OUT OF HIS LEAGUE: Jim Pacheco got...

OUT OF HIS LEAGUE: Jim Pacheco got to officiate seven National League games before baseball owners ended a lockout of union umpires this week (C12). . . . Despite enduring confrontations with regular umpires and ridicule over controversial calls, the Oxnard engineer has no regrets. “I’ll probably hang my umpire uniform on a plaque. I’m proud of what I did.”

REALLY SPECIAL: Supporters of a ballot initiative mandating that all Proposition 172 revenue be spent on public safety have collected enough signatures to force a special election (B1). . . . If such an election occurs, it would be the first in at least 15 years, said county elections chief Bruce Bradley. “Whenever there’s been a countywide measure, it’s been coupled with a regular election,” he said.

A BETTER WORLD: Nine-year-old Tiffany Gearhart of Oxnard was one of 10,000 children who entered a contest asking for ways to improve the world. Now she’s one of 10 finalists who will travel to Washington, D.C. . . . Tiffany, who suggested giving teddy bears to homeless children, is a fourth-grader at St. Mary Magdalen school in Camarillo. The California Almond Board will pay $100,000 to implement the winning proposal. . . . Tiffany got the idea because “whenever I’m sad, I come to my teddy bear, and he usually makes me feel better. I think a child needs something to hug.”

CANCER FIGHT: A former Chatsworth man has filed suit over his wife’s cancer death, contending that the family’s Simi Valley doctors placed their financial interests ahead of their patient’s medical needs (A1). . . . The attorney in the case is Mark Hiepler of Oxnard, who won an $89.3-million judgment in 1993 after the cancer death of his sister. Hiepler says that many of the insurance cases he’s been involved in since the death haven’t gone to trial. . . . “We’ve probably had 150 cases that never had to turn into lawsuits, because the company did the right thing.”