SPEAKING OUT: Sam and Ellen Rabkin of...

SPEAKING OUT: Sam and Ellen Rabkin of Granada Hills lost $100,000 from Lincoln Savings and Loan in the Keating scam, but recovered about 60% in lawsuits. . . . When they heard a bill would prevent fraud victims from suing lawyers and accountants, they went to Washington to lobby against it. And now they’re featured in ads against the bill. Said Ellen: “If this bill had been in effect . . . we would not have recovered a thing.”

BACKBENCHER NO MORE: Paula Boland, more than any other female member of the Assembly, has taken the lead in attacking Speaker Doris Allen angrily and often for a perceived betrayal not only of the party, but of her sister Republicans (B1). . . . Republican Boland, stripped of a coveted committee chair, has emerged as a bulldog, and her voice is being heard loud and clear.

BOOM TOWN: For 60 technicians at Edwards Air Force Base, the space shuttle’s sonic boom is a call to work. After each landing, crews work 18-hour shifts to service the orbiter. But the boom times may go bust as Congress looks to cut about 300 jobs from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, where the work is done (B1).

DISASTROUS RESUME: FEMA’s new spokeswoman for the Northridge earthquake recovery has experience in the frustrating task of rebounding from disaster. . . . Val Bunting was former Mayor Tom Bradley’s press secretary when riots exploded across the city in 1992, and she later handled media inquiries at Rebuild L.A.

BUDGET BLUES: Should Valley clinics and health centers be closed, the cost may eventually be measured in overburdened emergency rooms and less vigilance against disease. The clinics are the first line of defense against many communicable diseases and offer the only chance for many poor families to get treatment and vaccinations, experts say (B1).