1980 Year

What was the big news in 1980, the year most of the class of '98 was born? * 52 Americans were held hostage in Iran * Ronald Reagan was elected * The U.S. boycotted the Moscow Olympics. Some American athletes competed in Mission Viejo instead.

Genetic evidence from a 1980 Orange County rape and murder has linked a Florida inmate to the crime, the California attorney general's office said Thursday. Benjamin Wayne Watta, 55, was identified when authorities ran the DNA evidence through the California DNA Convicted Felon Databank. He will be extradited to California and charged with first-degree murder, a Seal Beach police spokesman said.

Eighteen years can be a lifetime for some . . . products. Here's what was high-tech when most of the Class of '98 was sleeping 18 hours a day and what replaces them today: * Rotary phone: cell phone, pager * Pac Man: Total Annihilation * Chain letters: e-mail * Party lines: chat rooms * Polaroids: digital cameras * Answer devices: voicemail * Bank tellers: ATMs * Drive-in movies: movie multiplexes * Cable TV: satellite dishes * Vinyl albums: CDs, laserdiscs * Solid Gold: MTV

Eighteen years can be a lifetime for some . . . products. Here's what was high-tech when most of the Class of '98 was sleeping 18 hours a day and what replaces them today: * Rotary phone: cell phone, pager * Pac Man: Total Annihilation * Chain letters: e-mail * Party lines: chat rooms * Polaroids: digital cameras * Answer devices: voicemail * Bank tellers: ATMs * Drive-in movies: movie multiplexes * Cable TV: satellite dishes * Vinyl albums: CDs, laserdiscs * Solid Gold: MTV

You could say '98 was the year of the rerun. Rumbling back were the Volkswagen Beetle, the movie "Grease" and hip-huggers. Is there a link between Then and Now? In the 1980s, Orange County high school students chose these as their favorite movies: * "The Jerk" * "Kramer vs.

California will lose an estimated $683 million over the next 10 years--enough money to build two new state university campuses or double the fight against AIDS--if a projected U.S. census undercount is not averted here, according to a state Senate subcommittee that met in Los Angeles on Monday. Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) said the Census Bureau estimates that 4.

Genetic evidence from a 1980 Orange County rape and murder has linked a Florida inmate to the crime, the California attorney general's office said Thursday. Benjamin Wayne Watta, 55, was identified when authorities ran the DNA evidence through the California DNA Convicted Felon Databank. He will be extradited to California and charged with first-degree murder, a Seal Beach police spokesman said.

It's a mystery of the sea: How many great white sharks are prowling near California's surf lines? Some scientists say the population is large and healthy. Others say it is alarmingly small. No one has ever known for certain, but the question has become crucial this year. State and federal authorities are weighing a request to classify the fish scientists know as Carcharodon carcharias as an endangered species worth preserving at all costs, a step that could, among other things, wipe out what's left of a gill net fishing industry that inadvertently snares great whites.

In 1980, members of the U.S. Water Polo team were on their way to Hungary to play in the Tunsgrum Cup--a prestigious tournament that was to serve as a pre-Olympic warm up--when they heard that they really didn't have to bother. President Jimmy Carter, bolstered by Congress, had made up his mind. After weeks of posturing, Carter decided that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan made U.S. participation in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow untenable.

Dennis Block seemed glued to his black leather chair, his coffee untouched, apparently impervious to physical needs such as the bathroom or food, taking one landlord's phone call after another. Almost all the callers wanted the same thing: to evict their tenants. In a DVD he gives to landlords, Block describes himself this way: "A man who has evicted more tenants than any other human being on the planet Earth." He has never been busier.

You could say '98 was the year of the rerun. Rumbling back were the Volkswagen Beetle, the movie "Grease" and hip-huggers. Is there a link between Then and Now? In the 1980s, Orange County high school students chose these as their favorite movies: * "The Jerk" * "Kramer vs.

What was the big news in 1980, the year most of the class of '98 was born? * 52 Americans were held hostage in Iran * Ronald Reagan was elected * The U.S. boycotted the Moscow Olympics. Some American athletes competed in Mission Viejo instead.

California will lose an estimated $683 million over the next 10 years--enough money to build two new state university campuses or double the fight against AIDS--if a projected U.S. census undercount is not averted here, according to a state Senate subcommittee that met in Los Angeles on Monday. Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) said the Census Bureau estimates that 4.

China issued a new commemorative stamp for the Year of the Ox on Saturday, but before it reached any mailboxes, its value soared as speculators looked for a quick profit. Thousands of Peking collectors formed long lines in subfreezing weather hoping to buy the colorful 0.08-yuan (almost 3-cent) stamp, which depicts a beefy ox with raised horns. Some of those who reached the counter before the stamps were sold out sought to resell the commemoratives at five times the cover price.