REBOUND: The year didn’t start out too...

REBOUND: The year didn’t start out too well for Lonnie Lardner--she lost her Studio City house in the earthquake. Now things have turned around. Lardner has joined the studio lineup for Fox’s NFL pregame show, which debuts today. . . . “Lost my house, totaled my car, and changed jobs,” says Lardner, who had been an entertainment editor for KTTV-TV in Los Angeles. “It was quite a year.”

NEW YEAR: Jews really know how to pack the house for Rosh Hashanah, which begins Monday night. So some Valley synagogues must conduct services in strange places--Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills, Airport Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys, and Pantages Theater in Hollywood (B1). . . . Wherever you go, you can expect to hear the story in the Torah of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son.

CACTUS FACTS: It may not be everyone’s idea of a snack, but California Native Americans used it for food after removing the prickly hairs. It is opuntia basilaris (above)--the beavertail cactus--and can be found locally in the Mojave Desert in and around the Antelope Valley (Valley Briefing, B2). . . . The plant’s magenta and white flowers bloom in late spring.

THE OPEN ROAD: For the first time since the Northridge earthquake, all five westbound lanes of the Simi Valley Freeway are open for business in Granada Hills, two weeks earlier than expected. . . . Construction crews, who worked around-the-clock for months to repair the freeway, were bid adieu with relief by neighbor Peggie Roach. “Thank God. It’s been a nightmare,” she said of the noise (B4).

DESERT TALKS: Business leaders in Palmdale and Lancaster are cautiously exploring the idea of merging the two cities’ chambers of commerce into one large group representing the Antelope Valley. . . . But history stands in their way: The rival groups have operated on their own for more than four decades (B18).