GUARD DUTY: With police still hunting the...

GUARD DUTY: With police still hunting the Valley molester, parents are doing guard duty. . . . At El Dorado School, mothers of the Parent Safety Express are on hand at school dismissal each day, holding up signs indicating which direction they will walk (B3). . . . Dozens of children who formerly walked home alone are now being chaperoned.

BURY HIM NOT: It’s an ancient tradition in many cultures--burying the elite in cathedrals--but that cuts no ice in Burbank. The archbishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church wanted to be entombed, when his time comes, at St. Ephraim’s church. “The heart of our tradition and religious belief,” the pastor said. . . . No way, said the City Council, refusing to amend the code that restricts burials to one cemetery zone. (B1)

KING’S LEGACY: Two Valley students won in an annual essay contest on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (B2): sixth-grader Hannah Whang of Welby Way School in West Hills and Vinh Phan, above, of Kennedy High in Granada Hills. Vinh, born in Vietnam, said King wanted racial justice but yet “did not want us to push and shove to see who would get there first, but . . . to walk side by side to get there together.”

POUNDING AWAY: With the feast-filled holidays ended, you’re perhaps a trifle too grand, a tad too expansive, a bit too . . . well, fat. For the New Year, you resolve to get to the gym, to pedal and pump and sweat. The Around the Valley column (B5) joins those who suffer for svelte. . . . Alas, it’s not long before the siren call of a pizza dooms these good intentions.

FEW ARE CHOSEN: The first major local discount home improvement retailer is great for the Santa Clarita Valley--but not so good for the big turnout of job seekers. More than 6,000 people applied for work at the new Home Depot--but only about 100 were hired. (B16)