SFVBJ online: selected news published on sfvbj.com.

WellPoint Donates: The Foundation for California Community Colleges received a $15 million endowment from WellPoint Inc. to support the expansion of nursing programs at California Community Colleges. The endowment established with WellPoint's donation will provide matching funds to Governor Schwarzenegger's Nursing Education Initiative grants awarded last year. Brenda Epperly, director of health care programs at the foundation, said that 32,000 students across the country were turned away from nursing programs last year because there was not enough capacity to accommodate them. California, according to the foundation, ranks 49th in the ratio of registered nurses per population.

Stepping Down: Lancaster Mayor Frank C. Roberts is stepping down from his spot on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors creating a vacancy for a San Fernando Valley representative. Glendale City Councilman Ara Najarian and La Canada Flintridge City Councilman David Spence have announced they are interested in filling the position.

The appointment to the MTA board is made by the Los Angeles County Division of the League of California Cities. A representative for the North County-San Fernando Valley sector must be an elected official and Roberts is reportedly not seeking re-election in next month's city election. The area Roberts represents stretches from La Canada-Flintridge to Westlake Village and from Malibu to Lancaster.

Cherokee Renews: Cherokee Inc. said that Target Corp. has extended its licensing agreement with the company through January 2008. Target currently sells Cherokee brand apparel, accessories and other products from the Cherokee stable. Cherokee, a licensor and brand management company based in Van Nuys, also holds licensing agreements with Tesco, Zellers and Mervyn's, among others.

Financial Education: Five elementary school winners of an essay contest sponsored by Valley Presbyterian Hospital were awarded $100, a savings bond and tours of the Wells Fargo E-Bus on Friday. Wells Fargo also gave the winners, Maria Palacios, Damaris Urrutia, David Martinez, Moujan Hekmatshoar, and Enrique Martinez, $100 savings bonds and gift baskets. Tracy Talley, CFO of Valley Presbyterian, gave the winners the $100, which will be used by the students to start a savings account at Wells Fargo. Winners were selected from three fourth grade classes at Columbus Elementary School, where they were asked to write essays dealing with the importance of saving money. Valley Presbyterian developed the contest with Wells Fargo. The nationally-touring Wells Fargo E-Bus is a mobile high-tech education training center that includes sixteen Internet terminals for online access, six large plasma screens and two small LCD screens for audio visual training.

Image Deal: Chatsworth-based Image Entertainment Inc., a licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming, has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Revolver, a hard rock magazine. On behalf of Revolver, Image will create a series of compilations, consisting of 4 CDs which is expected to be available in stores by June.