SEWING YES, SPACE NO: Jobs come and...
SEWING YES, SPACE NO: Jobs come and go, mostly go. Witness Rocketdyne in Canoga Park and General Motors (D1). GM, which furloughed about 2,600 workers by closing the Van Nuys plant last year, will make seat covers in the Valley. First crack at the 200 new jobs goes to laid-off employees . . . with union predictions that it will take 25 years seniority to get one. But Rocketdyne, hurt by space station cutbacks, is slashing between 660 and 990 jobs.
BUTTING OUT: Restaurant owners over the hill are pleading for a break from the L. A. smoking ban (B12), but not the Valley’s. The ban hurts eateries “on Sunset Boulevard, where they service nervous actors and actresses who chain-smoke,” the manager of a Valley Hamburger Hamlet said. “Here in the Valley . . . we’ve got a different clientele.” The manager of popular Le Cafe on Ventura Boulevard, which has outdoor seats for smokers, says it makes no difference: “The economy sucks. People aren’t going out for dinner.”
BAGGING IT: If you think that you might need to protect your property from running water, fire officials have this advice: Don’t wait. A primer (B16) on the art of successful sandbagging, which experts say could be a house-saver when the usual winter rains hit soil left bare by the brush fires.
BLADE BILL: Moved by a Northridge mother’s horror at discovering three knives in her 13-year-old son’s school bag, the L. A. City Council voted unanimously to outlaw knife sales to minors. An exception: Boy Scout jackknives bought by parents. . . . In the 1988-89 school year, 617 guns, knives and weapons were confiscated in L. A. schools. Last year, it was 714, including 153 guns and 362 knives. (B4)
SHOT FIRED: The Antelope Valley bus strike has taken a turn for the worse. A working bus company mechanic who said strikers kicked his car fired a shot from a .25-caliber pistol, deputies said. Nobody was hit and he was arrested (B8). . . . Unclear yet whether any car-kicking arrests are coming, deputies said.
