CLINTON CALL: Cal State Northridge reopens Monday,...

CLINTON CALL: Cal State Northridge reopens Monday, and you can bet that there will be plenty of media coverage. KABC talk-show host Michael Jackson will carry his show from campus, and President Clinton will call in. . . . “I think it will add stature to the whole day,” Jackson said. “He’s such an embracing person.”

OSCAR ON VENTURA: The Academy Awards are coming to the Valley. Well, sort of. For the first time, the academy will hang banners on both sides of Ventura Boulevard near Sepulveda Boulevard--celebrating the March 21 show. . . . This is nothing new in Los Angeles, so why suddenly Sherman Oaks? “That’s what you get when you put someone in charge who is from the Valley,” said program coordinator Mikel Kaufman, raised in Hidden Hills.

HALL OF FAME: What a week for ex-Valley athletes. First, San Fernando High’s Denny Crum joins the Basketball Hall of Fame. Next, former Taft High baseball star Robin Yount, above, retires after a 20-year career. (C14) . . . Yount is a certain Hall of Famer. It is believed that he’ll become only the second Valleyite inducted at Cooperstown. The other is Van Nuys High’s Don Drysdale.

GOOD RECRUITS: Recruiting football players at Cal State Northridge is always tough. CSUN usually plucks the major college rejects and prays for a gem inexplicably overlooked. . . . The quake should make the job even harder. Who wants to come to a school in quake crisis? Apparently, says Coach Bob Burt, quite a few. (C14)

CRAZY CASE: This week’s news that Crazy Otto’s Diner in Lancaster may remodel to make room for new Metrolink tracks reminds us of the dispute between the restaurant and the Copper Skillet in Palmdale. Seems Crazy Otto claimed in 1992 that the Copper Skillet stole its recipe for hash browns, salsa, chili and omelets. . . . The matter, says the Skillet’s ex-owner, is still scrambled in the courts.