BRIEFLY MAYORAL FORUM SET FOR TONIGHT.

VAN NUYS - Candidates for San Fernando Valley mayor will speak from 7:30 to 9 tonight at a public forum at the Airtel Plaza Hotel, 7277 Valjean Ave.

The free event will be sponsored by a coalition of female candidates for Valley city council seats in Tuesday's election. The forum will be moderated by journalist Jill Stewart and will feature Shirley Svorny, a California State University, Northridge, economics professor who backs Valley cityhood, which is Measure F on Tuesday's ballot.

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Radio show to air calls on secession

Radio station KFWB-AM (980) will host a one-hour call-in show on San Fernando Valley and Hollywood secession this evening. The show, from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., will feature Valley secession leader Richard Katz, Hollywood secessionist Gene LaPietra and secession opponent Rusty Hammer, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. It will be moderated by the station's Larry Carroll. The call-in number for the show is [phone].

- Daily News

Boulevard to be scene of carnival

TARZANA - Safari Walk, a fall carnival sponsored by the Tarzana Improvement Association, will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday along Ventura Boulevard, between Reseda Boulevard and Crebs Avenue.

There will be food, music, entertainment, dancing and karate demonstrations, and representatives of the campaigns for and against San Fernando Valley secession will provide information.

For more information, call [phone].

- Daily News

Kids get lessons on using money

Banker volunteers met Tuesday with more than 500 children and their teachers from inner-city fourth and fifth grades in the Los Angeles kickoff of an Operation Hope education program, Banking on Our Future Across America.

Established in 1996, the program is aimed at educating more than 90,000 children in the fundamentals of banking, checking, savings, credit and investment to give them basic skills for making sound financial decisions.

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Witnesses sought in arson at cafe

CHATSWORTH - Arson investigators are looking for witnesses to help find whoever started a fire that broke out around 2:20 a.m. Tuesday in a strip mall at 9872 De Soto Ave.

Firefighters from the Los Angeles Fire Department confined the fire to the one cafe where it started, but the blaze did an estimated $150,000 in damage, said department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

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CSUN spotlighting Africa this week

NORTHRIDGE - A series of community events is being held on campus at California State University, Northridge, as part of a special Learn About Africa Week observation.

For more information about this week's events, call 677-3311.

- Daily News

New scholarships to go to Latinos

The Los Angeles Community College District Foundation and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund will announce a new scholarship program today aimed at increasing the number of Latinos transferring to four-year colleges.

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