Bryan

From the time they were old enough to chew bubble gum, Matt Fisher, Matt Cassel and Conor Jackson have been called baseball wonders. Every step of the way, from T-ball through senior league, they've stood out as all-stars. In youth drafts, they were certain No. 1 picks. If only they had agent Dennis Gilbert to negotiate their pizza deals. Time has flown by. They're now sophomores in high school, Fisher and Cassel at Chatsworth, Jackson at El Camino Real.

A San Fernando Valley jeweler agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge and return nearly $1.3 million in stock-trading gains he made from allegedly illegal tips provided by a former partner at accounting giant KPMG. Bryan Shaw, 52, of Lake Sherwood admitted in a plea agreement that he conspired with KPMG's Scott London to trade in the stocks of the accounting firm's clients. The pair were longtime friends who enjoyed golfing together. In addition to forfeiting his ill-gotten gains, Shaw faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a fine, the Justice Department said.

Seal, who is making a comeback with the single "Get It Together" and an album due out in the fall, has leased a house in the Hollywood Hills while he is finishing and promoting his new recordings. The British singer-songwriter owned a home in Beverly Hills during the late 1990s but moved back to his native London to work with music producer Trevor Horn on the album, which has been four years in the making.

Books on sensitive subjects are not meant to take the place of counseling by parents, teachers, clergy, psychologists or others. Yet they can act as a helpful vehicle for expressing feelings and fears. The following are recommended by children's book specialists to help adults and youngsters approach such subjects as divorce, death, adoption, the new baby, fears, disabilities, AIDS, teen-age suicide, sex and puberty. Teen-Age Suicide "Close to the Edge" by Gloria D.

In the beginning there were the Cheetah Girls. Way back in 2003, when Hannah Montana was but a gleam in the Disney Channel's eye, Galleria (Raven-Symone), Chanel (Adrienne Bailon), Aqua (Kiely Williams) and Dorinda (Sabrina Bryan) became a bouncy, lovely pop band. Their message was simple: Nothing can keep you from being a star, but only if you remember that friends are more important than fame. Disney has since made billions embracing this creed: the "High School Musicals," "Hannah Montana" and "Camp Rock" all celebrate the glories of stardom while admonishing their audience to always choose friendship over personal glory.

Hawthorne 2, Beverly Hills 1--The Cougars, winless in their first eight Bay League outings, completed a two-game sweep of first-place Beverly Hills with a victory at Hawthorne. Tarrick Brock's bases-loaded single with no outs in the seventh inning drove in Moises Barba with the winning run. Hawthorne, which beat Beverly Hills, 5-4, on Tuesday, improved to 10-14 overall and 2-8 in league play. Beverly Hills (15-4, 7-3) had tied the score with one out in the top the seventh.

As a working mother, Maeve Kinkead, who plays Vanessa Lewis on "Guiding Light," believes she knows of which she speaks: "I don't think it is possible to feel comfortable as a working mom. There is always more you feel you should do. And, I'm sorry, but it is easier for men and always will be. Especially in the early years, children have a stronger bond to their mothers than they do to their fathers."

Poway 21, Vista 20--Poway (4-3, 2-2) trailed 12-0 at half, but came back to defeat Vista (1-6, 0-4). Avocado Ramona 21, Carlsbad 20--Carlsbad (3-4, 1-2) scored with 31 seconds left on Charlie Grant's six-yard run, but quarterback Jesse Medina's pitch to Grant on the conversion was behind him and recovered by Ramona (5-2, 3-1). Carlsbad's Chris Greene caught four passes for 59 yards and two touchdowns and running back Will Bartch ran for 148 yards in 15 carries.

As Miss Teen South Carolina reminded us so memorably in 2007, "Some people in our nation don't have maps. . . ." So true. But you can't blame the National Geographic Society. For more than a century, the House That Grosvenor Built has been one of the world's most ambitious educational and scientific organizations. These are the people who brought us unforgettable documentary films about Jacques Cousteau and Robert Ballard, Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey. The society's flagship publication, National Geographic magazine, remains the platinum standard of glossy-book journalism: lucidly written, beautifully photographed and humanely informed, a study in elegance.