GENERATION GAPS: The long reign of Van...

GENERATION GAPS: The long reign of Van Nuys Courthouse on the world’s front pages and TV screens is coming to a climax. The Menendez brothers’ trial has gone to the first of two juries (B1). . . . Calling Erik and Lyle “spoiled, vicious brats,” the prosecutor revealed that her own father was abused as a child. Instead of killing her grandparents, she said, he ran away from home, joined the Navy and built a better life.

POLICE ACADEMY 0: The chances that the new LAPD academy will be built in Sylmar--once almost a done deal--are fading fast. The City Council decided to bid on that empty electronics plant in Westchester that police brass say would be $50 million cheaper and could be functioning years earlier (B1). . . . Delighted: Valley equestrians, who feared they would lose the use of favorite Sylmar trails.

HEAD OF THE CLASS: Assigned by her fifth-grade teacher in Pacoima to come up with an invention, 10-year-old Vanessa Perplies, above, designed a storage space in a hairbrush for rubber bands, hairpins and such (B18). . . . “Me and my three sisters were always losing our hair accessories,” she said. “This is very helpful to the average woman.”

SHEPHERDS’ TIDINGS: Hungry for a spiritual, but entertaining, Christmas experience? Two small Valley churches re-create the world of Bethlehem on the first Christmas Eve. At one, the audience can mingle with shepherds and townsfolk, gossiping about the child born in a local manger. . . . It’s a lot of work for the congregations, says the Valley Religion Column (B13).

BOULEVARD BATTLE: The long wrangle over the future of Ventura Boulevard refuses to die. Opponents of a 20-year plan for the Valley’s main street, hammered out in years of contentious meetings, are attacking it anew. Fees imposed on boulevard businesses are killing the street instead of saving it, they say. City officials refuse to scrap the plan (B4) . . . but agree they must act quickly to restore its credibility.