MOLESTER SUSPECT: Los Angeles police arrested an...

MOLESTER SUSPECT: Los Angeles police arrested an Encino man on suspicion of committing a series of molestations against schoolchildren throughout the San Fernando Valley (B1). . . . Authorities warned, however, that they are still questioning the man and that beefed-up police patrols will continue near San Fernando Valley schools. Other suspects have been questioned and released in the case in recent weeks.

VANISHED TOWN: Don’t expect to find anything left of Lang, except its dot on the map and a historical marker recalling its brief moment at the crux of Southern California’s emergence from dusty village to megalopolis. . . . On Sept. 5, 1876, Lang was where Southern Pacific Railroad President Charles Crocker drove a golden spike that completed the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles rail link, opening the state’s southern city to Chicago and New York. See Valley Briefing (B2).

TWO WORLDS: There is a Jewish temple in Woodland Hills and a Baptist church in South-Central Los Angeles that have almost nothing in common, except a desire to celebrate a bit of this holiday season together with spirit. Kol Tikvah Temple invited members of Calvary Baptist Church to the synagogue Saturday to learn about each other’s holidays (B1). . . . It was one in a series of meetings of the two congregations that began shortly after the L.A. riots.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?: Will it be a notorious outlaw, a baseball player in the twilight of his career, or an entertainment mogul this time? Because some recent attempts at originality went awry, columnist Scott Harris thinks the William S. Hart Union High School District might be wise to name its new high school after an honorable figure from history. . . . One obscure possibility: Frances E. Willard, founder of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. He’s not biased, he insists, even though she was the namesake of Harris’ junior high (B1).