Internships

Every childhood visit to Disneyland provoked the same argument between Patricia L. Caplette and her brother over which ride to hit first. He wanted to head straight for the Haunted Mansion; she insisted on Pirates of the Caribbean. So they bargained: If she could start the day with her favorite scurvy crew, he could end it getting spooked.

There are a lot of somebodies in Hollywood, but there are even more nobodies--the workaday dreamers who give L.A. its unique texture and energy. In a town where writers want to be actors and video store clerks yearn to direct, hopefuls like Brad Burnett, Dino Pergola and Matt and Greg Bell became faces in the crowd when they moved here from the heartland.

An intern with the National Archives stole about 165 Civil War documents -- including the War Department's announcement of President Lincoln's death -- and sold most of them on EBay, prosecutors charged Thursday. Denning McTague, who runs a website that sells rare books, worked at a National Archives and Records Administration site in Philadelphia last summer, prosecutors said.

The only old things in the Getty Villa's graduate student laboratories are the artworks. The six students -- one from Turkey, the others from the east and west coasts of the U.S. -- are just embarking on their careers. They are the first to enroll in a new master's degree program in archeological and ethnographic conservation offered by the Cotsen Institute of Archeology at UCLA and the J. Paul Getty Trust.

The bubbly, blue-eyed college freshman wasn't sure how a Disneyland internship would fit in with her primary field of study, psychology. But then, the Cinderella wannabe attending a recent Cal State Fullerton job fair didn't much care. "It's been a lifelong dream to work at Disneyland," said Chelsea Rook, 18, who was seeking a seasonal service post at the park. "Any way I could get in the door would work. If the internship turned into a full-time job, even better."

Rules designed to prevent doctors in training from having to work hours on end with little sleep have failed to reform the practice. Eighty percent of interns say they violate mandatory standards limiting them to working no more than 30 hours in a row and no more than 80 hours in a week, averaged over four weeks, according to a survey of more than 4,000 U.S. interns. The study was published in the Sept. 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

The Board of Supervisors voted Wednesday to develop a paid internship program to recruit and hire recent military veterans for county jobs. The plan, introduced by Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe, requests the county's chief administrative officer and personnel director to work with department heads and veterans organizations to find suitable candidates. Officials are scheduled to submit a plan within six months.

Re "Get real," editorial, June 7 Today's graduates may have unrealistic expectations about their careers, but who can blame them? Forcefully prodded by overeager parents, recent graduates are, on average, far more accomplished than previous generations. Having packed their "free time" with resume-building internships, athletics, advanced courses and volunteer work, their school years have been tremendously busy and demanding. I encourage the editorial writers to take a look at the admissions standards of their alma maters.

After staying up all night to care for ailing patients, medical interns who drive home from the hospital at the end of a marathon shift become a threat to themselves and to the commuting public, according to a study published in today's New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers found that interns more than doubled their risk of getting into a car accident after being on call, a stint that meant working for 32 consecutive hours with only two or three hours of sleep, on average.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's eldest son will intern for a U.S. congressional committee, Blair's office said. Euan Blair, 21, will take a short, unpaid internship with the House Rules Committee, a spokesman said. He did not specify when the internship would start. The Rules Committee is chaired by Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas). The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that Dreier would mentor Euan Blair, whose father leads Britain's Labor Party.