FUMEBUSTERS: It’s Rideshare Week in California, where...

FUMEBUSTERS: It’s Rideshare Week in California, where you’re urged to car-pool to promote year-round traffic improvement and reduce pollution. The Irvine Spectrum had a ride-share essay contest for youngsters to help out. . . . Wrote one alert winner, 8-year-old Michael Lisenby of Lake Forest: “My dad thinks red sunsets are beautiful. But it’s really just dirt and toxic stuff in the air. I learned that in school. My dad and me have asthma. He thinks it’s because of junk in the air--from cars and stuff.”

SIGN THIS! It’s bad enough when you’re a political candidate and you get caught posting your election signs illegally. But how about when they catch you and you don’t even have any signs? That’s what happened to Loretta Sanchez Brixey, 34, an Anaheim City Council candidate. She received a stern letter from the city warning that she’d be subjected to penalties if her signs weren’t removed immediately. . . . Oops. “Wrong form letter,” explains city code enforcement spokesman Bruce Freeman. Letters of apology recently were sent out to Brixey and other candidates.

NEW MOUNTAINS: Todd Huston of Newport Beach, whose mountain-climbing exploits include scaling Alaska’s Mt. McKinley--with an amputated leg--has turned his interest into a vocation. Huston, 33, who lost his right leg in a boating accident as a teen, now gives motivational speeches around the country--including the Sports Club/ Irvine on Wednesday. . . . “It’s not just those with physical disabilities I can inspire,” he says. “Many I’ve met along the trail are more disabled by things like divorce or drugs.”

UPSCALE VARMINTS: People move to Villa Park because it’s quiet, low in crime and well controlled. So Villa Park Councilman Bob Bell was not amused with what he found in his back yard--a coyote. “A big one,” he says. But, City Manager Fred Maley told him, there’s no county or state agency to call to catch such animals in the city: “I think coyotes fall between the cracks.”