SHERIFF’S NAVY: The sheriff’s boat patrol will...

SHERIFF’S NAVY: The sheriff’s boat patrol will be out on Pyramid Lake this holiday weekend, despite earlier fears the deputies would be beached for lack of budget money (B6). . . . A six-month sales tax extension in the new state budget kept the $170,000-a-year patrol alive, although after the Fourth of July the patrol’s future will be decided “day to day,” officials said.

PARTNER BENEFITS: Warner Bros. will extend health insurance to domestic partners of gay and lesbian employees as a “message of support for all . . . employees, regardless of sexual orientation,” an executive said. Experts estimate about 3% of the Burbank movie studio’s 3,500 U. S. employees could benefit (D2). . . . Other entertainment companies instituted such coverage recently, and businesses nationwide are considering it.

IT’S OFFICIAL: Richard J. Riordan, whose anti-crime message produced an election-winning tide of votes in the Valley, is now the 39th mayor of Los Angeles. . . . Inauguration festivities today also will showcase Nancy Daly, the woman at his side. First Girlfriend? Companion? Adviser? Wife?. . . . Not while both are still married to others. See stories on B1.

TAKE 2 ASPIRINS: The proposed mega-merger between Burbank-based Unihealth America and Blue Shield of California (D1) sent shockwaves through the L. A.-area health care industry. . . . The state’s second-largest HMO, Health Net in Woodland Hills, and other providers say it’s a sign of things to come as the industry braces for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s overhaul of the medical system.

GREENER PASTURES: Football coaches Harry Welch of Canyon High and Bob Richards of Thousand Oaks High, longtime friends, are at odds over three former assistant coaches and three players from Thousand Oaks who wound up at Canyon High (C12). . . . The controversy could reach the playing field when the teams, two of the winningest around, meet Sept. 24.