TREE THREAT: A nasty fungus is killing...

TREE THREAT: A nasty fungus is killing many of the Valley’s Christmas trees. Named the “Grinch” by tree growers, the disease has eliminated as much as 40% of the Monterey pines on some tree farms this year. . . . It breaks down the tree’s cell structure, cuts off its nutrients and causes it to drown in its own sap. Many Valley growers have had to raise prices and import fir trees from the Pacific Northwest.

AWARDS: The year didn’t start out too well for KCSN-FM (88.5), the CSUN radio station. But now, after being displaced by the earthquake, KCSN has received two Golden Mike awards from the Radio & TV News Assn. of Southern California. . . . The awards are for Best Newscast Over 15 Minutes and Best Hard News Series Reporting--for stations with very small staffs.

MEMORABLE: That’s former baseball star Pete Rose standing at attention in Studio City Friday as 12-year-old Jill Weiser belts out the national anthem. . . . The two will appear with comedian Richard Lewis in a sports memorabilia video called “Bubblegum Heroes.” Jill, 12, is a sixth-grader at Carpenter Avenue Elementary School.

VALLEY VOICE: Randy Cross starred as an offensive lineman at Crespi High School, then at UCLA and the San Francisco 49ers. Now he’s wrapping up his sixth season of network football commentary (C14). . . . It makes sense. His father, Dennis Cross, was a film and TV actor who starred in the ‘60s adventure series, “The Blue Angels.”

LEAVING: It’s official: White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, who grew up in Valencia, is leaving the Administration (A20). Myers, 33, has been the most visible woman in the White House after Hillary Rodham Clinton. Was she forced out? “I’m neither jumping nor being pushed. I’m walking away when I think it’s the best time,” she said.