Winners and Losers: The sky above, the...

Winners and Losers: The sky above, the mud below. . . . From airport controversies to subway woes, it was a year of high leaps and low blows in the Valley. Clinton and Dole visited, often. Political careers were launched, and were sunk. So at year’s end, Newswatch takes a look at the local successes and messes of 1996. . . .

Up and Out: Republican Assemblywoman Paul Boland generated extraordinary publicity with her Valley secession bill. But the bill died and then Boland lost a bid for higher office. What’s up next? She may work for city charter reform, she hinted Friday.

Big Grin: The smile of the year belonged to Chelsey Thomas, 8, of Palmdale. . . . Born with a rare medical malady that affected her facial muscles, she had never cracked a smile or flashed a grin. Two micro-vascular surgeries later and she is doing both--regularly.

High School Update: Brant Theurer attended graduation ceremonies at Paraclete High School in Quartz Hill after spending most of his senior year in a coma following a car crash. . . . Salle Dumm, the Burbank schools booster, was charged with seducing a teenage football player. But a jury deadlocked and all charges were dropped.

Muckraker City: A subway tunneling machine named Thelma became stuck beneath the Santa Monicas on July 4 and wasn’t freed for weeks. . . . And reforms were proposed to prevent the kind of alleged land fraud that stranded 2,500 mostly Spanish-speaking customers who bought what turned out to be legally encumbered tracts in the Antelope Valley.