WORKPLACE DEATHS: Rockwell International agreed to pay...

WORKPLACE DEATHS: Rockwell International agreed to pay $6.5 million in fines for a chemical blast that killed two scientists in Simi Valley (A1). . . . Of 657 worker fatalities in 1993--the most recent figures available--there were only 19 deaths from fires or explosions, says the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. . . . It is unusual for scientists to be killed in the workplace. “Fatalities in such occupations are fairly rare,” says spokesman Rick Rice.

SEABEE SEARCH: Director John P. Langellier has big plans for the Seabee museum in Port Hueneme (B1). He also has a very personal project underway--to find those who served with his father, Donald, during World War II. . . . “I may never run across his shipmates,” says John Langellier. “That was over 50 years ago, and many of those men were older, in their 30s and 40s, already with construction trades.” His only clue is a photograph of his father posing with six other men in front of a tent in the Philippines.

GREEN HERO: It was only a matter of time before an “all natural” superhero came into being and it took an Oxnard health food company to bring him to life (D7C). Green Magma Man is unashamedly named for a leading product from Green Foods Corp. . . . The character’s debut in a promotional comic book was a big hit at a recent industry trade show. “The reaction was very positive. People were saying, ‘I haven’t picked up one of these for years!’ ” according to Stephen Hartmann, marketing director.

MONEY MAN: County Treasurer Harold S. Pittman, to whom hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property tax payments will be sent by Wednesday’s deadline, has an appropriate hobby. He acquires historic currency. . . . “I collect the new bills for the county and I collect the old ones for me,” jokes Pittman, who is especially proud of a $5 bill and a $20 bill that were issued by two national banks in Ventura--each signed by two bank officers.