Comeback Trail

Placerita CANYON State Park looks a lot like Mars. The ground, buried in layers of ash from a 2,800-acre wildfire in mid-July, resembles the inside of a barbecue pit, and the vegetation is extraordinary in that there isn't much. Here and there, clustered plants that resemble emeralds on black velvet huddle around the bases of giant shish kebabs, which turn out to be charred manzanita and live oak trees.

Three fillies and mares who have yet to start in 2004 are among five scheduled to run in tonight's seventh race, a $13,750 allowance. Shake Em Rita Ballou, Grateful Heart and Worthy Contender are on the comeback trail. They will be opposed by Daytona Apollo Mrl and Kelia Vista in the 350-yard race. Grateful Heart, who hasn't run since Oct. 30, and Worthy Contender, who hasn't been seen since she finished second at Lone Star Park on Oct. 24, are trained by Paul Jones.

King Coach Andy Murray has referred to it as walking through the gates, a graduation of sorts, when a player leaves the small group of other injured skaters and starts practicing full tilt with the rest of the team. It might take two more weeks, perhaps three, but versatile veteran Brad Norton could be the next King to start practicing with the big boys. Norton, out since sustaining two sliced forearm tendons in a Sept.

California's business climate has been as bad in the past as it is today, and it has always zoomed back. This time, though, things could be different if state leaders aren't careful. In the late 1970s, the Fantus consulting firm advised companies seeking to locate offices and factories that California was the least friendly place in the entire nation to do business.

On a chilly night in May, two dozen of Hollywood's top stunt drivers huddled around a director crouched on the sidewalk at the corner of Melrose and Van Ness avenues. Like football players surrounding a quarterback, they watched the director move toy Hot Wheels on the sidewalk to demonstrate the intricate maneuvers they would perform in a few minutes. At the edge of the group, Jake Chambers, 25, a tall Ethan Hawke look-alike, leaned against a palm tree.

Welcome back to the jungle. After nine years on the sidelines, Guns N' Roses, the most popular and volatile American hard-rock band of the '80s, is on the loose again in the U.S. And one thing's for sure: The second day of the tour was better than the first. It got off to a disastrous start Thursday when hundreds of fans rioted in Vancouver, Canada, after the concert there was canceled because lead singer Axl Rose's plane was still hours away in California.

There will be something different this year about the California Cup, which will be run for the 13th time Saturday at Santa Anita. It isn't the size of the fields. Plenty of California breds enter the 10 races and that's true again in 2002. A total of 110 horses were entered Wednesday morning, topped by an overflow 17 in the $150,000 California Cup Distaff. What is new is a certain jockey.

The Internet digital photo site Webshots seemed destined to dissolve in the dot-com meltdown a year ago as its owner, Excite@Home Corp., prepared to go into bankruptcy. But Webshots' co-founders lobbied for another try at developing the site into a profitable business--a goal that doesn't look as farfetched as it appeared when Excite@Home was poised to pull the plug. About 150,000 new users register at Webshots each week, up 50% from a year ago.