TAX BREAK: Procrastinators, it’s time. A merciful...

TAX BREAK: Procrastinators, it’s time. A merciful calendar fluke gave all you last-minute tax filers a two-day reprieve. . . . The traditional April 15 deadline fell harmlessly on a weekend this year, so taxes aren’t truly due until midnight tonight. . . . Still want to push your luck? The IRS office at 2500 Financial Square in Oxnard will be open until the last minute. Says IRS worker Harlene Hartwell: “The doors will be locked at 12, but if you get your return in before then, it will be considered (to be on time).”

REPORT CARDS: Members of Congress such as Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson get graded, not just by disenchanted--or enchanted--voters at the polls, but by special interest groups (B1). . . . PACs, unions and other groups grade representatives’ votes A through F. Some pols complain that the published report cards twist their records. Says one congressional aide: “To judge a member of Congress on six votes out of 2,000 is a distortion at the very least.”

TOAD LOVE: After making it safer for the endangered arroyo toad to make more arroyo toads, a five-year ban against motorcyclists on Los Padres National Forest’s twisting Snowy Trail is due to be lifted (B1). How do the tiny toads do it? They scramble into the Piru Creek stream bed in the spring, UC Santa Barbara biologist Sam Sweet says. Male toads climb atop females to fertilize eggs that their mates are laying. Five days later, eggs hatch into tadpoles, which grow into two- to three-inch-long toads. Come mating season, boy toad meets girl toad, and the cycle of toad life whirls on.

TOP SCOUT: For four years, Simi Valley teen-ager J. J. Martinez served the Police Department as an Explorer Scout. . . . After he put in 1,400 volunteer hours fingerprinting children, directing traffic and licensing bicycles, the officers and his fellow scouts paid him back. . . . J. J. Martinez, 20, was named 1994 Explorer Scout of the Year.