INSURANCE PROBE: Federal prosecutors in Sacramento are...

INSURANCE PROBE: Federal prosecutors in Sacramento are expected to file conspiracy and mail fraud charges in a major accident-insurance scam today. . . . It involves dozens of San Fernando Valley chiropractic clinics and millions of dollars in allegedly phony insurance claims and legal referral fees. Attorneys familiar with the probe say it centers on several lawyers and a Hollywood chiropractor who allegedly raked off more than $10 million of insurance payments for treatment of accident victims at a statewide network of clinics.

MUCKING IT UP: Dancer-choreographer Heidi Duckler swims with the green algae in the Los Angeles River and calls it art. . . . The river is the latest unlikely spot where she and her dance troupe, Collage Dance Theatre, will perform (F1). . . . Details on this event and others in Valley Weekend in Calendar. On F1A: Best Bets for the weekend.

PETRIFIED PETALS: Remember the halcyon days of the Simpson trial when fans sent lavish bouquets? Those tributes apparently have disintegrated along with the rest of the trial. Now it’s--would you believe?--dead flowers. . . . That’s right, bouquets of dead flowers were delivered Wednesday to prosecutors Marcia Clark and Chris Darden, said Mark Augustyn of Wilted Petals in Sherman Oaks. The enclosed cards quoted Judge Lance Ito: “It’s astonishing what we’ve sunk to here.”

HAIL MARY PASS: Talk about your bang-up burial at sea. . . . Van Nuys High football Coach Mark Pomerantz is an owner of a company that offers a combination burial at sea and fireworks display. And we do mean combination. The ashes are literally mixed with 10 clusters of fireworks and shot into the air (C8).