Names

Don Spencer stepped into the recess of his bay window and stared at the rooftops terraced beneath him, all the way to the sea. He spoke of a childhood easy to imagine but difficult, by now, to re-create. Spencer's early days were spent tumbling in the local surf break, his evenings cavorting through the dunes, the sand strafing his ankles, the same song, it seemed, spilling some nights through the windows of the neighborhood bungalows: "Vaya con Dios, my darling; Vaya con Dios, my love."

California Speedway will become Auto Club Speedway today under a naming-rights agreement between the track and the Auto Club of Southern California, track President Gillian Zucker said. The auto-services club already is the title sponsor of Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the Fontana track, the Auto Club 500, which is one of two Cup races the speedway hosts each season.

Almost 35 years have passed since a Ford Mustang named Eleanor tore up the streets of the South Bay in the cinematic crash-fest "Gone in 60 Seconds." The crudely crafted indie flick found a cult audience and inspired a 2000 big-budget sequel starring Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie and, of course, a vintage Mustang named Eleanor.

The Los Angeles Free Clinic will change its name next month to the Saban Free Clinic in honor of a $10-million donation, the largest in the clinic's 41-year history, from philanthropists Haim and Cheryl Saban. The gift, which the clinic plans to announce today, will be used to create an endowment, said clinic co-director Abbe Land.

OMG! Seeking to capitalize on its TV fame as America's quintessential suburb, Orange County moved to rename its government functions Tuesday with slicked-up, simplified names to remind everyone of exactly where they are: The OC! County supervisors voted to rename 11 departments and agencies and create two new ones, all with the "OC" brand made famous by the now-defunct television show of the same name, thus jettisoning the clunky bureaucratic nomenclature of the past.

It was the 4 1/2 minutes that forever changed the California Highway Patrol. Thirty-eight years ago today, four CHP officers died in a fierce gunfight with a pair of heavily armed motorists outside a Valencia coffee shop after a seemingly routine traffic stop.

Environmentalist Roy van de Hoek was hauled into court and threatened with prison the last time he tried to eradicate an invasive, nonnative plant in Los Angeles' endangered Ballona Wetlands area. So it's no surprise that the 51-year-old biologist is treading lightly these days as he tries to remove another nonnative from a tiny park at the edge of the sensitive nature preserve. This time the intruder is a hand-painted sign reading "Titmouse Park" that was planted there 20 years ago.

In addition to the likes of .com and .net, the Internet might soon have Web addresses ending in .fun, .cars and .prettymuchanythingyouwant. Heralding the most dramatic expansion of virtual real estate in 40 years, the international group controlling Internet addresses decided Thursday to let anyone apply to be in charge of new last names for the Web. The Internet Corp.

Nearly a month after Charter Oak High School began investigating how fake names for members of the Black Student Union and other students were published in the yearbook, school officials are still looking for a way to resolve the controversy. Administrators at the Covina school will meet with BSU members and their families Monday to determine the best solution, said Principal Kathleen Wiard.

What's in a name? A lot, at least at two engineering schools in Southern California named after high-tech billionaire and generous donor Henry Samueli. The Samueli name could be stripped from engineering schools at UCLA and UC Irvine as a result of his recent guilty plea to a felony charge of lying to financial regulators. A review of the issue is being launched by the University of California's general counsel, officials said.