Jeffrey Walden

Mayor Richard Riordan on Thursday appointed a veteran staffer who has promoted economic development in South Los Angeles to head his Business Team. Jeffery Walden, who helped bring Magic Johnson Theatres and the Crenshaw Sav-on Shopping Center to South Los Angeles, replaces Alfonso Salazar, who recently left the mayor's office. The appointment of Walden--a Los Angeles native and member of the Black Business Assn.

Mayor Richard Riordan on Thursday appointed a veteran staffer who has promoted economic development in South Los Angeles to head his Business Team. Jeffery Walden, who helped bring Magic Johnson Theatres and the Crenshaw Sav-on Shopping Center to South Los Angeles, replaces Alfonso Salazar, who recently left the mayor's office. The appointment of Walden--a Los Angeles native and member of the Black Business Assn.

How many deputy mayors work for Los Angeles? Could it be four? Maybe six? Nine? Did someone say 12? Ask around at City Hall, and the answer is all of the above. Or, depending on whom you ask, none of the above. "What do we have, four?" Mayor Richard Riordan wondered. "Plus the chief of staff? Well, no, let's see. You have Ann D'Amato, Jennifer Roth, Bill Violante, Rocky Delgadillo. That's right. We have five." Sounds a little like four, but who's counting?

There is an electrical current running through Sophia Gabbidon, but it comes as no shock to the 30-year-old Hartford, Conn., woman. It's just a tiny trickle of juice. She can't feel it, but it's enough to tell the medical staff at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center how well her heart is pumping. "I think it's great," said Gabbidon, who was diagnosed in July with congestive heart failure, a condition in which the heart pumps inefficiently.