Check Scam: San Fernando Municipal Court Commissioner...

Check Scam: San Fernando Municipal Court Commissioner Gerald T. Richardson was taken aback last Friday--the 13th--when an ATM rebuffed him. . . . Then he remembered leaving his checkbook in his truck at a carwash. The thief removed two checks from the middle of the book, and also found out his balance: $3,107. Possibly overcome by Christmas spirit, the forger left the $107.

Still Rising: The Earth hasn’t been sitting still in the three years since the Northridge earthquake. . . . JPL reported to the American Geophysical Union on Tuesday that the foothills around Granada Hills have risen 6 inches, the Associated Press said. That’s in addition to the 1 1/2 feet they lurched up during the January 1994 quake.

ZZZZ Tax Man: Congregants auditioned to play bankers and Roman soldiers in this weekend’s Bethlehem marketplace at the Church at Rocky Peak in Chatsworth. . . . But the man in the ermine hat, above, was a shoo-in as tax collector. Ex-con Barry Minkow, who swindled $26 million from investors in his ZZZZ Best office repair business in the 1980s, is now an assistant pastor at the evangelical church.

New Moon: Once a hard-living rock artist, Moon Calhoun had settled down in Van Nuys as a sober songwriter when a 1995 bicycle accident left him mostly paralyzed. . . . This week, to honor his fight back, the Second Chance Foundation will give Calhoun some pricey electronic gear for his home recording studio.