RINGS, PLEASE: Charmaine Whalen was one wife...

RINGS, PLEASE: Charmaine Whalen was one wife too many. The Palmdale resident, 24, became suspicious after husband Vernon Pierce failed to come meet her family after their April wedding, so she sent police to his Glendale, Ariz., home . . . where another of his four wives was knocking on his door. Now, ex-model Pierce, 29, is facing bigamy charges. Whalen (B7) won’t be fooled again. She had dreamed of becoming a police officer. “Now I really want to do it.”

PICTURE PERFECT: It’s been a topsy-turvy year in the San Fernando Valley, and it’s all reviewed on pages B2 and B3 today. . . . “Images of 1994” include The Times Valley Edition’s most memorable photos, from the triumphs of a Little League championship team to rebuilding quake-wracked freeways.

HOLIDAZE: A break between Christmas and the New Year? Not if you observe Kwanzaa. The seven-day cultural celebration, which began Monday, draws 18 million African descendants worldwide, including many participants in the Valley. Says Leslie Small, a Pan African studies professor at Cal State Northridge: “I think it’s been catching on. There’s this whole sense of cultural consciousness taking place among African Americans.”