ROAD AFTER TRAGEDY: The 1993 slaying of...

ROAD AFTER TRAGEDY: The 1993 slaying of 26-year-old Amy Biehl of Newport Beach, when a mob attacked her car in South Africa, sent her family there searching for answers. Joining their travels were cameras from ABC-TV’s new “Turning Point.” . . . The segment on Biehl, and strife in South Africa, airs tonight at 10, with Barbara Walters as anchor. One solemn statement during taping came from Amy’s sister Molly: “I now know what it feels like to be hated sheerly because of race.”

HARD TIMES? Don’t think that hard rockin’ is all they do at the Hard Rock Cafe. The Newport Beach night spot hosts at 9:30 a.m. today a town hall meeting on water preservation, open to the public. The nonprofit Water Education Foundation has organized water board people and conservationists to talk about local water plans. Says spokeswoman Rita Schmidt-Sudman: “With dry years ahead, water conservation is a way of life for Californians.”

RIDING PAST: Maybe you’ve been around Orange County long enough to remember when trolleys like the 64-passenger Newport Beach Limited, built in 1913, were a major mode of transportation here. The trolleys finally died out in the 1950s, but you can still ride the Newport Beach Limited. It’s one of a dozen that will be in operation this weekend at the Rail Festival at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, near Riverside. Says Tustin engineer Sheldon Liss, a museum member: “For some, the festival will be a nostalgic trip to their past.”

OAK STURDY: After wildfire burned some 4,000 acres of Caspers Wilderness Park in October, officials with the Chevron Cos.--developer of nearby Coto de Caza--asked if there was anything they could do to help. . . . Result: Chevron has donated 2,000 California live oak trees and a 500-gallon water trailer to keep the saplings wet. About 100 volunteers recently planted them. Says company spokeswoman Amy Greenawalt: “The trees will take a while to grow, but it will help.”