Amber

Newport Harbor's Amber Steen, The Times' Orange County runner of the year in cross-country this season, committed to Arizona, she said Monday. Steen also visited UC Irvine and Oregon, but chose Arizona because of its location. Steen said passing on the Anteaters was especially difficult because of Vince O'Boyle, UCI's cross-country and track coach. "If I could have taken O'Boyle to Arizona, I wouldn't have waited so long to decide," she said.

I have just finished reading your latest mumbo-jumbo on Orange County et al trying to clean up the obscene and overt racism case of Amber Jefferson. After the who saids and what saids and when saids, you are still left with the word nigger and a brown-skinned child's face, from mixed parents, badly scarred for life. More important than the physical scar on her face is the scar left in her mind and in the minds of so many others. Will America meet her challenge?

Small sanities maintain the balance in great disasters. God gave us sunshine in winter to remind us that spring would come again. What stays in mind is the odd, flat sunlight, amber-tinted through a thin layer of smoke, and the woman who stood alone in the middle of an empty road, crying. I see her from a perspective oddly softened by the hazy light, like the face of an aging actress misted by a kindly lens.

I never thought I'd go to Hawaii to climb trees and pet a giraffe on the island of Molokai. But having braved the cliffs of Kalaupapa by mule the day before, I was primed for the promise of another Hawaiian adventure. The road was rough, and dry earth spiraled in red dust clouds about the wheels of the van as we made our way toward Molokai Ranch Wildlife Park.

More than 5,500 participants are expected to compete in the 1999 California State Games, beginning Wednesday in San Diego. Opening ceremonies begin at 8 p.m. Friday at San Diego Mesa College. The California State Games, an amateur sports festival modeled after the Olympics, were first held in 1988 in San Diego. The State Games were developed in 1977 in New York and are currently held in 44 states.

The state's Amber Alert system is being expanded to cellphone customers, the first program of its kind in the nation, Gov. Jeb Bush said in Tallahassee. The free program will allow subscribers to receive text messages when an alert is issued about a missing child. "It's another step forward in our effort to bring children home where they belong," Bush said.

On May 26, a frail woman of 83, once famous, died in New York City, a virtual recluse. News of her death appeared sporadically. I called one newspaper about an obituary. An editor asked, "Kathleen who?" Kathleen Winsor had died, the author of seven novels, including, in 1944, "Forever Amber," which in its first week of publication sold 100,000 copies and went on to sell millions.

Newbury Park resident Amber Johnston died at home Wednesday following a long battle with cancer. She was 34. Johnston was born Sept. 28, 1964, in Van Nuys. She grew up in Agoura Hills and graduated from Agoura High School. While living in Agoura Hills, Johnston met her future husband, David. The couple were married Oct. 18, 1987. Johnston majored in real estate and finance at California State University Northridge, and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in 1989.

Whap. Whap. Army Staff Sgt. Jackelyn Walker is snapping left jabs at Pfc. Greg Langarica's head. She doesn't like his smirk. Whap. Whap. She lunges for his midsection, slams him down and locks him in a chokehold. Langarica's face goes crimson. His smirk is gone. The 1,000 or so spectators in the Army gym howl with glee. The Army still bars women from fighting in combat units. But some women are trying to break that barrier far from the front lines - by battling male soldiers in chain-link cages against a backdrop of strobe lights, thumping music and swirling smoke.

The 68-year-old man accused of snatching 10-year-old Nichole Taylor Timmons from her bedroom Monday night waived extradition from Nevada on Wednesday and is expected to return here by week's end to face a battery of state charges. Riverside Deputy Dist. Atty. Mike Soccio said suspect Glenn MacArthur Park was "answering questions well and cooperating with the investigation" being conducted by authorities in Reno.