BREAKING TIES? A consultant hired by the...

BREAKING TIES? A consultant hired by the Los Angeles Unified School District to promote its successes turns out to be active in the movement to break up the very same district, The Times has learned (B1). Says consultant Bill Borellis: “I don’t see a conflict.” . . . Not everyone agrees.

CANYON RACERS: The shortest distance between two points can be the winding line of a canyon. Not counting freeway traffic, nearly 100,000 cars a day traverse four roads between the Valley and the basin, but there’s a cost (B2). . . . Drivers speed by within inches of Tarkus Piper, who works in Coldwater Canyon. “They get so blocked out in their luxury cars, cell phones and CD players that they’re oblivious to everything else,” he says.

ENVOYS: When Miljenko Gotovac was born in Yugoslavia, it was a unified country. When he took the Young Croatian Soccer Club there this summer, it was in pieces. But his U.S. team was greeted warmly by Croatian citizens, including the prime minister. “Kids are going to remember that trip as long as they live,” says Gotovac, of West Hills, pictured above with son Domagoj, 19, who was on the team (C8).

HI-TECH HIGH: The new high school in remote Frasier Park will be one of the most technologically advanced in the country . . . eventually. On the first day of school, the main building--the one with the computer lab and software library--was still under construction (B1). . . . “You can imagine how frustrating it is,” teacher Edward Mooney said.

ONLINE FAIR: The Antelope Valley Fair and Alfalfa Festival has a World Wide Web home page. Posted by Michael Hughes, who runs an Internet-access company in Palmdale, the site will offer updated information about tickets, champion steers and demolition derbies. Those wired can check it out at https://fair.lancaster.ca.us. . . . Everyone else can call (805) 948-6060.