, and again . . .

Elsewhere on the lake, Dave Townsend is battling a 10-pound largemouth.

Spencer isn't concerned, however.

"You have to have patience," he says. "It's just a matter of when they decide to feed. I can throw these (lures) all day if I have to."

It appears he won't have to wait long. A commotion erupts behind the boat, where several bass are chasing a small trout, which disappears suddenly as a bass opens its large mouth, taking the trout and a huge amount of water in one gulp.

Spencer puts his hand over his heart, breathes deeply, then casts several times in the vicinity of what he calls the "wolf pack" of bass. But the fish are not fooled by his artificial trout.

The commotion is over quickly, tranquillity restored. A breeze ripples the lake. Small ducks dive for small prey.

But for Spencer, nothing is biting.

Not too far away, John Shull, a lake regular from Ojai, is battling an 11-pounder.

Spencer decides to move.

He pulls up to an area at the south end, where a submerged ridge between what are now two small islands has produced in the past. Spencer casts. Nothing. He casts again. nothing. It is asked how he got the name Marlin.

"My mother picked it out of an old true-confession magazine," he answers, reluctantly. So much for small talk.

Spencer remains upbeat, though, outwardly anyway, and moves again to an area he calls "Fish Highway," near the dam.

"They come in from the dam and round this small point," he says.

Sure enough, two large bass are cruising around the point a few feet beneath the surface. Spencer's heart races again, and he casts. Again, no takers.

He works the shoreline toward the east shore. Several deer are grazing on the hillside. But Spencer can't get a bite.

"I've never cast so many times and not caught anything," he says, his frustration beginning to show. He fires up his engine and hits the throttle. "Maybe they'll be biting after lunch."

Despite having filled up on humble pie, Spencer orders a burger and coffee.

King hand-feeds wild birds meal worms behind the counter at the tackle store, where snapshots logging the day's top catches are displayed. He explains how Casitas has regained its prominence as one of the world's top largemouth bass fisheries.

"The lake dropped 55 feet during the drought," he says. "We lost nutrients and lots of habitat. The lake came back up 28 feet two years ago, covering all the new growth, and 25 feet last year. It gave us a terrace -- there's great habitat 25 feet down and then there's the next level, where there are a lot of big bass."

The biggest Casitas bass was a 21-pound 3-ounce fish caught by Ray Easley in March of 1980. The biggest since, an 18-pound 8-ounce fish caught last March by Steve Gray of Ventura.

Many believe that Casitas will produce the next all-tackle world record, finally striking from the books the name of George Perry, whose 22-pound 4-ounce largemouth caught in a Georgia pond has stood as the record since 1932.

Spencer, however, has something else on his mind: producing a respectable fish by day's end.

"If it happens to be a world record, so be it," he says, back in his boat for the afternoon bite, should there be one.

"Never take no for an answer," he says, back at Indian Mesa. But after several casts, he does just that. Back to the Fish Highway, nothing. Back to the ridge, nothing.

Spencer is asked if he has ever caught a marlin.

"Nope," he says, his mind on much smaller but equally elusive quarry. "Don't know too much about them."

Elsewhere on the lake, Paul Beppu, a lake regular from Ventura, is catching a 12-pounder. He follows that up with a 13-pounder.

Spencer pulls up to Dead Horse Canyon, where Shull is fishing. Shull had already caught four bass. "And one rolled on my lure that had to weigh 15 pounds," he says.

Spencer doesn't want to hear it.

He moves to Deer Slope and works the entire bank. Nothing. He motors into Chismahoo Creek and casts in and about the weedy banks and off the several small points. Nothing.

A red-tailed hawk swoops down on a large rodent and carries it to a treetop. But as far as Spencer is concerned, nothing is biting.

He says that his friend, Jim Mason, who knows the lake as well as or better than anyone, had been having similar troubles for the last few weeks.

"He has been really upset lately because he hasn't been able to catch a big fish," Spencer says.

Elsewhere on the lake, Mason, an Oak View resident, is having no trouble at all, he and a companion having landed five bass totaling 51 pounds, the largest a 13-pounder.

But for Spencer, time is running out. He ends up at Orchard Point, where he once caught a 15-pounder. He has been on the lake for 10 hours and has only a three-pounder to his credit, a fish he took on a plastic worm in hopes of breaking the ice. Now, a few hundred casts later, his spirit is drooping.

Defeated, he fires up his engine and heads for the marina.

Wondering, possibly hoping, if others had struggled as he has, Spencer wanders up to the tackle shop. No such luck. On the counter are snapshots of at least 10 bass, all weighing 10 pounds or more, including Mason's five, which were photographed and released.

"We've had more than a dozen fish over 10 pounds," King says.

Spencer tries to hide his humiliation. He downs a cup of coffee and mingles for a bit before going back to load his boat and head home. "I'm surprise at old Marlin," King says. "He usually comes up with a big one."

At least for Spencer, there is always tomorrow. Lake Casitas

Thanks to drought-busting rains the past few years, Lake Casitas in Ventura County has regained its prominence as a world-class trophy bass fishery.

In a tribute to the late Dinah Shore, the Ladies Professional Golf Assn. announced Tuesday that she has been elected an honorary member of the LPGA Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame, considered one of the most difficult to get into in sports, has only 13 members from the playing ranks.Shore, who helped build interest in the LPGA tour through the Nabisco Dinah Shore tournament, is the only honorary member.

The announcement was made by Commissioner Charles S. Mechem at the banquet that precedes the tournament. The 72-hole event begins Thursday at the Mission Hills Country Club.

Mechem also announced that the LPGA scholarship program will be named after the entertainer, who died of cancer Feb. 24. The first Dinah Shore LPGA Scholarship is expected to be awarded for the 1994-95 school year. DAN HAFNER

The L.A. Football Coaches Assn., representing football coaches at 49 City Section high schools, has proposed a modification of the playoff structure that could be implemented by the fall.

The association proposed to the Interscholastic Athletics Committee this week that teams not be predesignated as members of the 3-A or 4-A divisions.Instead, once the regular season is complete, teams will be placed in the appropriate divisional playoff bracket based on record and strength of schedule, City Commissioner Barbara Fiege said.

The proposal has been sent to a City subcommittee. Formal ratification is expected at IAC's next meeting on May 16, Fiege said.

"It seemed to get tacit approval from IAC," Fiege said.

Under the plan, each of the six conference champions automatically would be placed in the 16-team 4-A playoff bracket. The remaining 10 teams would be chosen subjectively. After the 4-A bracket is complete, the 16-team 3-A bracket would be filled from the remaining schools.

Fiege said the proposal "got a number of positive responses" from IAC, whose members seemed interested in applying the format to other sports. Adoption in other sports would first need to be approved by coaches, she said.

Under the existing format in football, basketball and baseball, most conferences are split into a 3-A and 4-A leagues before the season begins.

The leagues are juggled annually based on conference record, which means teams are often placed in 4-A leagues after strong seasons. However, one good season doesn't ensure a similar performance at the higher level the following year.

Also, Fiege said IAC has authorized a plan in which City openers will be played Friday, Sept. 9, the start date for most Southern Section games. The first day of school in the Los Angeles Unified School District is Sept. 12.

The California State University system Tuesday was ordered to pay $300,000 in attorneys fees to representatives of former Cal State Fullerton volleyball Coach Jim Huffman, who in February won a $1.35 million judgment in his wrongful termination suit against the school.

Superior Court Judge Ronald L. Bauer also denied a CSU attorney's motions for a new trial and to have the $1.35 million award reduced. In addition, Bauer ordered two defendants, Fullerton Athletic Director Bill Shumard and university administrator Jack Bedell, to pay Huffman punitive damages totaling $4,500, $3,000 for Shumard and $1,500 for Bedell.

Defense attorney Kevin Gerry said the CSU system will appeal the ruling, perhaps as early as today. The appeal process could take up to two years, during which time Huffman's $1.35 million judgment will earn 10% interest.

"We see this as one of the best investments we can make in this economy," said Jared Huffman, Jim's brother and attorney. "We've analyzed the verdict and researched the law and have no question whatsoever that we will prevail on most, if not all, causes of action on appeal."

Huffman estimated that his San Francisco-based firm of Boyd, Huffman & Williams could incur another $200,000 in attorneys fees during the appeal process. In 18 months, the $1.35 million would earn about $200,000 in interest.

If a state appellate court upholds the verdict of the Superior Court jury, that could push the CSU system's financial liability over $2 million. Judgments against the system come directly out of the CSU's operating budget.

"I think the taxpayers of the state and students of the CSU system should be aware that their representatives are wasting money in this matter," Huffman said. "It's the same type of horrible decision-making that has characterized the defendants from the very beginning of this case.

"These are the same people who rejected our $300,000 settlement offer when the complaint was filed (in December, 1992) and our $350,000 settlement offer two months before trial."

Jim Huffman, who now works at an Anaheim sports apparel company, said he was unfairly fired in March, 1992, after he fought and blocked the school's effort to kill the women's volleyball program in January, 1992.

The university contended it acted properly when it fired Huffman, whose teams went 25-80 in his three years (1989-91) as coach.

But Huffman's attorneys successfully argued during the three-week trial that the coach was fired in retaliation for his sex-discrimination lawsuit that saved women's volleyball, forced changes in the school's athletic policies and embarrassed the school.

A jury determined that Shumard and Bedell, then the school's acting vice president for academic affairs, had "acted with reckless disregard of, or callous indifference to" Huffman's First Amendment rights. Shumard also was found to have acted with "fraud, malice or oppression" in terminating Huffman.

Taco Bell Corp. hinted Tuesday that it has decided to move out of its 12-story headquarters and said that it has narrowed its search for bigger offices to Orange County and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Spokeswoman Janis Smith said the company, a week away from its self-imposed deadline for deciding where to move its headquarters, has ruled out Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C. That decision was made earlier this month, she said.

"We're still looking at a variety of options," Smith said.

When Taco Bell said at the end of September that it might relocate, the company also said it was possible that it would remain in its 285,000-square-foot mirrored Irvine office tower. "To say that would be inaccurate today," Smith said, though she would not say outright that the Irvine building was scratched from the company's list of possible sites.

The fast-growing, Mexican-style fast-food chain already has nearly 1,000 employees working in its headquarters and in several floors of a smaller building next door, she said.

The hunt for new offices will depend on "economics, transportation and, for Texas, a central location" in the nation, Smith said. The company still expects to reveal its plans by the end of the month.

Smith would not elaborate on what Taco Bell is looking for in a headquarters or what incentives are being offered, but it is believed that Dallas' central location and larger airport facilities would be weighed against the huge cost of moving such a large operation halfway across the nation.

Taco Bell's announcement last fall jolted Orange County and California officials who already were beset with companies fleeing -- or considering leaving -- the state for cheaper land, cheaper labor and fewer state and local restrictions on business.

North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt stopped by Taco Bell's headquarters on Nov. 4 as part of a Southland swing to round up a new crop of companies for the Tarheel State.

Smith said corporate executives have since talked with the governors of all four states.

Gov. Pete Wilson sent in a so-called red team, a task force of corporate leaders, to try to persuade Taco Bell to remain in California. Red teams have been used in other cases where large employers have threatened to relocate out of state.

Smith said Taco Bell is still discussing possible plans both with Wilson's red team and with Texas officials.

A Santa Ana orthopedic surgeon charged two years ago in a much-publicized crackdown on workers' compensation insurance fraud was acquitted Tuesday on all 14 counts against him.

The not-guilty verdict, which was delivered by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury, came nearly two years after the defendant, Dr. Marappa V. Gopinath, 46, was arrested for allegedly filing bogus insurance claims.

At the time, state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi held a press conference and proclaimed Gopinath's arrest and those of eight others as "a clear warning to con artists that we aim to put them out of business."

Gopinath could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but his attorney, Marshall Schulman, said, "justice has not been served because he never should have been charged."

Initially, prosecutors alleged that Gopinath had double-billed insurance companies and provided false information for a workers' compensation patient.

By the time the trial started Feb. 4 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Gopinath was accused of 14 counts of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and fraudulent billing practices involving five patients.

"Absolutely untrue," Schulman said. "It showed a complete lack of understanding of the workers' compensation laws."

While under indictment, Gopinath has continued to practice medicine in Santa Ana, Schulman said, but his practice has suffered.

"When you're under indictment, it's hard to get people to come in to see you," Schulman said. "He was receiving referrals from other doctors. He's a fine orthopedic surgeon. But no doctor or lawyer is going to refer" cases to a person awaiting prosecution, he said.

Gopinath's arrest in April, 1992, came in the wake of a then-new state law providing for stepped-up investigations of suspected workers' compensation fraud and stiffer penalties for those convicted.

Garamendi called a midday news conference in Los Angeles on April 22, 1992, to tout what was described as the start of a major attack on workers' compensation insurance fraud and to announce the arrests. The status of the cases against the eight others arrested that day was not immediately available.

Children in the exclusive Nellie Gail subdivision dubbed Jim and Effie Cardiges' home "The Castle" for its domed, octagonal turret.

Business associates who socialized with the couple agreed that the $760,000 house, with its extra-wide hallways and carpeted, air-conditioned garage, was indeed palatial.

The home and the couple's refined tastes -- he wore gold Rolex watches and $1,000 suits, she appreciated fine jewelry, both drove expensive cars -- seemed to be in keeping with Jim Cardiges' position as a high-ranking executive at Torrance-based American Honda Motor Co.

Neighbors described the family as warm, gentle people. Cardiges' business associates described him as a regular churchgoer at St. Paul's Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine, where he'd recently served as chairman of an important fund-raiser.

So friends and neighbors were stunned when federal agents arrested Cardiges at his home March 11 and charged him with taking an estimated $5 million in kickbacks and bribes in return for awarding Honda franchises to dealers across the country.

Cardiges and his family have declined to comment. But his attorney, Philip Israels, said Cardiges fully expects to "prevail in court."

Federal investigators allege that the scheming was fueled by the law of supply and demand. As customers clamored for Honda and Acura automobiles in the 1980s, the economic value of those car dealerships skyrocketed.

As early as 1992, there were signs that Cardiges' situation might be more complicated than it appeared. He surprised acquaintances and business associates by abruptly resigning from American Honda, where he had been the top executive in the U.S. sales division.

Cardiges, now 48, told associates then that he wanted more time to look after his personal businesses, including J. Car Consultants & Development, which he ran from an office in his home. Cardiges also spent considerable time -- and as much as $1 million of his own money, according to court documents -- on Worldwide Dyve Inc., a small company in Corona that made sportswear.

"His premise was that he'd resigned, which we all found very surprising," said an Orange County businessman who socialized with Cardiges in the early 1990s. "It was unusual because someone of his age resigned so suddenly."

Speculation among auto industry insiders about Cardiges was fueled in late 1992 when disgruntled Honda dealers in New Hampshire testified in federal court that company executives tilted the dealer selection process and car allocations to favor franchisees who paid bribes.

In early 1993, Cardiges' successor in the Honda sales division acknowledged in an interview that "a small number of people have tarnished us." And in June, a Detroit automobile-industry trade magazine reported that the FBI intended to question Cardiges.

Former Honda executives who pleaded guilty in recent months to related fraud charges told investigators that Cardiges logged various illegal payments in a black, leather-bound notebook, according to an affidavit filed by prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. The document says one former executive asserted that Cardiges kept $150,000 hidden in a brown paper bag in an unoccupied condominium.

The former executives also told investigators that Cardiges -- whose annual salary at Honda was never more than $143,892 -- accepted automobiles for his children and niece from Honda dealers in Virginia and New York. Investigators allege that Cardiges accepted bribes and kickbacks, including a new Mercedes Benz and a $20,000 baby grand piano.

He allegedly ordered one car dealer to buy $24,000 worth of furniture for him at high-end retailers, such as Glabman's Furniture in Costa Mesa. According to court filings, investigators were told that another dealer footed the bill for a Hong Kong shopping spree where Jim and Effie Cardiges purchased expensive vases for their home.

FBI agents confiscated some of the furnishings after searching the house for evidence on the night they arrested Cardiges, who is free on $200,000 bail and scheduled to appear in federal court in Concord, N.H., by March 31 to enter a plea.

Former Cardiges associates say they were shocked by the arrest and the allegations that subsequently came to light.

Among them is Al Hornsby, vice president of the Professional Assn. of Diving Instructors, a Santa Ana-based group that licensed Worldwide Dyve to manufacture sportswear in 1991. PADI contracted with Worldwide Dyve in large part because of Cardiges' reputation as "an important executive at Honda," Hornsby said.

The agreement was profitable for PADI and Worldwide, Hornsby said, but Cardiges opted not to renew the licensing agreement late last year.

Instead, Cardiges called real estate broker Larry Null, who had helped Worldwide Dyve find office space in Corona, for advice about "shutting the business down," Null said.

Worldwide's demise, Null said, followed a bitter disagreement between Cardiges and Harry Youngman, an accountant who also served as Worldwide Dyve's manager. "It was real obvious that they had a falling out," Null said.

Youngman, who handled Cardiges' accounting and tax work for eight years, subsequently provided federal investigators with an inside look at Cardiges' finances, according to an arrest warrant and criminal indictment filed in federal court.

Cardiges reported more than $1 million in "consulting income" from Honda dealers during 1991 alone, Youngman told investigators.

Youngman, who could not be reached for comment, also told federal investigators that Cardiges set up J. Car Consultants & Development to help shelter his non-Honda income. And, the court records say, he told investigators that Cardiges used his consulting income to buy investment properties and to pump more than $1 million into Worldwide Dyve.

The small clothing company's ample budget made an impression on industry executives accustomed to dealing with less well financed start-ups. Cardiges' willingness to spend money also was apparent to associates who visited the executive's home.

During a party, one Orange County businessman said, Cardiges took guests on "a mandatory tour" that included the carpeted garage. Cardiges boasted of having bought a Mitsubishi 3000 GT sports car for his youngest son's 16th birthday, the associate recalled. And he told of a garage in the Trabuco Canyon area where he stored more than a dozen other cars.

"He was very status- and image-conscious," another former business associate said. "For him, what he drove and what he wore were very important. You knew that just from listening to his conversations about what to do with his money."

Although the bold proposal for a $9-billion global communications network is being launched by high-technology giants Craig McCaw and Bill Gates, the network itself is the brainchild of an obscure West Covina venture capitalist and engineer named Edward F. Tuck.

Tuck, 62, a respected financial backer of several start-up telecommunications firms but little known to the general public, said in an interview Tuesday that he has been pondering this kind of a network since 1988, and persuaded McCaw four years ago to get behind the 840-satellite project.

Tuck said that after their first meeting, McCaw "said, 'Let's keep in touch,' so I took him at his word."

McCaw, the cellular telephone titan, joined with Tuck in 1990 to form Teledesic Corp., a Kirkland, Wash.-based company that plans to build the network. Gates, chairman of Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, came on board later.

In unveiling its project Monday, Teledesic said the network would provide virtually any spot in the world with a broad menu of interactive and portable services for voice, data and video communications, at prices mirroring conventional telephone services.

The project is almost certain to face major obstacles before the services are scheduled to start in 2001, but Tuck's job is now largely complete. He said his role from here on out is a minor one.

The company has hired a president to run its day-to-day affairs, and although one of Tuck's venture capital funds, Kinship Partners II, owns 11% of the project, Teledesic is mostly owned by Gates and McCaw. (McCaw controls McCaw Cellular Communications, which he is selling to AT&T.)

Moreover, Teledesic plans to enlist the help of dozens of other communications firms and other partners to help develop and finance the project, which will rapidly dilute Kinship's stake.

"It's clearly a venture capital deal that got out of hand," Tuck said only half facetiously. "Good grief, that's going to be an immense company. I'll be on their board for a while, and to the extent I'm useful to them, I'm theirs."

It suits Tuck's profile to duck quickly out of the limelight while keeping a piece of the financial action, associates said.

"You'd never know Tuck has done well" in his field, said Douglas Lockie, executive vice president of Endgate Technology, an antenna equipment maker in Sunnyvale, Calif., that Tuck helped start. "He lives an unostentatious lifestyle. No Armani suits. When we go to lunch, it's usually sushi or the deli down the street."

Indeed, Tuck does business from a modestly furnished office -- not in the venture capital hotbed of Palo Alto or Newport Beach, but in West Covina, where his office shakes from trucks that hurtle by 100 yards away on the San Bernardino Freeway.

He does fly his own plane -- a small, swift Mooney TLS single-engine propeller craft. An "aerial hot rod," he calls it.

*

With a shock of white hair, a broad nose and brown eyes, Tuck has lived in the same three-bedroom house for 17 years, seldom wears ties to work and avoids publicity, fearing that it would make his clients ill at ease.

"His ego doesn't seem to get in the way of anything," said Randy Hoffman, president of another Tuck start-up, Magellan Corp. in San Dimas. "He's not in it for the publicity."

Nonetheless, if Tuck gets the credit for Teledesic's brash concept, he's also in line for the flak.

The venture has already been criticized by some analysts as being too expensive, too complex and too ambitious, if only on political grounds, because approvals will be needed from countries worldwide to make the system work.

Besides, they said, there are several other satellite-based communications networks already on the drawing board, backed by such companies as Motorola, Loral Corp. and TRW.

Tuck is unmoved. "It's something that I think should happen," he said. His network would provide all countries with similar, affordable service, thereby lifting the economic status of poor nations that currently have inferior ground-based communications systems, he said.

Global wireless communications had not yet occurred to Tuck when he was attending college in the early 1950s, for which he paid tuition by working as a country-western disc jockey in Rolla, Mo.

Tuck graduated from the University of Missouri with an electrical engineering degree. He then held various engineering and technical posts at such companies as General Motors Corp. and ITT Corp. before moving into the venture capital business in the mid-1980s.

As a venture capitalist, Tuck uses cash raised from investors to help fledgling firms get started, while retaining major ownership stakes that he hopes will grow in value as the firms prosper. (He said Kinship Partners II has about $20 million invested in a handful of companies, but he declined to release financial details about himself or his projects.)

Tuck also helps manage the firms at first, but he eventually hires a president to take over operations.

"I'm no good at running hierarchies," he said. "I've fired myself successfully several times."

His biggest success to date is Magellan Corp., which expects annual sales this year of $35 million. The firm makes hand-held receivers that, using technology from the Pentagon's Global Positioning System satellite network, enables boaters, hikers, pilots and others to know their exact location.

Magellan got Tuck thinking about the Teledesic network. Tuck said he realized that while a Magellan receiver could guide someone directly to, say, the North Pole, there was now another need: "To be able to call your mom and say, 'Mom, I'm at the North Pole.' "

Oscar winner "Schindler's List" tells you that a good story will always have value, no matter what develops on the overwrought subjects of information highways and multimedia.

The film, which won the best film and best director awards for Steven Spielberg, can also be a guide to understanding many other things in the entertainment business today. For example, "Schindler's List," which has taken in $60 million at the box office to date, may do even better in home video rentals -- for the very human reason that it is a searing, three-hour movie that many people might find easier to watch in their homes.

But then, more films are seen on home video than on movie screens these days -- by a margin that may surprise you. In 1993, video rentals totaled $8.8 billion and home video sales added another $5.9 billion, according to a major study by analyst Jeffrey Logsdon of Seidler Cos., a Los Angeles investment firm.

That's almost $15 billion from the U.S. video market, compared to $5.2 billion at the theatrical box office.

Moreover, video can be more profitable than theatrical distribution for the studios, because they get a higher share of every deal, says analyst David Davis of Paul Kagan & Associates, a Carmel, Calif., research firm. Thanks to the growth of video, movie studio revenues have more than doubled in the last eight years.

The irony is that the studios didn't see the bonanza coming. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the video rental business got started in stores owned by record distributors, who first had the idea of selling movies on tape to new owners of videocassette recorders. Later they moved to renting the films.

But the whole idea made studios uneasy. Warner Bros. and others threatened to withhold films from the storefront merchants. Then the studios sought to have Congress pass a law limiting the merchants' business. Fortunately for all involved, Congress listened to local small-business people more than it did big companies.

No action was taken on the matter, and videos became a great and stable source of film industry revenue, contributing importantly to making studios more valuable -- witness the recent bidding in which Viacom paid more than $10 billion for Paramount.

How could studio heads a decade ago have missed the promise of such a business? Simple: They yielded to what is called the displacement fallacy -- the idea that a new technology displaces a previous one. It doesn't. Radio continues alongside television, the movie business has adapted and grown with each new wrinkle in distribution -- from theaters to television to growing international markets.

The surging business of videocassette sales grew 28% last year, spurred by the runaway success of family films, especially by Walt Disney Co. Disney's "Aladdin" took in $286 million in video sales, compared to $217 million at the box office; "Pinocchio" had $174 million in video sales, compared to $19 million (worth more than $100 million in today's dollars) in box office receipts more than 50 years ago.

A successful film doesn't have to be a Disney classic. "Free Willy," a 20th Century Fox story about a boy and a whale, took in $94 million in video sales after earning $78 million at the box office.

And a film doesn't have to be for children, nor even a box office hit, to score in video rentals. "Sliver," a steamy thriller panned by critics that took in only $37 million in theaters, added another $29 million in rentals, possibly turning a loss into a profit for Paramount.

*

The lesson should be clear for all in Hollywood and investors around the world who are now trying to predict developments in new media: The more advances and varieties there are in film distribution, the more valuable the movie business becomes.

The latest news is that Pacific Bell is going to test a system for beaming movies digitally over telephone lines directly to theaters, eliminating the costs of duplicating films and delivering canisters.

PacBell will be testing machinery that one day could be used to send movies directly into homes in response to signals from interactive television sets -- the much-touted movies on demand. Such wonders will come to pass, no doubt, but not soon and not cheaply.

Technological breakthroughs and major investments will be needed to bring interactive television over fiber-optic cables to homes and neighborhoods. Analyst Logsdon believes that important thresholds, such as 1 million homes capable of conducting interactive experiments, may be crossed by 1998 or so.

Meanwhile, movies, one of the identifying technologies of the 20th Century, will continue to attract growing audiences in the 21st Century simply because they reflect an ancient art. They tell stories, as in "Schindler's List," a true story of decency and good surviving and ultimately prevailing against incredible evil.

It's a very powerful business. Fast Forward

The growth of movies on home video has been surprisingly rapid--video rentals have quadrupled in a decade--and video sales surged past box office revenue last year.

Rentals: $8.8 billion

Sales: $5.9 billion

Box office: $5.2 billion

Sources: Commerce Department; Seilder Cos.; industry estimates

The U.S. trade deficit soared 50% in January, driven by a record decline in exports, the government said Tuesday. The jump from the previous month occurred even though the scale for measuring the nation's trade posture was expanded to include its surplus in exported services and deficit in imported merchandise.

The rate of increase, the largest in nearly a year, raised a red flag that trade tensions could mount in coming months. However, the $6.3-billion January trade deficit was far from the highest in recent months.

The Commerce Department, adjusting figures from earlier months to include services as well as merchandise, said the January deficit fell short of the $7.2-billion monthly average for all of 1993. The monthly deficit in 1993 ranged from a high of $8.5 billion in October to a low of $4 billion in January.

The services trade surplus grew slightly in January, but the small improvement was overwhelmed by a $2.3-billion increase in the merchandise trade deficit. Merchandise exports plunged $2.7 billion, surpassing the previous record of $1.8 billion in 1986.

The $6.3-billion trade deficit "is a big number," said Jeffrey Schott of the Institute for International Economics in Washington. "The significant story is that you had a sharp increase in 1993 over 1992, and that trend is not abating. We could see a higher trade deficit this year than last."

In 1993, the United States imported $132 billion more in goods than it exported.

Alan Stoga, an economist at Kissinger & Associates in New York, found a silver lining. The decline in exports reflects the weak economies of many of America's trading partners, he said, while persistently high U.S. imports are "a clear sign of the strength of the U.S. economy."

The measurement of the trade balance was changed to include services to better reflect the overall trade picture and the significant role that non-traditional business activities play in the global economy.

Services include a wide variety of economic activities such as transportation, insurance, education, advertising, research and engineering. They represent 29% of U.S. exports, up from 18% in 1980.

Merchandise includes the more traditional products of an economy: agricultural and manufactured goods, as well as commodities.

"What we learned today was that our trade position in the world reflects a wider variety of forces in addition to those involving the flows of merchandise," Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown said in a statement.

House Approves Bank Branching Bill: The House approved a bill to revamp decades-old regulations that limit the ability of banks to run branches across state lines, a move that would pave the way for coast-to-coast banking. Similar interstate branching legislation easily cleared the Senate Banking Committee last month and is awaiting a final vote by the full Senate. The Clinton Administration supports the plan.

BankAmerica Names Woman Vice Chairman: Kathi Burke has been named to the post at the San Francisco-based company, making her the highest-ranking female officer in the bank's history. Burke, 42, was a BankAmerica Corp. group executive vice president and director of corporate human resources for Bank of America, as well as a member of its managing committee. She came to BankAmerica from Security Pacific Corp., where she was executive vice president and head of human resources from 1989 through 1992.

Spectrum-Linked Firm Raided; Five Arrested: Postal inspectors in New York raided an investment company founded by the president of Spectrum Information Technologies Inc., and five men were arrested on wire and mail fraud charges. The federal complaint, filed in Brooklyn, says Paradigm Investments ran a "boiler room operation," calling small and medium-sized businesses and offering to find them financing for a fee.It says Paradigm defrauded dozens of companies of as much as $30,000 each, beginning in 1989. John Bohrman, 27, son-in-law of Spectrum President Peter Caserta, was among those arrested, and the complaint notes that Caserta recently sold Paradigm to Bohrman. Spectrum, which was not the target of the probe, said it is cooperating with authorities. Spectrum's stock fell 50 cents to close at $2.56 a share on Nasdaq.

SEC Backs Shareholders in Big O Tire Dispute: The agency agreed that shareholders of Big O Tires Inc. may decide whether to hire an investment banker in hopes of enhancing shareholder value, according to a Newport Beach investment group. The ruling comes on a proposal by the Balboa Investment Group L.P. The investment banker would have the option of recommending a sale, merger or taking the company private, according to Kenneth W. Pavia Sr., Balboa's general partner."Now the company cannot have the comfort of omitting this proposal," he said. Big O Tires, a chain of tire stores based in Englewood, Colo., with more than 15 locations in Orange County, could not be reached for comment. Big O stock closed Tuesday on the Nasdaq at $15.75, up 37.5 cents. Pavia said his group is the largest independent shareholder of Big O, with 9.6% of the shares. The group made the investment banker proposal in December. Initially found acceptable by the company, Big O lawyers later declared the proposed supporting statement to be false and misleading.

Southwest Airlines to Add Flights: The carrier said it will use new Boeing 737s and 737s acquired in its purchase of Morris Air to add 26 round-trip flights to its schedule between May 26 and July 8.The airline also recently announced new service to Seattle; Portland; Spokane, Wash., and Orange County starting in early June. New nonstop routes from Baltimore include St. Louis; Louisville, Ky., and Birmingham, Ala. By June 6, Southwest will also more than double its daily nonstop flights between Chicago's Midway Airport and Baltimore, from three to seven.

L.A. County Establishes Micro-Loan Program: The County Micro Business Loan Program will guarantee loans of between $5,000 and $50,000 made by private lenders to small companies.The program, established with $700,000 in Department of Housing and Urban Development funds sent to Los Angeles after the 1992 riots, is designed to encourage banks to make riskier or non-traditional loans to spur economic development. If a borrower defaults, the bank is reimbursed for the balance of the loan. The first lender to sign up is Bank of America Community Development Bank, which reached an agreement after negotiating with the County Community Development Commission and county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

Burger King Taps Ammirati: Still in search of a successful advertising image, the Miami-based fast-food chain handed the creative portion of its $180-million advertising account to the New York agency Ammirati & Puris.Burger King's current agency, D'Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, will continue to handle media buying. Ammirati is perhaps best known for the ads it created for former client Club Med. The new Burger King ads, which are expected to refocus on promoting the chain's hamburgers, will air by late summer.

Sandoz to Cut Anti-Cholesterol Drug Price: The company's move to sell its new medication for as much as 50% less than competing drugs pushed drug stocks lower on fears of a price war.East Hanover, N.J.-based Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corp. will sell a month's supply of the newly approved drug, called Lescol, to wholesalers for $30.60. Stock prices of Merck & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which market rival anti-cholesterol drugs, fell. Parent company Sandoz, based in Basel, Switzerland, is not traded on U.S. markets.

In a deal that reflects technology's growing influence in the home entertainment market, Paramount Pictures' home video division said Tuesday that it will begin distributing interactive CD-ROM products to computer software stores, video rental stores and other retail outlets this spring.

The first Paramount title -- produced by Los Angeles-based software firm Xiphias -- is based on the popular "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" TV show.

The venture, which pits Paramount against interactive software distributors such as Electronic Arts and Compton's New Media, marks the first foray into the rapidly expanding arena by a Hollywood studio's home video arm.

Home video is the area of the entertainment business most threatened by new technologies that will allow movies to be delivered to the home through phone and cable lines.

Eric Doctorow, president of domestic home video for Paramount, said he expects interactive CD-ROM distribution to become a "very, very big business" -- but not necessarily at the expense of video.

Doctorow said videocassettes will eventually give way to compact discs for movies as well as music, interactive games, reference and educational products. Paramount also distributes some of its movies on CD-ROM.

Several of the major movie studios have started divisions that publish and distribute CD-ROMs, but Paramount said the retail relationships already established by the home video division will help usher the shiny discs out of the Eggheads and CompUSAs where they have traditionally been sold.

Still, analysts said the company may face an uphill battle getting shelf space in the computer-oriented retailers, which are key to successful marketing in the near term.

"Just because their name is Paramount doesn't mean their products are a shoo-in," said Bishop Cheen, multimedia analyst with Paul Kagan & Associates. "It will depend on the quality of the content they get."

State-Run Health Plan Lowers Rates: California's health alliance for small businesses dropped rates an average of 6.3%, prompting supporters to claim that the innovative new system is a success. Health plans unaffiliated with the alliance and competing for the same small-business customers have also been cutting rates in recent months.The result: a welcome reversal in California of the national trend toward ever-higher health care costs. The state-run alliance, called the Health Insurance Plan of California, operates as a purchasing pool for businesses with five to 50 employees, offering one-stop shopping for cut-rate coverage from 23 private health plans. Rates are lower than those typically available to small businesses because the alliance gives small firms the same kind of bargaining clout as giant corporations.

A Santa Ana orthopedic surgeon charged two years ago in a much-publicized crackdown on workers' compensation insurance fraud was acquitted Tuesday on all 14 counts against him.

The not-guilty verdict, delivered by a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury, exonerated Dr. Marappa V. Gopinath, 46, who had been accused of filing bogus insurance claims.

At the time, state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi proclaimed Gopinath's arrest and that of eight others as "a clear warning to con artists that we aim to put them out of business."

Gopinath could not be reached for comment, but his attorney, Marshall Schulman, said, "Justice has not been served, because he never should have been charged."

While under indictment, Gopinath has continued to practice medicine in Santa Ana, Schulman said, but his practice has suffered. JEFF BRAZIL

General Motors Corp. has advised the owners of 2,500 natural-gas-powered trucks, most of them sold to utility and municipal fleets in California and Texas, to take them off the road until the cause of two recent tank explosions can be determined.

The affected trucks are 1992 and 1993 GMC Sierra and Chevrolet three-quarter-ton pickups. The vehicles were fitted at the factory to run on compressed natural gas stored in three underbody aluminum tanks wrapped in fiberglass.

Southern California Gas Co., which uses 160 of the trucks, inspected its fleet for tank cracks after the first explosion Jan. 18, then took the trucks out of use shortly after the second incident Feb. 1.

GM mailed notices to other users in West Hollywood, Irvine, Long Beach and Thousand Oaks and in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. It also notified customers at UCLA, Northrop Corp. and Rand Corp.

Though GM is not expected to announce the results of its investigation into the incident until next week, early indications are that some sort of acid -- possibly from batteries being carried in the trucks -- caused the fiberglass wrapping to fail.

"We have requested these owners take them out of service so there isn't any potential for any other accidents," a GM spokeswoman said.

The first rupture occurred as a tank was being filled at a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. fueling site in San Francisco. One worker was hospitalized with lacerations. The other, similar incident occurred in Minneapolis. In neither case did the gas ignite.

*

The accidents come as cleaner-burning natural gas vehicles are entering the marketplace to help communities around the country reduce air pollution. Skeptics had predicted there would be difficulties handling the fuel in transportation.

"Anytime you're dealing with . . . fuels, you're talking about something that's not totally benign," said Mark B. Glick, chief executive of Global Environmental Industries Inc., an Austin, Tex.-based natural gas technology firm.

"But the relative factor of safety with natural gas vehicles is exponentially greater than with gasoline vehicles -- there's no doubt about that," said Glick, who is working with a task force to increase use of alternative fuels in government and private fleets.

Glick noted that more than 30,000 natural gas vehicles are in operation and that finding a solution to the tank problem would probably be easy.

Ford Motor Co., which is building natural gas demonstration vehicles, uses a different tank supplier and has reported no comparable incidents.

First Interstate Bancorp said Tuesday that it will offer early retirement to as many as 2,650 employees, or 10% of its work force, as part of a program to cut costs and improve its financial performance.

Management of the Los Angeles-based bank company, the nation's 13th-largest, also told analysts in New York that they will ask the firm's board next month to significantly increase the quarterly dividend from the current 50 cents per share and to expand a previously announced stock buyback program from 1.5 million to up to 8 million shares, or 9.7% of outstanding common shares.

The additional share purchases would begin in late June.

First Interstate shares rose $1.625 in New York Stock Exchange trading Tuesday to close at $74.50. The shares had been down from the previous close most of the trading day, evidently on news that Paine Webber banking analyst Lawrence Cohn had cut his rating of the stock from "attractive" to "neutral."

Trading was halted late in the day pending the restructuring announcement, and the share price soared when trading resumed just before the close.

In its announcement, the bank also said it will seek to acquire other financial institutions that would afford it a return on equity of 18% to 20% and possible expense savings of up to 50%.

The early-retirement program is one of several steps the bank said it will take to cut its costs in 1995 to 58 cents for every dollar in revenue, from 65.75 cents last year.

Company spokesman James Simon said details of the program will be released within the next two to three weeks but that approximately 10% of First Interstate's 26,589 employees will be eligible for the buyout. He declined to say whether such a cut would meet company goals or whether layoffs would be necessary.

If the Dow Jones industrial average were to fall 27% in three months, Wall Street would know what to call it: a bear market.

But in many naturally volatile foreign stock markets, a 27% decline -- which is what Hong Kong shares have experienced this year -- might just be called par for the course.

Yet some American investors, probably new to the international investing game, have been stunned as foreign markets that were red-hot last year have plunged this year. Investors' shock is showing up in a sudden rash of redemptions from international stock mutual funds.

Consider: T. Rowe Price Associates' New Asia Fund, a $2-billion stock fund that invests in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and other young Asian markets outside Japan, has dropped 20.5% in value this year, as shares in those markets have slumped.

Hopeful investors continued to pump new money into the fund in January and February, even as its share price fell. But early this month, fear began to get the best of some New Asia shareholders. The fund says that since March 1, it has seen 4% of its assets yanked away as shareholders have demanded their money back.

The tide also has turned at giant Fidelity Investments in Boston. The company's emerging markets stock funds, which drew record sums from new investors last year and early this year, now are seeing money flow out, says spokesman Neal Litvack. So far the redemptions are modest, he says -- $2 million to $5 million a day on Fidelity's $4-billion base of foreign stock assets.

Nonetheless, Litvack admits, "it's a significant reversal of the trend of the prior eight weeks."

*

Some foreign-fund owners may have a legitimate reason for getting out, of course, if they bought in well before last year's international stock frenzy and want to realize some of their substantial profits. But if today's sellers include investors who just bought these funds late last year or early this year, they're probably making a classic mistake bailing out.

Why? First, wild price swings are nothing new in emerging markets, because these are markets of relatively few stocks and relatively little trading. Before an investor dumps the New Asia fund because it's down 20.5%, he or she ought to remember that the fund was up 78.8% in value last year. Rarely can you make that much money in a year without giving some back in the next year.

Second, foreign stock markets' great year in 1993 followed five years of generally weak performance. Market cycles tend to run longer than a year, so 1993's surge looked more like a beginning than an ending. Indeed, that's what the economic outlook for most emerging markets suggests, many pros say. "Fundamentally, nothing has changed in most emerging markets," argues Josephine Jimenez, co-manager of the $635-million Montgomery Emerging Markets fund.

Mexico's economy is weak, but that market's biggest problem has been political uncertainty, much of which was dissipated Tuesday when a potential spoiler in the presidential race opted against running. (The news sent beaten-down Mexican shares soaring Tuesday.) Argentina, meanwhile, "is still in the most spectacular recovery that we've seen anywhere in Latin America," says Lawrence Krohn, emerging markets analyst at Lehman Bros. in New York.

On the other side of the Pacific, most local economies are likewise in fine shape, says Dan Duane, whose Prudential Pacific Growth fund invests in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and other Asian markets. While much of this year's Asian selloff is tied to fears of rising U.S. interest rates -- which can automatically push rates up in smaller Asian nations -- Duane says the sellers miss the point: U.S. rates are creeping up because the economy is so strong, which should translate into rising export orders for Asian companies.

"World trade should be very strong this year," Duane says, "and that means we should see very good profit growth out of these Asian economies."

With the 16% and 24% market declines in Singapore and Malaysia, respectively, so far this year, Duane says the price-to-earnings ratios on many of those stocks have dropped to the 15 to 20 range, putting them on par with U.S. stocks' P-Es. Yet profit growth in Pacific Rim countries this year should far exceed what many mature U.S. companies are capable of, he says.

Until the last few days, Duane says, his $500-million fund was still taking in new money. Now, he says, the fund is seeing mild net redemptions. While that may temporarily restrict his ability to buy stock, Duane sees a silver lining in worried investors' decision to bail. "Normally," he notes, "people redeem at market bottoms." Easy Come, Easy Go

Though many foreign stock markets have plunged this year, experts say investors should keep in mind that they are merely taking back some of the tremendous gains scored last year. How some foreign stock mutual funds fared in 1993 and their losses this year: 03,27,09,09 *2*Total return: Fund 1993 1994 Merrill Lynch Dragon B +85.8% -22.1% World Newport Tiger +75.4 -21.3 T. Rowe Price New Asia +78.8 -20.5 Scudder Pacific Oppor. +60.1 -17.7 Fidelity Emerg. Markets +81.8 -15.3 Montgom. Emerg. Mkts. +58.7 -9.4 Dean Wit./TCW Lat. Am. +46.8 -8.4 Govett Emerg. Markets +79.7 -6.4 Prudential Pacific Gro. B +65.3 -5.5 Scudder Latin America +74.3 -1.6 1994 data through Monday.

Source: Lipper Analytical Services

Three of the nation's major airlines lowered fares as much as 50% on Tuesday for trips between April 19 and June 15 on routes where they compete.

USAir initiated the move, with United Airlines and American Airlines quickly following suit.

The sales cover the period between Easter and summer vacations, when travel is fairly light.

USAir said in a statement from its Arlington, Va., headquarters: "Based on the strong response seen in recent sales, we're extending the opportunity for our customers to travel during the pre-summer period at discounted levels."

For this sale, USAir said, it selected markets where it has a sizable presence and where additional capacity is usually available during the post-Easter period. Not all routes are included in the sale.

In markets where lower promotional or regular fares already apply, USAir said it will continue to offer those fares.

USAir gave as examples fares of $198 round-trip between Eastern Seaboard cities and Florida; $298 round-trip between Eastern cities and New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin, and $398 for a coast-to-coast round trip.

Dallas-based American will match USAir's discounts in competing markets, spokesman Marty Heires said.

United, based in Chicago, said it will match discounted fares by USAir in competing markets by offering 40% to 50% off the price of trips taken between April 19 and June 15.

All three airlines said tickets must be purchased by March 31 and carry significant restrictions, such as a Saturday night stay.

Korean car makers Hyundai and Kia -- both with U.S. headquarters in Orange County -- made the pages of April's Car and Driver magazine.

The Sephia sedan, debuting in the United States this year as the inaugural product of Kia Motors of America Inc. in Irvine, got a full-page review in the respected monthly magazine for car buffs.

The verdict? The reviewer said a brief drive in the top-of-the line GS model, which retails for less than $12,000 with power windows and door locks, tilt steering, intermittent wipers and an AM / FM stereo cassette audio system, "gives us the impression that the Sephia will be a respectable transportation module."

But Car and Driver is noted for as much for acidity as acuity, and the Sephia review was no exception. Citing potential competitors, like Dodge's Neon, that come with dual air bags, optional ABS braking, sexier lines and a bigger engine, the magazine wrote that "notoriety for Kia will likely take a bit longer than it did for Heidi Fleiss."

A General Motors division plans to open a factory for making pickup seats here that would employ about 200 former workers from its shuttered San Fernando Valley auto plant, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The sewing factory will produce seats for GM's line of full-size pickups when it opens later this spring, said Karen Longridge, spokeswoman for the Inland Fisher Guide division of GM in Warren, Mich., which makes automobile and truck components.

Most, if not all, of the new plant's work force will be drawn from the 2,500 employees idled when GM shut its Van Nuys auto factory two years ago, she said. From its opening in 1947 until its closure in August, 1992, in a cost-cutting move, that plant had churned out 6.3 million cars, including Chevrolet Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds.

The closure left production workers who had earned $17.50 an hour with little hope of finding similar high-paying manufacturing jobs in the Southland after their benefits ran out a year later. Though there was no immediate word on what the new jobs will pay, the Brea plant will put a relatively small portion of the furloughed workers back on the GM payroll.

"Since we have a work force available, we would like to find opportunities," she said.

The workers are represented by United Auto Workers Local 645 in Van Nuys, which declined comment on the rehiring effort.

A truck-seat plant had been planned for the San Fernando Valley, but undamaged industrial buildings became harder to find after the Northridge earthquake in January. That led GM to the site in Brea -- a former Weber Aircraft facility at 3200 Enterprise St. Weber moved to Fullerton, according to the brokers for the Brea building's landlord, Carl Ross of Ontario.

GM has leased a 132,000-square-foot building for four years at a cost of $2 million, according to the brokers, Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Brokers in Orange.

"The San Fernando Valley was GM's first choice. But in the aftermath of the earthquake, there was a run on all available industrial sites, which forced them to widen their search to a 50-mile radius," broker Bill Lee said.

GM's Longridge said the company was attracted to Brea by the pressing need to get the operation up and running.

"The site in Brea just met our needs," she said. "There was little work we would have to do to get up to speed. We want to get this site operating as soon as we can."

Shares in Trimedyne Inc. fell nearly 10% in heavy trading Tuesday after the maker of surgical lasers announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is delaying approval of a new laser for treating enlarged prostate glands.

The selloff of Trimedyne stock came after the company announced that the FDA was postponing a decision on its Urolase device until researchers rework some data included in the company's voluminous application.

"At least we don't have to start from square one," said Trimedyne spokeswoman Kathy Price. "They just want us to clarify the information that is already in the documents."

Nevertheless, some shareholders lost confidence in the company, sending the stock down $1.25 on the Nasdaq market, to close at $12.875 a share on volume of 721,400 shares -- more than four times the normal trading volume.

Market jitters forced company officials to fend off a barrage of phone calls from investors concerned about the future of Urolase, which could increase the company's annual revenue by several million dollars. It is estimated that nearly half of American men over 55 suffer from enlarged prostate glands.

The application, originally submitted in July, 1993, still needs to undergo scrutiny by a panel of urologists before receiving final approval. That process, even without the delay, could take until the end of the year to complete.

"We're actually encouraged that the FDA is paying so much attention to detail," Price said. "When we're done, the technology will be airtight."

David Anast, publisher of the Biomedical Market Newsletter in Costa Mesa, suggested that shareholders acted hastily on Tuesday.

He said an FDA request for additional information during the review process is routine and does not mean that the prostate laser's application will probably be rejected.

"It's unfortunate that the investment community has regressed to the point that if instant approval is not received, then the product or company is branded as a disappointment," Anast said. "That can't be further from the truth."

The FDA, Anast said, routinely asks for information not found in applications or demands that information already included in an application be restated.

In Trimedyne's case, further delay appears to be minimal if the company can quickly provide the additional data.

The Urolase device is being jointly developed by Trimedyne and C.R. Bard Inc., a medical supplies distributor in Georgia. The partnership suffered a setback in December when FDA officials held off the company's presentation to the panel of experts.

Price said the repeated delays have not dampened enthusiasm for a device designed to help men who suffer from enlarged prostates.

"There has and will be a great deal of expectation for this approval," Price said. "Wall Street expectations are high. . . . Any blip will get an extraordinary amount of attention."

Car Group Toppers: Bob Tuttle, managing partner of Tuttle-Click Automotive Group in Irvine, was recently elected 1994 president of the Orange County Automobile Dealers Assn. . . . Ed Van Klaveren, owner of Specialty Body Works Carstar in Costa Mesa, has been installed 1994 president of the California Autobody Assn.

Hybrid Buses: Powers Design International, the Newport Beach transport products and systems designer, has been retained by the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District and Calstart, the statewide advanced transportation consortium, to help develop five hybrid electric buses.

The company also has been awarded a contract for design and engineering of a fleet of 100 buses for the Brazos Transit System, which serves 13 counties in southeastern Texas. The buses are to be made of lightweight composite materials and powered by compressed natural gas.

Quotable Mazza: A few pages before the Sephia review, Car and Driver gave Hyundai Motor America Inc.'s chief executive, Doug Mazza, a block of ink in its quote-of-the-month box.

The Mazza-ism that caught the editors' ears?

"There's about a million and a half cars that won't be sold (in the United States in 1994). The issue is, who is it who won't sell them?"

Hyundai Motor America, based in Fountain Valley, certainly hopes that it won't be one of those that isn't selling. The company has aggressively upgraded its model line and at the end of this year will unveil a replacement for its inaugural -- and most troublesome -- offering, the Excel.

It was the bargain basement-priced Excel that made Hyundai the fastest-growing new car importer in the mid-1980s. But mechanical problems that accompanied the Korean manufacturing plant's rush to make as many Excels as the U.S. market would absorb contributed to lingering image problems.

The new car will be curvier, peppier and slightly smaller outside while -- through the wonders of ergonomic engineering -- providing slightly more passenger room inside. It is likely to start at or just under $8,000.

PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., a health-maintenance organization, said it has received state approval to provide managed health-care benefits to Medi-Cal recipients in Los Angeles County.

PacifiCare President Jeff Folick on Tuesday said approvals by the state Department of Health Services and the state Department of Corporations should boost the Cypress-based company's annual revenue by $25 million by year's end.

Under the contract, which became effective Monday, the state will pay PacifiCare about $85 a month for each Medi-Cal recipient who enrolls in the new HMO program, Folick said. The state's Medi-Cal program provides state-funded health benefits to low-income residents.

Medi-Cal recipients have the option of allowing the state to pay for their medical care each time they go to a doctor or enroll in an HMO that provides them, in most cases, 100% coverage.

PacifiCare is the latest HMO to provide benefits to Medi-Cal recipients. Competitors Cigna Health Plans, Kaiser Permanente and United Health Plan also provide full coverage to low-income residents.

The program is similar to a federal program that allows companies to provide full health benefits to the elderly in exchange for their Medicare benefits. Under that program, HMOs receive about $400 a month for each Medicare recipient who signs up for a company medical plan.

PacifiCare Class A shares closed at $56.50 a share on the Nasdaq market on Tuesday, up 25 cents a share.

In a development that could send ripples through the computer industry, Advanced Logic Research Inc. said Tuesday that it has won a patent on its method of upgrading older personal computers to new technology.

The ALR technology allows a computer user to easily snap out an obsolete microprocessor -- the main computing unit of a PC -- and replace it with a faster microprocessor and other updated components, which generally allows the PC to work faster and use the latest software programs.

The idea behind the invention, which has been included in computers made by the Irvine-based company since 1989, was that PC buyers would not delay computer purchases if they could be assured that their machine would not soon become obsolete.

The upgraded component could be purchased for a smaller price than buying an entirely new computer, assuring customers that their machine would last longer.

Such modular design, which also lets manufacturers keep up with the constant change in computer chip speed, spread throughout the industry and is now regularly used by other companies such as Compaq Computer Corp. in Houston and cross-town rival AST Research Inc.

And since modular PCs use many of the same parts, ALR was able to simplify its inventory, devote less of its resources to technical engineering and lower its overall production costs.

The strategy helped ALR set itself apart from the so-called "clone makers" that merely mimicked brand-name computer makers such as IBM. Some experts viewed ALR's technology simply as a marketing ploy aimed at eliminating buyer's remorse. But on some early models, ALR said as many as 30% of its customers upgraded their PCs to faster microprocessors.

ALR lost $10.6 million, or 86 cents a share, in fiscal 1993 on revenue of $169.3 million, compared with net income of $500,000, or 5 cents a share, on revenue of $206.8 million the previous year. The company, which is now marginally profitable, has been hurt by fierce price wars in the PC industry.

"The patent seems fairly broad, but we have to conduct a competitive analysis before we know its value," said Vic Sial, ALR treasurer. "We know that it is important and that PowerFlex technology made our company famous."

In past interviews, ALR President Gene Lu, 39, has said that ALR invented the CPU upgrade technology. It is not yet clear whether ALR could force other companies to pay it royalties.

"You have to analyze the patent's claims to see the boundaries of the patent," said Susan Nycum, a patent attorney for Baker & Mackenzie in Palo Alto. "There isn't enough information to go on yet."

Under patent law, ALR cannot collect royalties on machines sold before it received the patent, Nycum said. But if the patent is upheld against legal challenges, companies deemed to infringe on that patent could be forced either to withdraw their machines from the market or pay a royalty on any future computer sales.

In one such case, Gilbert Hyatt, an inventor who formerly lived in La Palma, began collecting millions of dollars in royalties for a patent he received for invention of the microprocessor. He had said he invented it before industry giants Texas Instruments Inc. and Intel Corp.

Lu, David Kelly, vice president of engineering, and engineers Norman Hack and Scott Rushford were credited by the patent office as the inventors of the upgrade technology. The patent is the first won by ALR since its founding in 1984.

Officials at AST Research Inc. have applied for their own patent on what AST called its Cupid-32 architecture, another method for upgrading microprocessors. Emory Epperson, spokesman for AST, said no executives were available Tuesday evening for comment.

Stepping up its campaign for a raise by attempting to frighten the public, the Los Angeles police union began posting billboards across the city Tuesday that show a carjacking in progress and encourage residents to support officers in their fight for a new contract.

Scattered from the San Fernando Valley to South Los Angeles, the union-sponsored billboards show a woman being robbed at gunpoint outside her car by a shadowy figure. They say: "Warning: This Can Be You Without the Police Dept."

The shock ads, 22 in all, are designed to dramatically illustrate the indispensable nature of the police and swing public opinion toward the Police Protective League. But they also represent a risk because they may alienate a crime-weary public and antagonize city officials who hold the Police Department's purse strings.

"It's unfortunate that the Police Protective League continues to try public relations stunts that I believe will erode public support for their position, rather than strengthen it," Mayor Richard Riordan said in a statement.

The mastermind of the campaign is one of Riordan's former aides, Geoffrey Garfield. A former assistant deputy mayor for public safety, Garfield became the union's communications director last month after he was asked to leave by Riordan.

"Going into this, we knew there would be criticism," Garfield said. "But we know we're right, and we've put on our armor and we're going to play tough. Now that the billboards are in the city's face, we all have to deal with this."

The union's next escalation -- a videotape that will highlight the city's crime problem -- is scheduled to go out to tourism officials across the world early next month if the contract dispute is not settled, union leaders said.

Local tourism officials, barraged by calls from the media, were grimacing.

"The world out there tends to forget this is a labor dispute," said Michael Collins, senior vice president of the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. "They think police, Los Angeles, trouble. That can do serious damage."

Collins said there has been no overwhelming reaction to a brochure that the union sent out to tourism officials earlier in the month that used crime statistics to press the officers' case for a new contract. But as the dispute heats up, he said, the city's image may be on the line.

The union had considered holding off on the billboards, which union officials said cost $19,000.

During a break in the negotiations, Riordan announced last week that he intended to give officers with a raise, which sources said was in the 6% range over two years. But Riordan also called for changes in work rules that the union vehemently opposes.

Riordan is proposing, among other things, that the LAPD eliminate distinctions among detectives, who are divided into three classifications. That would allow some detectives to be sent back to patrol duties, a move that would help Riordan put more officers on the streets.

Unhappy with Riordan's proposals, union leaders have said they will settle for nothing less than the 9% raise over three years offered to city utility workers last fall. Negotiations are scheduled to resume on Friday.

At a news conference across the street from one of the billboards near Echo Park, Danny Staggs, president of the union, said the mayor's proposed changes in LAPD job classifications would set back the negotiating process at least another six months. The changes, he argued, would unfairly affect women and minorities by reducing their opportunities for advancement.

The police union says it does not enjoy the campaign but believes it has no other choice. Police officers are forbidden to strike, and a sickout that the officers held last fall was declared illegal by a judge.

"These billboards again demonstrate that the police officers of this city have been left with few options to resolve their dispute regarding the lengthy negotiations, now approaching two years," Staggs said.

Among City Council members, a majority of whom must approve whatever agreement is reached at the negotiating table, sentiment over the union's tactics has ranged from outrage to sympathy.

Councilmen Joel Wachs and Rudy Svorinich Jr. have said they understand the officers' frustrations and want them to get a solid contract soon. But Councilman Marvin Braude said the union is hurting itself.

"This is irresponsible," said Braude, chairman of the Public Safety Committee. "I think we have to work together. Just dumping on the city of Los Angeles in this way harms everybody."

The method the union is employing struck many as ironic, because police officers are typically defensive about the job they do fighting crime. In this case, the police are advertising the unsafe nature of the city's streets.

"I believe most of the officers do not support this tactic," Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said. "This is a self-destructive, self-defeating strategy."

As the contract dispute rages on, Riordan is exploring the idea of incorporating into the LAPD the hundreds of peace officers who patrol the airport, harbor and other city facilities.

Under study for months, the idea faces a host of logistics problems, ranging from pay disparities among the various departments to differences in training, and has not reached the stage of a formal proposal.

"The mayor's office is looking at a number of options, but there is nothing solid on the table," said David Novak, Riordan's director of communications. "This is one of the ideas that is being looked at."

Already, the LAPD has teamed up with the county Sheriff's Department in an attempt to take over policing of the region's transit agency. The joint city-county plan has touched off an intense struggle with Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, who are seeking to maintain their patrols on area buses and subways.

The police union has not taken a position on Riordan's effort to incorporate officers from other city departments into the LAPD, but various city officials said the plan faces several obstacles.

The salary and benefit packages of the city officers who work outside the Police Department generally are much lower than those of LAPD officers. In addition, there is concern about the qualifications of some of the outside officers.

Some critics complained that the plan appeared to be a backhanded way of expanding the police force, which Riordan promised to do during his mayoral campaign.

"Sure there would be more officers," one official said. "But there would also be more work."

A day after the Oscars, and mom's little restaurant was buzzing -- mom being Steven Spielberg's mother, Leah Adler.

In between hugs and lunch patrons and congratulatory flowers, the 74-year-old proprietor was chattering Tuesday about that Academy Award-winning son of hers: how as a kid he used to slap on wet green toilet paper and lurch around the house like "the Mummy"; how he schlepped through school earning Cs; how, for one of his wacky home movies, Adler simulated a kitchen explosion by flinging cherry-pie filling all over her new cabinets.

" Rubbed-ash cabinets," she added, noting that the stain lasted years -- and may still be there. "But it was a glorious scene."

Then Adler laughed, a giddy, all-out laugh by a woman who lives all-out, like a character out of some -- need it be said? -- Steven Spielberg movie. Only hours after "Schindler's List" had racked up seven Oscars, including honors for best picture and best director, Adler was back at work as usual, cracking one-liners, greeting customers, doing what she has done for 17 years at her Milky Way kosher restaurant in West Los Angeles.

But she was suddenly in the limelight. TV crews came through. Star-maker Michael Mann, a regular who put a client in one of the Indiana Jones movies, stepped in for the veggie-stuffed cabbage roll and potato pancakes.

"I have a movie deal for you -- three pictures," Mann joked.

Adler flashed a stern look: "No nudity."

"Is this the happiest Jewish mother in the world?" someone asked her.

No question. "I told Steve, if I'd known how famous he was going to be, I'd have had my uterus bronzed," the spry woman with short-cropped blond hair recalled, her blue eyes sparkling. She made that crack even before the Oscars. Spielberg was about to be honored last month at a black-tie tribute in New York, where he related his mother's remark. "He said that to 1,000 people at the Waldorf-Astoria," Adler said.

She just can't keep her own mouth shut, Adler confessed. "I just spew," she said. "Sometimes I'll say something and just be stunned."

There was a night, not long ago, when a surly diner demanded to know where she had gotten the rainbow trout. What waters?

"I told him, 'I don't know,' " Adler recalled. " 'It was dead on arrival.' "

Growing up in a poor household in Cincinnati, Adler had nothing short of a fairy-tale childhood. Her father adored her. Her mother adored her. "She'd look at me and just grin," Adler said.

Adler, in turn, raised her own four children that way. Steven was the oldest. There was also Anne, who now lives in the San Fernando Valley; Susie, who lives in Silver Spring, Md., ("What a mouth," mother s