Minority

The most ambitious federal mortgage program to date aimed at millions of underwater homeowners is poised to take off in the coming two weeks, yet some key issues could hinder borrower participation. One of them involves something most owners know nothing about: Who was your mortgage insurer on your underwater loan? Though it was announced by the Obama administration late last year, "HARP 2.0" — the second version of the Home Affordable Refinance Program — will finally hit full stride around the middle of this month, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac finish tweaking their automated underwriting systems to accept applications, and lenders and mortgage insurance companies start handling large volumes of requests.

A man was recovering Monday after a fight in a Dodger Stadium parking lot following Sunday's game, renewing questions about how quickly and effectively security responds once a game ends. The fight began about 9 p.m. after a minor traffic accident. According to Los Angeles police, Arthur Morales, 30, knocked the victim to the ground while his pregnant girlfriend watched, stunned. At that point, Morales' friends got out of the vehicle and joined in. "They held the victim down on the ground and ... the fourth one kicked and punched him in the head," LAPD Cmdr.

Watching Alzheimer's disease steal away the memory, talents and very selves of its victims is hard enough for the people who love them. Now, a new pill formulated by a respected pharmaceutical company and approved by the Food and Drug Administration will do little to help most patients and will bring misery to some, say two medical investigators. The drug, Aricept 23 mg, is no more effective on the whole than the disappointing ones already on the market - but is more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems, wrote Drs. Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical College in an article published Thursday in the medical journal BMJ. The new formulation was devised to serve commercial objectives, they say, and was approved despite a poor showing in company-sponsored tests.

SAN DIEGO - After six seasons in the minor leagues, Jim Eppard finally got the call to the Angels. In his first major league at-bat, on Sept. 8, 1987, he singled - off current Angels broadcaster Mark Gubicza. In his second at-bat, two days later, he singled again. Two hits, two at-bats, each as a pinch-hitter. This Eppard kid might have a pretty good future. Or, as it turned out, he might not. Eppard - who replaced Mickey Hatcher, the Angels' hitting instructor who was let go Tuesday - finished his brief major league career with 139 at-bats.

I belong to a minority. When the light turns yellow, I slow down and stop. PAUL E. HEESCHEN, Woodland Hills

Many of L.A.'s black leaders gathered in Exposition Park one recent drizzly morning to sound a warning. Hard-won political gains were under attack, they said, in the once-in-a-decade redrawing of California's voting districts. There were references to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and exhortations to "let your voice be heard. " The leaders urged their audience to lodge protests with the citizen group formed at voters' behest to create the new political maps. As the California Citizens Redistricting Commission hurtles toward the deadline for finishing its task, which was formerly done by the Legislature, it has heard plenty from individuals and civic and business groups objecting to the way things are going.

Ron Paul, fresh from his second-place finish in New Hampshire, treated an adoring and cheering South Carolina crowd to a lesson on how to bring the nation back to what he said are the core constitutional principles of a dramatically scaled-down federal government. “We had a victory for the cause of liberty last night,” he said. The Texas congressman told the crowd of about 350 people in an aviation hangar near the Columbia Metropolitan Airport that his support was expanding beyond “a tireless irate minority.” “We're marching on. The numbers are growing.

Thank you for John Balzar's understanding and insightful review of John Hockenberry's "Moving Violations" on the cover of today's Book Review section. But as a long-time wheelchair user myself, I was somewhat put off by the review's title, "A Minority of One." Fact is, the U.S. government estimates some 49 million Americans have a disability--making us the single largest minority group in the country! Ironically, Balzar astutely points out: "Hockenberry tells an intimate, personal story about a minority group for which each of us remains fully eligible."

Tom Soto's thoughtful article, "Ecological Issues Come in All Colors" (Commentary, Oct. 8), articulated a vital but little understood fact: that environmental matters are not exclusively the domain of the wealthy or of backpackers. While minorities have not been joiners of traditional environmental organizations, our environmentalism is personal and cultural. Our cultures value nature and respect the land. We are taught to venerate our elders, whether it's our grandparents or ancient trees.

The White House announced Tuesday, somewhat belatedly, that President Reagan has designated this week National Minority Cancer Awareness Week.

SAN DIEGO -- Matt Kemp is expected to be ready to play again when he is eligible to be activated from the 15-day disabled list on May 29, according to trainer Sue Falsone. “That is our goal,” Falsone said. Kemp was placed on the disabled list Monday with a strained left hamstring. The next day, Kemp received an injection of platelet-rich plasma. He had blood drawn and spun to isolate the platelets, which clot and promote healing. The platelets were injected into the site of the injury.

This is how all new beginnings should be. All energy and smiles and positive vibes. Stan Kasten is on the move and taking it all in. He's greeting season-ticket holders as they enter the stadium. He's meeting with ushers, security personnel and ticket takers. He's walking the loge, the reserved and the field levels. He's talking to fans and ushers and complete strangers, and welcoming them all to Dodger Stadium. An attractive woman walks up and hugs the new team president.

DENVER — On the Dodgers' most recent day off, reliever Josh Lindblom visited the Dream Center in Echo Park, which offers residential drug rehabilitation programs and other services. Later on Thursday, he distributed food on skid row and took 15 to 20 homeless people to church. There weren't any news cameras or reporters around. "I'd be sitting at home anyways," Lindblom said. "It's a small, small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things. It was one of the most fulfilling days I've had all season.

Into baseball's landscape of dumb and dumber, you now have to add right-hander Angel Guzman.   Maybe the name is not sending off alarms of recognition, nor should it really. Guzman was a Dodgers' non-roster invite to spring training this spring. He appeared in five games and pitched well. He did not allow a run in 5 1/3 innings, with one hit and walk and two strikeouts. He did not make the club, and going way out on a limb here, I'm thinking he won't be anytime soon.

Fourteen months after the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, a new Egypt is still a work in progress -- or possibly regress. The opposition that swelled Cairo's Tahrir Square has fractured into Islamist and secular factions. The Islamist-dominated parliament continues to compete for influence with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. And last week a presidential election scheduled for May was thrown into confusion. First an administrative court suspended the work of a 100-member assembly charged with writing a new constitution, raising the possibility that a president will be elected before the nature of the new Egyptian state is defined.

SACRAMENTO — Halsey M. Minor, the Cnet co-founder and a high-tech business pioneer of the 1990s, tops the state of California's latest list of its 500 biggest income-tax delinquents. Minor and his wife, Shannon, both of San Francisco, owe California $10.5 million, tax officials reported Friday. Minor did not respond to telephone messages seeking comment. Minor's wasn't the only quickly recognizable name on the state list. Former Playboy model and "Baywatch" actress Pamela D. Anderson of Woodland Hills owes $524,241 in state income taxes, the list says.

With her party firmly in power, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) didn't think enough attention was being paid to the economic troubles of minorities. So she did what she's often done during her long political career: She got in her colleagues' faces. Waters recently led a boycott by black lawmakers of a House committee vote on a Wall Street regulatory overhaul bill -- a priority of President Obama's. "They got the message," Waters said. The bill, approved by the House on Friday with Waters' support, included a number of measures she had sought: $3 billion in low-interest loans for unemployed homeowners facing foreclosure, $1 billion to help communities hit hard by foreclosures buy and renovate abandoned properties, and a provision to create an "office of minority and women inclusion" at the Treasury Department and other federal agencies.

I would like to add an anecdote to Adrienne Mack's insightful article on LAUSD's awful hiring practices ("When Experience Doesn't Pay," July 21). During spring of 1995, my school, Cleveland Humanities Magnet, tried to hire one of Mack's esteemed Birmingham compatriots. She was a quality teacher, experienced in teaching mathematics, well credentialed and also an Academic Decathlon coach. In addition, she was Irani. We at Cleveland have a growing Irani student population, and we had absolutely no Irani teachers.

Steady rain all but canceled Friday afternoon's one-hour practice session for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Reigning Izod IndyCar Champion Dario Franchitti drove one lap around the 1.97-mile course on the city's seaside streets, then pulled his car in for the day. Scott Dixon, his teammate at Target Chip Ganassi Racing, also attempted a lap but hit a large patch of standing water, spun and crashed lightly into the wall. No other drivers went out on the 11-turn course.

Neither Major League Baseball nor Fox Sports plans to try to stop the sale of the Dodgers, virtually assuring that the deal will receive court approval on Friday. MLB and Fox, the Dodgers' two most formidable combatants in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, expressed relatively minor concerns on Tuesday, the deadline for parties to object to the sale. Frank McCourt, the Dodgers' outgoing owner, agreed last month to sell the team to Guggenheim Baseball Management for $2 billion. MLB has been frustrated by what it considers a lack of information about that transaction -- and a separate one in which McCourt and Guggenheim will jointly own the Dodger Stadium parking lots.