PRECAUTIONS: There is a heightened police presence...

PRECAUTIONS: There is a heightened police presence around the state Employment Development Department office in North Hollywood following the shooting spree at an EDD office in Oxnard. . . . Although the Valley office hasn’t beefed up internal security measures, police are more visible now. “We used to see them every other week,” said one official, “but now they come in a few times a week.”

FULL OF ADVICE: Lecturing from the slammer, former state Sen. Alan Robbins wrote an open letter to freshman lawmakers calling for reforms to separate money from politics (A3). But the letter from Robbins, who is serving two years after pleading guilty to racketeering and income tax evasion, wasn’t exactly warmly received. Said Assemblyman William J. (Pete) Knight, a Republican from Palmdale: “I have not given much thought to falling into the kind of trap Alan Robbins fell into.”

ANOTHER REALITY: Among the three dozen or so companies in the hot new virtual reality game field are two in Burbank: Virtual World Entertainment, owned by Tim Disney, Walt’s grandnephew, and Iwerks Entertainment, founded by two ex-Walt Disneyites. . . . Players sit in cockpits, like the one above, and manipulate computerized images to wage on-screen battles. See Valley Business, page 8.

FREE SHELTER: There’s a chill in the air, so the National Guard Armory on Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys has opened for homeless people. The shelter will take single adults from 5 to 9 p.m. daily through March, with free bus transportation available from three sites. For more information, call (800) 339-6993 or (800) 548-6047.

BRANCH OUT: CSUN students, says university President Blenda Wilson, aren’t fully prepared for the demands of a diverse society. Wilson recently helped draft a nationwide report that is highly critical of undergraduate education. . . . She says her school’s students should receive greater training in foreign languages and cultures (B2).