HIRED GUN: Dipping into his scientific expertise,...

HIRED GUN: Dipping into his scientific expertise, Fredric Rieders helped O. J. Simpson’s conspiracy theory that police planted bloodstains to frame the football great (A1). . . . But prosecutors will soon try to discredit Rieders, in part by dredging up the shaky science that upended a 1991 Ventura murder case. . . . Ventura County prosecutors once charged David Wayne Sconce with poisoning a rival mortician with oleander, relying on Rieders’ toxicological tests. Later, they dropped the charges when his methodology grew suspect.

BEARING ALL: Remember Joshua Isaacs? . . . He was the plucky teen-ager from Ojai who was mauled by a black bear while sleeping at a Big Bear campground in 1993. Joshua will be featured this fall on “The World’s Most Dangerous Animals” on CBS. The hourlong show will highlight stories of people who survived encounters with dangerous beasts. Joshua was reunited with the camp counselor who, as he put it, saved him “from becoming bear droppings.”

RAGTIME: He may be the size of a Great Dane, but he’s no pony. . . . Ragtime is a real horse, albeit bred to be small. These miniature horses are all the rage among the well-to-do set, according to an upcoming episode of “Lifestyles” [Of the Rich and Famous]. . . . No stranger to Hollywood, Simi Valley resident Ragtime gets a chance to, well, horse around in front of the cameras. “He drinks Pepsi out of a crystal goblet on a crystal tray,” said Roberta Grabinger, his manager. “He prefers it out of a can.”

RIDING LOW: They’re short. They’ve got wide, knobby tires. And about 30 million Americans now ride them. Mountain bikes have revolutionized the $3.5-billion bicycle market and the local area has some of the top manufacturers (Valley Business, Page 10). . . . Diamond Back is among the best-known mountain-bike lines. But the Camarillo company that makes them--Western States Import Co.--remains relatively obscure. . . . That’s going to change, the company president says, with its name change to Diamondback.