ERA OVER: When America roared into space...

ERA OVER: When America roared into space in the 1960s and ‘70s, unmanned exploration craft rode on pillars of fire crafted by the JPL lab at Edwards Air Force Base, which tested rockets and rocket fuel. But tight budgets replaced the glory days and now the lab will get the axe (B4). . . . The shutdown begins this fall, with half its 45 employees to be laid off by year’s end.

ARABS VS. DISNEY: Arab-Americans don’t think Disney’s “Aladdin” is all that cute. The musical cartoon about the turbaned lad with the magic lamp is racist, complained the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. In response, the Burbank studio agreed to change two lines of song lyrics (F1) . . . The committee’s L.A. chapter replied that the changes were “nowhere near adequate considering the racism depicted.”

PIGSKIN PASTOR: Rob Scribner was a backfield leader on football teams from Van Nuys High to UCLA to the Rams, but always felt an emptiness in his life . . . He says he’s filled it now as pastor of a church a few blocks from the beach (C10), getting what he calls “hands-on experience in Christianity.”

GETTING BETTER: Think hospital . . . blah food, rigid regulations, crummy TV choices and boredom (if you’re lucky). Not at Valley Presbyterian. The Van Nuys hospital is part of a pilot project providing gourmet food, VCRs and unlimited visiting--even overnight--in a hotel suite setting (B3) . . . At issue: Do coddled patients go home faster?

SCRAWL GALL: Taggers seem obsessed with scrawling graffiti on every flat surface in reach, but a 29-year-old North Hollywood man took the prize: Arrested for drunkenness, he tagged the wall inside a police station interview room . . . His prize: 45 days in jail (B4). “There is no length they will not go to tag in the Valley these days,” his prosecutor said.