CURRENT PROGRESS: It was a year ago...

CURRENT PROGRESS: It was a year ago that the Calstart consortium was founded by more than 40 local companies, utilities and governments to kick-start an electric car industry. Setting up shop in an empty Lockheed plant, it attracted 25 more members, built a demonstration car, launched an electric school bus project and amassed $20 million in grants and donations (B1). . . . Yet to come is the greatest challenge: getting auto makers to buy electric car parts from local firms.

PULPIT POWER: Last year’s riots moved church and synagogue leaders throughout the San Fernando Valley area and the rest of the city to do more to help the poor. Cooperation among Christians, Jews and Muslims has been unparalleled, the clergy says (B9). . . . But religious leaders say they remain troubled that underlying causes of the unrest--unemployment, racism, crime and bad schools--continue to gnaw at the soul of the city.

WE’LL REMEMBER: Newhall’s William S. Hart High School seniors embarked on a sentimental journey to sea, but the inevitable goodbys hung over the high jinks and hugs of Jeanna MacDonald, 18, left, and Amy Faris, 17, like a date with the gallows . . . A rite of passage with the children of the baby boomers (B1).

WIN ONE, LOSE ONE: Santa Clarita environmentalists won a mixed victory in a battle to block construction of 1,880 houses on an oak savanna, a Significant Ecological Area (SEA). A judge halted the Westridge project, saying its environmental report kissed off air quality worries (B18). . . . But he failed to shield all SEAs from development.

SUITE POWER: With four newcomers, L.A. City Council members are jockeying for City Hall office suites, which vary in size, decor and amenities (B15). . . . The Southwest Valley’s Laura Chick wanted and got the offices of Councilwoman Joy Picus, who she defeated. The northeast Valley’s Richard Alarcon, loser of a preference lottery, gets a purple-carpeted office described as “a pit.” He reacted: “It’s not the office, it’s what you put in it.”