Malia

Four blocks in downtown Oxnard were evacuated early Thursday after a road construction crew accidentally gouged a hole in a high-pressure natural gas main with a backhoe. Authorities evacuated about 50 people from homes and stores around the leaking 2-inch diameter pipe in the intersection of C and 6th streets for more than an hour after the 7:30 a.m. incident. Firefighters also shut off four potential sources of ignition in the area.

Sen. Barack Obama is not president, but one of his daughters has plans for the White House. "I enjoy decorating," 10-year-old Malia told NBC's "Access Hollywood" during the Obama family's first interview last weekend. "So I get this whole new room to do whatever I want." That was one of the cute, candid revelations by the Obama girls -- Malia and her 7-year-old sister, Sasha -- who until now have been kept out of the spotlight.

A fire early Saturday destroyed six large trailers loaded with donated clothing and forced the evacuation of two dozen guests at the Wagon Wheel Motor Inn, authorities said. The blaze began shortly after 1 a.m. in the 2700 block of Buckaroo Avenue and took 30 firefighters more than two hours to douse, said Mike O'Malia, a battalion chief for the Oxnard Fire Department. Damage to the trailers, owned by Goodwill Industries, topped $120,000, authorities said.

A homeless man who spent the last few weeks sleeping on a shabby yellow couch a few feet from the railroad tracks opposite an Oxnard rescue mission was crushed Tuesday by a train, police and witnesses said. Oxnard firefighters found Ralph Beyer's body pinned beneath a railroad car about 3:30 p.m. Next to Beyer were a blue sleeping bag, a near-empty case of beer and sections of a crushed yellow couch, Oxnard Fire Capt. Mike O'Malia said.

Malia and Sasha Obama are headed for the Washington-area private Quaker school that Chelsea Clinton attended, aides to the future first family confirmed Friday. The Obamas picked Sidwell Friends School, where Vice President-elect Joe Biden's granddaughters also attend. The school is known for its rigorous standards and for educating children from some of Washington's most prominent and wealthy families. It is also the alma mater of President Nixon's daughters and Al Gore's son.

An 18-year-old Oxnard man was struck by a train engine Thursday as he stood talking to friends and waiting to cross railroad tracks at the intersection of Hemlock Street and Patterson Road, authorities said. Lundy Joel Prince suffered only bruises and back pain in the 2 p.m. incident in west Oxnard. He was taken by ambulance to St. Johns Regional Medical Center where he was treated and released, police officials said. The train engine, a locomotive owned by the Ventura County Railroad Co.

Paul Orfalea, who grew a single copy shop into the giant Kinko's Inc. chain, has pledged $2.5 million to the University of Southern California to endow the Kinko's Chair in Entrepreneurship. A graduate of USC's Marshall School of Business, Orfalea was named 1997 Entrepreneur of the Year by USC's Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Thomas O'Malia, director of the center, will be the first holder of the endowed chair. Privately held Ventura-based Kinko's has 900 sites.

Clueless about Hawaii? The Volcano Radio podcast, www.volcanoradio.com, will steer you to places that those lucky enough to live in the islands know about. What's hot: The podcast is a little tourism and a lot island culture -- slack key guitar, pollution in the Ala Wai Canal in Waikiki, the scene in Chinatown, learning to surf in Waikiki. Husband-and-wife hosts Stewart Yerton and Malia Boyd keep things low-key and conversational.

With painstaking care, a team of scuba divers from the Oxnard Police and Fire departments searched the depths near Channel Islands Harbor on Monday for the body of presumed drowning victim Alex Cabrera, 15. Alex disappeared into the surf on Friday while swimming with two friends at Oxnard State Beach near the Embassy Suites Hotel. A novice swimmer, Alex apparently was caught in the rough surf churned by a north wind and a south swell.