MAYBE NEXT TIME: A light-activated dye used...

MAYBE NEXT TIME: A light-activated dye used to fight Medflies in Hawaii could be tested as soon as November in a Southern California citrus orchard. . . . The dye, added to a protein bait, kills the insects when they get into sunlight and “certainly would be a wonderful replacement for malathion,” said Al Heier of the Environmental Protection Agency. . . . Malathion was used to combat a Medfly infestation in Camarillo between October, 1994, and last May.

EASING THE PAIN: An infertility center with an office in Westlake Village is offering some patients a 90% refund on medical service fees if they don’t become pregnant with in-vitro fertilization (E1). . . . Nationwide, more than 50% of women with infertility problems get pregnant with medical help. Many of the rest adopt. . . . Arlene Frietze, an Oxnard resident who started an infertility and adoption support group 12 years ago, finally ended up adopting twins. “We asked ourselves, what is it we want the most, to be pregnant or to be parents?”

HAPPY TRAILS: Katie Champion was among 16 children out on a Nursery Nature Walks hike through Los Robles Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains. The 2 1/2-year-old ooohed at the spider webs and lingered over the plastic bug she picked up the trail (B1). . . . She and her father, Steve, an electrical engineer who is now a stay-at-home father, are regulars on the walks, where he was the only male over the age of 8. “I’m used to it,” he said. “I’m the only man in our Moms group, too.”

NO PHOTOS, PLEASE: He touts the importance of graphics in the workplace, but Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea is reticent about allowing his picture to appear in print (B4). . . . “I don’t want the notoriety,” he said on the occasion of the company’s 25th anniversary, adding that it is his employees who deserve the kudos for Kinko’s success.