GIMME SHELTER: If applicants for low-income housing...

GIMME SHELTER: If applicants for low-income housing status find it tough to get in Burbank (A1), just check out Los Angeles. L.A. requested applicants four years ago, got 80,000 . . . and closed the books. “We’ve worked about halfway through that list,” said a Housing Authority spokesman. “Doesn’t look like it’s going to open again before the end of the century.”

BUYER’S MARKET: The news was slightly better for Valley home-sellers last year . . . but buyers still rule. Sales of single-family houses rose 15% above 1992, but the average sales price dropped 11% to $252,633--lowest since 1988. Realtors foresee a 5% increase in homes sold this year. See Valley Business, Page 5

SICK BUSINESS: Pressured by HMOs, Medicare and hard times, most of the Valley’s 29 hospitals are losing money. With the Clintons’ health plan mandates looming, executives such as Panorama Community Hospital’s David Green (above) are slashing costs, merging, consolidating and competing for managed-care patients. See Valley Business, Page 10.

STILL ALIVE: Live Entertainment Inc. hit a bumpy road after CEO Jose Menendez was slain by his two sons in 1989 (A1), but it emerged from bankruptcy last spring. Now CEO Roger Burlage hopes to cure the videocassette distributor’s troubles. See Valley Business, Page 4

LOCAL ROCKY: It’s the stuff of rousing movie climaxes--the ex-champ returns to the ring at 41 against a 25-year-old hotshot fit to knock his block off. Or kick it off in the case of Benny (the Jet) Urquidez of Sherman Oaks, a movie fight director who once held five kick-boxing titles but hadn’t been in the ring in 4 1/2 years when he fought for the world light-middleweight crown. If you missed the Dec. 4 fight, a bruiser, it will be on Showtime Jan. 21. . . . Maybe you don’t want to know how it comes out. Hint: classic movie ending.