Cool Dude: Robert Nathanson, 11, of Valencia...

Cool Dude: Robert Nathanson, 11, of Valencia earned a commendation from Sheriff Sherman Block on Thursday. The fifth-grader kept a cool head when a burglar broke into his family’s home last month while he was alone with his younger brother and sister. Robert safely spirited his siblings through a back door and to a neighbor’s house before deputies caught two thieves. . . . “I had this planned in my head for many years,” he said. “We used to live in Northridge and things got stolen on our block all the time.”

A World Apart: Backers of Valley secession now have their own Internet site for sharing gripes about City Hall. The Valley Secession Web Site (https://www.lawcomp.com/robert/valleysecede) was posted by Gerald Silver of Encino and Robert Aitchison of Sherman Oaks. . . . Although the city maintains its own web page, officials do not plan to counter the cyberslams, said systems analyst Diane Funada.

Wrapped Up: Cal State Northridge has an accredited program for teaching future athletic trainers like Carolyn Jones, above. . . . But there is more to it than taping ankles. In April, CSUN’s team won a Jeopardy-style championship that featured sports medicine questions by answering this: The Finklestein test is done for what injury? Answer: stenosis tenosynovitis, an inflamed tendon (C10).

Tripped Up: Speaking of stumpers: Mhair H. Orchanian, 12, of Canoga Park was eliminated from the fifth round of the National Spelling Bee (A4) Thursday. After advancing through early rounds, he missed the word “gibbet,” a gallows-like device.