FEAR AND GREED: With the parent-murder trial...

FEAR AND GREED: With the parent-murder trial of the Menendez brothers opening in Van Nuys today, defense lawyers amplified their claim the brothers were abused by their wealthy parents, painting their mother as an obsessive woman who drank too much, popped pills and bullied her sons (B1). . . . “Her children were afraid of her,” one attorney said. “That’s why she’s dead.” Prosecutors said the brothers were not afraid, but greedy.

NOSH-O-SCOPE: When you head out for a bite and a flick, some movie theater owners hope you’ll take that bite right in the lobby instead of a restaurant. Example: A Taco Bell opens this weekend in the Fallbrook Cinema in West Hills (D1). . . . You’ll pay for this convenience, however--the corner Taco Bell sells 59 tacos, but theater tacos will cost $2 for two.

PEZ-MERIZED: They’re small, they’re cute, they were meant to be thrown away . . . and--surprise--they’re worth a fortune. Nostalgic baby boomers have made the cartoon-headed PEZ candy dispensers such big business that 100 dispensers brought $7,500 at auction (E1). . . . Chatsworth contractor Craig Robbins values his collection, with almost all the 200-plus designs, at over $20,000.

BUCKS TRASHED: Worn tires, soiled diapers, empty soup cans--the grimy stuff of fortunes in the dump business, especially when Los Angeles County throws out 40,000 tons of trash a day. . . . But profits of the industry are down in the dumps. Recycling and regulations are blamed. See Valley Business, page 3.

LIFE’S DETOURS: Life took a detour for Cindy Anderson when her husband’s career hit a temporary dip, and they and their three children were forced to move in with her family. Anderson vowed to help those in a similar fix: middle-class people who hit a bad patch. . . . Keeping that vow, today she heads the Tree of Life Ministries in Tarzana, a home-delivery food bank (B2).