A group called People for the American...

A group called People for the American Way honored actress Kathleen Turner and singer Don Henley in Beverly Hills the other night for their efforts in preserving free expression and civil liberties.

Well, most free expression.

No still photographers or camera crews were permitted to record the event.

John Bonds may be the only motorist in the city who doesn’t try to avoid traffic jams. In fact, he seeks them out.

Bonds, 26, is the last of the city’s paid, car-borne traffic reporters. (We’re not counting embarrassed helicopter reporters who are occasionally forced to call in bulletins from their cars when they’re late for work because of a SigAlert.)

Bonds, who works for Metro Traffic in a Chevy Beretta, says his job “isn’t as bad as it sounds. At least, I’m doing radio reports while I’m stuck. And, this is my way of breaking into the broadcasting business.”

Also, he has an advantage during SigAlerts. The “Press” placard in his window enables him to break out of traffic jams via freeway shoulders and medians.

It was back in ’87 that Santa Monica first began attracting the homeless, author Fred Basten points out. The “oceanfront attracted a group of squatters who erected makeshift shanties on the sand,” he wrote. That’s from Basten’s book, “Santa Monica Bay: The First 100 Years.”

He was referring to Eighteen Eighty-Seven.

Trick or Trash:

Employees of Laufer & Associates will don costumes and go door to door in the 18-floor Unisys Building in Westwood this afternoon, seeking recyclable items.

“We’re asking the tenants to separate aluminum, glass and paper and we’ll put them in bins, and take them to a recycling center,” said spokesman Kent Cooper.

As a precaution, tenants in the building have been warned not to come to work dressed as the Tin Man.

Ken Thim Sr. of Downey wonders if the glitch in several signs around Bell Gardens City Hall renders them “unofficial” or, should we say, “unoffical.”

Of course, no one’s perfect. Dorothy Ross of West Hollywood wrote to say that a recent Times story probably was referring to a small room when it mentioned that the kitchen of a Beverly Hills home “has a butler’s panty .” At least, she hopes so.

miscelLAny:

The nation’s leading producer of parking lot tire-spikes--the things accompanied by signs warning of “Severe Tire Damage”--is Delta Scientific of Burbank.