BRIEFLY SEIF ON PROBATION IN CITY-SEAL CASE.

An ex-general manager of an agency designed to keep film production in Los Angeles County pleaded no contest Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of forging a letter to get a city badge, prosecutors said.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler immediately sentenced Darryl Seif, 38, of the Mount Olympus area to three years' probation and a $1,000 fine, said Deputy District Attorney Max Huntsman.

As a result of the plea, the judge dismissed a felony charge of using a counterfeit city seal. The letter purportedly was from the Mayor's Office, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Seif was the general manager of the Entertainment Industry Development Corp.

- City News Service

Tangerine grove ordered leveled

PIRU - A tangerine grove suspected of containing a bacteria that is the scourge of the citrus industry was destroyed by Ventura County agriculture officials because a farmer smuggled Japanese tree specimens into the country.

No trace of citrus canker has been detected, but the grove was destroyed because of the potential devastation to the county's $300 million citrus industry. Citrus canker once decimated Florida citrus production.

Federal charges are expected against the farm owner, who lives in Japan, for allegedly smuggling the Japanese citrus trees, Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Alan Laird said. The plants bound for Ventura County were intercepted by U.S. Customs officials in San Francisco about three weeks ago, before they reached the Piru grove. They subsequently tested positive for citrus canker, Laird said.

- Associated Press

Council OKs use for old post office

The City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee unanimously upheld its approval to turn the old Tarzana post office on Clark Street into Temple Beith David's synagogue, which had been challenged on the grounds that it didn't guarantee enough parking.

The project will have 31 parking spaces on the property, and the congregation is leasing 40 spaces from a nearby office building.

The committee endorsed the temple on the condition the parking spaces will be available Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. The City Council make the final decision on June 30.

- Daily News

Missile rockets across Pacific

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE - The Air Force launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile early Wednesday from this base along the central California coast, officials said.

The Boeing Co.-made missile, part of the Force Development Evaluation Program, was launched at 1:32 a.m. PDT on a 4,200-mile trip across the Pacific Ocean, according to a statement posted on the base's Web site.

The missile took about 30 minutes to reach its target in the Kwajalein Missile Range in the western chain of the Marshall Islands. The Air Force routinely test-launches the nearly 60-foot missiles to assess their performance and reliability.

The Air Force has about 500 nuclear warhead-tipped Minuteman III missiles in its arsenal, in silos located in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming.

- Associated Press

DWP files report to restart river

The Department of Water and Power completed the final environmental reports for a project to send water flowing back into the 60-mile Lower Owens River, Mayor Jim Hahn announced Wednesday.

``This is one of the most remarkable environmental restoration projects of its kind, and I am dedicated to seeing that it's completed,'' Hahn said.

The 8-inch-thick document was submitted to Inyo County Superior Court today, in compliance with a court-ordered deadline. The environmental impact report and environmental impact statement describe details of one of the largest restoration projects of river and habitats in the west.

The project is expected to create a healthy riparian ecosystem by returning a steady flow of water from the Los Angeles Aqueduct to the Owens River below Big Pine and down to the delta of Owens Lake.

- City News Service