RACER: The first injury during practice for...

RACER: The first injury during practice for the Indy 500 usually makes the news, and this year it has special interest in the Valley. . . . The injured racer, Mike Groff, graduated from Chatsworth High in 1979. Groff bruised his foot Monday when his engine blew and he slid into a wall.

CREDIT DUE: There are two ways to get an increased credit line on your credit cards. You can call your card company and apply for it. Or you can do it yourself by electronically altering the magnetic stripe on the back. The second method avoids those troublesome credit checks, but it is, of course, illegal and could land you in jail. (B6)

INTERVIEW: For months, Stephanie Frederic (above), a Studio City free-lance TV reporter, sent faxes and built up a monster phone bill in hopes of interviewing Nelson Mandela. Finally, with no guarantee, she flew to South Africa, and got 30 minutes with him last week. . . . “He was so polite,” she said, “even a little flirty. I didn’t expect that from a 75-year-old man.”

NAGGING DOUBTS: The city Planning Commission is considering a new horse ordinance that is supposed to keep horse owners and developers--often at odds over land use--in peaceful coexistence. (B3) . . . But a group of horse owners has cried nay, nay, saying the proposal treats them unfairly.

BARELY ALIVE: Don’t offer last rites just yet, but the chances don’t look good for a bill that would require all new buildings to have gas valves that automatically shut off during a quake (B4). . . . Said its chief supporter, Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents parts of the Valley: “Unless the council has more courage to act, this is dead.”