BEING PREPARED: Senior Girl Scouts from around...

BEING PREPARED: Senior Girl Scouts from around the Valley are testing their skills this weekend in canoeing, swimming, knot tying and first aid at Cabrillo Beach . . . and all for the want of an old-fashioned merit badge. About 200 girls are attending the three-day event. “It’s a display of all of the lessons that they’ve learned and all the skills that they’ve acquired over the years in Girl Scouts,” said Yumiko Carr, spokeswoman for the San Fernando Valley Girl Scout Council.

MARCH OF DIMES: Valley residents were among the 15,000 people who participated in March of Dimes walks across the Southland on Saturday. Valley walkers met in Encino and trekked about six miles. Proceeds will benefit the “Campaign for Healthier Babies.”

TWO GYMS: . . . separate and unequal? At Valley College, disabled students use a makeshift gym with outdated equipment, while other students work out in a new state-of-the-art fitness center. State officials say the practice violates federal law, but school officials say they are concerned that disabled students may harm themselves in the new gym and that there is no money to improve their old gym. (B4)

NEW BIKE: Joey Ronquillo, a mentally retarded 28-year-old who has befriended the officers of the LAPD’s West Valley Division, lost his only mode of transportation last week when someone stole his bike. . . . On Monday, however, Criterium Cyclesport is going to fix the problem by giving Joey a new two-wheeler at its Van Nuys store.

SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL: Michael Eisner’s Disney has been as cautious as it has been entrepreneurial, and there are no two better examples than Hyperion publishing and Hollywood Records. . . . A tale of Disney at its best and Disney at its worst. (D1)