WATER RIGHTS: J. David Rogers, author of...

WATER RIGHTS: J. David Rogers, author of a book about the 1928 failure of the St. Francis Dam (B1), says Hollywood’s view of the disaster--referenced in early scenes of the classic “Chinatown”--was riddled with error. “That movie is pure fiction,” he says. . . . The dam’s creator, William Mulholland, once “the highest-paid engineer in the country,” built a similar dam in 1925 that created the Hollywood Reservoir, which still exists today. Years earlier, Mulholland designed the 234-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct, which continues to bring water from Northern California.

STARS AND STRIPES: A small, but patriotic crowd is expected at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village beginning at 10 a.m. today as members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 11395 hold a flag disposal ceremony. “We’ve got about 400 old, worn-out, tattered flags that need to be demolished,” says Forrest Frields, a Vietnam vet helping to coordinate the event, which will precede the flags being placed in a crematory. A planned 21-gun salute was nixed because the Simi Valley parade “pretty well scarfed up all the military units in the area,” he says.

MOO-O-O-O: About 70 kids at Bernice Curren School in Oxnard received a special treat Friday when a cow and a baby bull showed up for a visit (B2). . . . While most of the youngsters, like Christine Plienes, above, fought for space to see the animals, 4-year-old Crystal Duran instead hid from the animals. The reason was simple: “I’m afraid of the cow,” she whispered.

NEW SCHOOL: Vishwas More, vice president of the state community college board, accompanied Ventura College professor and fellow board member Yvonne Bodle to Thailand this summer to tell Thai educators about California’s community colleges (B4). . . . More said the Thais are eager to establish ties with U.S. educators. “Things are moving along,” he says. “They want to start [their] campus yesterday, but we are not ready.”