LATEST BLOW: As expected, 20th Century Insurance...

LATEST BLOW: As expected, 20th Century Insurance Co. in Woodland Hills got hit hard again Friday--this time, on the stock market (D1). The company’s shares dropped 22% the day after the state Supreme Court ordered it to pay $119 million in Proposition 103 customer refunds. . . . The plunge continued a trend: The stock this year has fallen from $27.38 per share to $12.75 at Friday’s close.

DIAL CHP: The California Highway Patrol encourages motorists with cellular telephones to call in about reckless drivers. Just dial 911 and follow the car until an officer spots it. But don’t bother calling about speeders, says David King, a CHP spokesman in Woodland Hills. . . . “There are so many of them,” he said. “We’d be chasing people around all day and not getting anything done.”

RADIO FAME: Gary Owens again has the last laugh. Owens (above), of Encino, the former “Laugh-In” announcer, will be inducted this fall into the Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago. . . . It hasn’t always been this easy. “My first boss said I was the worst DJ he had ever heard,” says Owens, who started at KOIL in Omaha, Neb., in the late ‘50s. “Years later, he phoned to apologize.”

NO SHOW: He hoped for a long career. Instead, the Antelope Valley’s Steve Chilcott became the answer to a trivia question. He’s the only player selected first in baseball’s amateur draft to retire without ever playing in the big leagues. Chilcott, a catcher, wrecked his shoulder in the minors in 1967 (C12). . . . Now a construction supervisor, he saw others make it and “wondered what would have or could have happened.”

IN TOP FORM: The Dodgers’ Mike Piazza and Eric Karros showed Friday that the weeklong strike hasn’t hurt their stroke. So what if their hits came in fast-pitch softball against a team of 9- to 10-year-old girls from Santa Clarita? . . . In the end, however, the girls, who trailed 3-1 after two innings, won by forfeit.