BRIEFLY JUDGE SAYS SAFETY MERITS HIGHER BAIL.

BURBANK - A Superior Court judge appeared unwilling Thursday to drastically reduce the bail for two 18-year-olds charged with plotting to plant a bomb at Burbank High School.

Defense attorneys for Patrick Longmire, a junior at the school, and Van Nuys resident Christopher Mannino argued that $1 million bail set for each of the youths vastly exceeded the minimum required by law.

But Judge Robert J. Sandoval said community safety concerns warranted ordering the two held at an amount above the $150,000 minimum.

``The potential danger to children would seem to me that a deviation ... is appropriate,'' Sandoval said.

A request to lower the bail to $500,000 will be considered at the defendants' preliminary hearing, set for May 31.

The pair is charged with conspiring to detonate a bomb on campus during school hours. Police said they were tipped to the plot by a parent who secretly recorded phone conversations between his daughter and Longmire.

- Daily News

Hospital receives $2.5 million gift

GLENDALE - A longtime resident of Eagle Rock has bequeathed $2.5 million to Glendale Adventist Medical Center, the largest single gift received by a not-for-profit organization in the Glendale area.

The money was donated by Aeola O'Harn and earmarked for the hospital's Heart and Vascular Center, where she was a patient in 1995.

``Ms. O'Harn was a caring and compassionate woman who wanted to show her appreciation for the care she received,'' said Dr. Hugo Riffel- Dalinger, who treated her at GAMC. ``Her kindness will help save lives for years to come.''

O'Harn lived for years in Eagle Rock and owned a printing company in Atwater Village before retiring to Long Lane, Mo. She died in 1999.

- Daily News