AMAZING: Forget about building a better mousetrap....

By Henry Chu and Danica Kirka

April 27, 1996 12 AM PT

AMAZING: Forget about building a better mousetrap. What about better mice? Engineering students from around the region will gather at Cal State Northridge today to race team-built robotic mice through a maze. . . . The 1 p.m. contest at the Student Union, 18111 Nordhoff St., is open to the public. “It’s a neat way to get kids interested in science,” said CSUN’s Jerralyn Kurowski.

HIGH ACHIEVER: Kissandra Cohen, the youngest student ever to receive a degree from Pierce College, is graduating at 17 next month with honors from Duke University. Law school is next for the Tarzana teen, who double-majored in economics and sociology. . . . “Originally my passion was medicine,” Kissandra said, but she hasn’t given that up. Her goal: an M.D. and a J.D.

CUTTING EDGE: Juan Capdet III, above, belongs to one of the state’s top high school fencing teams--the squad at Chaminade High (C14). Sixteen students from the school will compete this weekend with others from California and Nevada for a shot at entering a national tournament. . . . Juan, 15, leads Chaminade with 174 wins.

HEATED DEBATE: No charges will be filed in a confrontation between Santa Clarita Planning Commissioner Louis Brathwaite and community gadfly John Steffen. Last week, the two engaged in a shouting match in which Brathwaite alleged that Steffen shoved him. . . . The district attorney’s office says there’s insufficient evidence to take the matter any further.

TOUCHING TUNE: Rachel Teitelbaum, 10, of Studio City decided to try her hand at songwriting after the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The result was “Love Is the Key,” an uplifting tune that won the state PTA’s annual “Reflections” contest. . . . The fourth-grader will perform her work tonight at the state PTA’s annual convention in Anaheim.

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Henry Chu

Henry Chu first joined the Los Angeles Times in 1990 and worked primarily out of the San Fernando Valley office before moving to the foreign staff in 1998. He served as bureau chief in Beijing from 1998 to 2003, Rio de Janeiro from 2004 to 2005, New Delhi from 2006 to 2008 and London from 2009 to 2014. He was a 2014-15 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. From 2016-19 he was international editor at Variety magazine. A graduate of Harvard University, Chu returned to The Times in March 2020 as deputy news editor based in London. He left in 2024.