BREAKUP BUSTERS: A plan to break up...

BREAKUP BUSTERS: A plan to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District would resegregate the schools and leave minority kids with even fewer resources than they have now. . . . That’s the view of a group of mostly Latino parents who gathered Saturday in Sun Valley to express their opposition to plans to dismantle the giant district. (B1)

GRIDIRON GRIDLOCK: The embattled Cal State Northridge football program is under fire again, renewing a longstanding battle between black student leaders and university administrators over the treatment of black student athletes (B1). . . . The Matadors season has been hampered by student protests, a practice boycott and skirmishes between students and university officials, with black football players caught in the middle.

FRESHMAN FINESSE: His nickname might be Buck, but Rep. Howard P. McKeon is anything but a yokel. . . . Nine months after arriving inside the Beltway from Santa Clarita, McKeon is displaying the political savvy of a seasoned Capitol Hill operator (B1). The owner of a chain of Western apparel stores is president of the House’s 48-member GOP freshman class. Observers from both sides of the aisle say he excels at consensus-building while employing an amiable down-home style.

TRAIL TALE: This South Fork is not in Dallas. It’s a new hiking and biking trail along the Santa Clara River’s southern branch, and the first completed section in a proposed 25-mile network of such trails (B18). . . . The next section of the $8.2-million project will run from the Golden State Freeway to the Shadow Pines neighborhood.

SPARKLING CLEAN: Just about anyone who ever griped about graffiti took up a roller or paint brush Saturday. Or it sure seemed that way. . . . Despite lackluster weather, volunteers fanned from Sylmar to Sherman Oaks to clean up neighborhoods in the fourth annual Operation Sparkle. Photos on B7.