Playgrounds

Susan Kang Schroeder ticked off the facts of the case: A man bought a 5-year-old girl from Vietnam, used her as a sex slave for more than a decade and forced her to invite over friends whom he molested during sleepovers. "She was made to do every possible sex act," Schroeder said with a bluntness she honed as a prosecutor. But this wasn't a jury. It was the seven members of the Huntington Beach City Council. And if the aim of the Orange County district attorney's chief of staff was to grab their attention with the story of one of the county's most notorious pedophiles, it worked.

When the bell rang at Cesar Chavez Elementary School signaling the start of recess Monday, a swarm of students rushed onto the blacktop and without instructions broke off into groups. Two girls jumped rope, a dozen or so third- and fourth-graders played handball and others kicked a soccer ball. Noticeably absent was the tug-of-war that typically arises when two students want to play with the same thing. Here, students use the game rock, paper, scissors to settle disputes.

Last fall, a state inspector strode into Great Beginnings preschool and declared the tree house and climbing structure too high. They would have to come down or be surrounded by extra padding. The metal ladder to the playhouse, which had been there 30 years, could pinch the children, said Beverly Wright-Chrystal, a state child care licensing representative. Also, a log worn smooth by generations of boys and girls playing horsy and hide-and-go-seek would have to be sanded and painted because of a potential "splinter hazard," Wright-Chrystal determined.

The Rat Pack lives again -- or at least Palm Springs, once the party pad of Sinatra and the boys, does. The Coachella Valley city, which had devolved into a caricature of a Hollywood playground, has reinvented itself: Its retro-chic look, striking scenery and hip hotels and restaurants are drawing a new generation of visitors. And, of course, there's always the weather, a tourist attraction on its own (in winter, anyway). The city prides itself on having 350 days of sunshine a year, a siren song that plays loudly and clearly in Canada and other frosty North America realms in the depths of winter.

When it comes to fostering the well-being of preschoolers, one thing society should fear is fear itself. Lively image to the contrary, 3- to 5-year-olds spend most of their time in preschool sitting down. As for running, jumping, climbing, sliding, riding a tricycle — 2% of the time. This is of special concern when you consider that three-fourths of this age group attend preschool in this country. A study published last week in the journal Pediatrics reveals a scary reason why preschools have become centers of inactivity: Adults, including parents, preschool staff and bureaucrats, are scared.

Playground The Mostly True Story of a Former Bully 50 Cent with Laura Moser Razorbill: 242 pp., $18.99, ages 12 and up The boy who grew up to be the gangster-rap superstar 50 Cent has been more than open about his troubled youth. Raised by a single mother, who dealt cocaine and was murdered when he was just 12, 50 Cent started dealing drugs and carrying guns in middle school. But that isn't the story he tells in his young-adult debut, "Playground: The Mostly True Story of a Former Bully.

A grassy 30-acre park opened in the port community of Wilmington on Saturday, prompting cheers from residents who had successfully blocked the construction of a gigantic sound wall that they feared would hem them in from the sea. Instead of building a mile-long, 20-foot-high barrier to serve as a buffer between homes and the rows of cargo containers and cranes at the Port of Los Angeles, port officials ended up constructing the $55-million Wilmington...

A new front in the struggle between Jerusalem's secular and ultra-Orthodox communities has opened in a tiny nursery school playground, where city officials have drawn what might be called a line in the sandbox. In response to complaints from ultra-Orthodox parents, officials last week erected a fence dividing the playground in two, separating pupils at a secular school from those at an adjacent Orthodox one. The fence was torn down Tuesday nigth, probably by secular parents unhappy about the division, leaving city officials to ponder their next move.

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Question: I live in a town house with a tennis court. Children also live here and use the courts to run around in and underneath the nets, treating it as a playground. These children do not play tennis and they are not accompanied by adults. I complained to the board but was informed there is a new California law that prohibits discrimination against children. I am not discriminating against them, I just don't want damage done to the court or complex, whether caused by an adult or a child.