BRIEFLY : SUIT CLAIMS PASTOR REVEALED SECRETS.

An Oxnard couple sued an Assembly of God pastor Wednesday, claiming he revealed confidential information to police that they say they told him during a counseling session a year ago.

Robert and Lisa Aguilera also sued the Oxnard Police Department, whose officers showed up at their home and arrested the husband Jan. 7, 1998, after learning what the pastor told police.

The Rev. Dan Green, pastor of First Assembly of God of Port Hueneme, also serves as the Oxnard Police Department chaplain. In a telephone interview, he denied revealing information the Aguileras told him in confidence.

The pastor said he reported to police only what another parishioner told him.

Police arrested the husband, who was charged with assault, but the charges were dismissed by the court, said Bob Ross, an attorney for the plaintiff.

Green said the couple attended his church only a few times and that he did counsel them. ``But I didn't reveal any confidential information. That would have been wrong.''

- Daily News Staff and Wire Services

MTA staff to urge matching of funds

To boost chances the 101-405 freeway interchange will receive state funding for gridlock-easing improvements, Metropolitan Transportation Authority staffers will recommend that the agency's board put up $2.6 million as a local match for a $13.1 million project.

Bob Cashin, MTA deputy executive officer for planning, said Wednesday that the money would come from funds set aside for highway projects.

The MTA board vote should come Jan. 28.

Caltrans officials have said that local matches will boost a project's chances in the competition for limited state transportation dollars.

- Daily News

Deadline nears for magnet enrollment

The deadline to enroll a child in the Los Angeles Unified School District's magnet schools and centers, or in its ``Permits With Transportation'' program, for the 1999-2000 school year is Jan. 15.

LAUSD officials expect up to 70,000 applications for an estimated 13,000 to 14,000 openings in its magnet schools and centers.

Applications must be received or postmarked by 5 p.m. on the 15th.

Permits With Transportation students are transported to a school outside their area as part of the district's voluntary integration plan.

- City News Service

Taft student to get scholarship, trip

WOODLAND HILLS - A student at Taft High School has been named one of two California delegates to the U.S. Senate Youth Program, state education officials announced Wednesday.

Gloria Labbad will join the other delegates for a one-week trip to Washington, D.C., in February to meet with senators, courtesy of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. She also will receive a $2,000 scholarship.

Delegates to the program are nominated by their principals for outstanding achievement both in class and in extracurricular activities. During this school year, 190 California students were nominated.

- Daily News

Group attempting break from union

A group representing about 50 locked-out newswriters for ABC Television and KABC-TV in Los Angeles has petitioned to break away from the union now at odds with the network.

The Los Angeles Newswriters of ABC Television and KABC submitted its petition to the National Labor Relations Board, newswriter Roger Scott said Wednesday.

Scott, who is one of 28 people to sign the petition, said that if a simple majority of the group's voting members approves decertification, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians will no longer represent them.

- City News Service