RIGHT OR PLAGUE: Are garage sales a...

RIGHT OR PLAGUE: Are garage sales a natural American freedom or a plague of front-yard junk vendors? That’s the crux of a vote today by county supervisors (B1). . . . Supervisor Mike Antonovich is fighting provisions restricting residents to two sales a year, limiting signs and requiring that some profits be donated to charity. Antonovich says this isn’t the time to prevent people from scuffling up a few bucks.

END OF PLUNGE? Discouraged home-sellers may be skeptical to hear it, but some experts think the worst is past in the local home sales market. . . . Although sales this year still trail 1991 and 1992 levels, builders and analysts say buyers are committing themselves, fearful that prices and interest rates are headed up. See Valley Business, page 3.

TEACHER’S REWARD: Most teachers can only hope they help build fine adults, but Maggi Robson has proof. When an arsonist burned her Cantara Street Elementary classroom, destroying a career’s worth of teaching materials, Randy Hite of Northridge showed up with $200 in supplies and a Christmas tree--to repay Robson for all she had taught him in sixth grade, a dozen years ago (B2).

IMAGE POLISHER: There are upscale neighborhood barometers: genteel couture boutiques and French cafes. There’s downscale: topless bars and pawnshops. Not much clamor to get a pawnshop in your neighborhood? A pawnshop owner gives his side in the Valley Question and Answer (B5), saying universal fingerprinting and other measures keep criminals away these days.

BANKING ON CHANGE: You don’t like banking with a machine? You want a human teller who remembers that your name isn’t Willie Sutton? Stephen Trafton agrees. Trafton, chairman of Glendale Federal Bank, has this plan for profits: Forget ATMs. Give customers shorter lines, a friendly smile and broader financial services. See Valley Business, page 10.