Job Rebound: Since 1988, San Fernando Valley-area...

Job Rebound: Since 1988, San Fernando Valley-area machinist unions, like other labor organizations in Southern California, lost thousands of members when aerospace and auto manufacturing jobs were slashed in the California recession. But amid the losses, there are reasons for hope, according to Carl Kessler of the Aerospace District 725 Organizing Committee. “We’re not recovered, but we’re on the road,” he said, citing new jobs building NASA’s next-generation space vehicle.

River Wild: At 11:15 a.m. today, Hollywood celebrities will join local environmentalists at Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area for an afternoon of canoe races and rides. . . . But the gathering, which features an authentic birch bark canoe from the movie “Last of the Mohicans,” won’t be all fun and games. Activists are urging the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who vote Tuesday on a proposal to erect higher cement walls along 21 miles of the lower Los Angeles River, to consider more environmentally friendly alternatives.

. . . Into the Fire: For Mika Yamamoto, a new assistant superintendent at the Castaic Lake Recreation Area, the hectic part of her job was supposed to be helping to oversee things during busy holiday weekends like Labor Day. . . . But her second day on the job, fire broke out north of Castaic. “It was a great training week,” said Yamamoto, above, who expressed her gratitude to colleagues and firefighting personnel.