SPACE JOBS: Canoga Park’s Rocketdyne is battling...

SPACE JOBS: Canoga Park’s Rocketdyne is battling to keep as much as it can of the $2.4 billion in contracts it has for the shrinking Space Station. With hundreds of jobs up in the air, executives Tuesday rolled out the red carpet for Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon, who represents an area from Canoga Park to the aerospace-rich Antelope Valley (B1). . . . Said McKeon: “We need to do everything we can to hold onto jobs.”

IN AND OUT AND IN: Two San Gabriel Valley convicts became the first to escape from the new state prison in Lancaster by slipping away from a minimum-security barracks last Friday. . . . On Tuesday, they got another distinction: First escapees caught (B1). . . . They made it 80 miles.

CUTE KILLER: The West Valley Animal Shelter has too many of one species it doesn’t want--an infestation of rats--but fate may have found an exotic solution. Its officers trapped a ring-tailed cat (above), a raccoon relation rarely seen in urban areas (B1). . . . Ringtails are ace rodent killers, so shelter workers want to adopt it and turn it loose on their unwelcome guests.

FANGS FOR THE BOOZE: Use caution on those mountain hikes now that summer’s here, because so are rattlesnakes. . . . Deaths are rare but about 200 people are bitten by rattlesnakes in California each year. One expert says he found an unusual common denominator among victims: a third of them were drunk at the time. More on rattlers in Valley Briefing (B5).

GROWING PAINS: In real life, Goliath usually knocks the stuffing out of David. Witness the long face-off between the Department of Water and Power and senior citizens of the Arleta Community Garden Club. The gardeners, who for 17 years tilled a five-acre plot under power lines, have finally given in to DWP demands, mainly on water rates (B1). . . . “We’re right in the middle of growing season,” one said. “They gave us no choice.”