Quarries

California's great peaks--Whitney, Shasta, Mammoth Mountain--dwarf tiny Mt. Slover. Even a century ago, before miners blasted so much of it away, Mt. Slover was scarcely more than a molehill. It stood 700 feet tall, base to summit, on an arid plain in what is now Colton. The mountain's size and shape have been vastly altered. Nearly 100 million tons of rock have been carved away, leaving a steep, conical mound gouged with terraces. The flattened summit is now 300 feet high.

On that gleaming Italian coastline beside the Mare Ligure, where the bright Crayola colors of Viareggio's summer cabanas blaze against the seascape, the Appenine Mountains tumble down about the shore. As they approach Pisa to the south, they pause to plant creamy stone togas in solid massifs of rock. These ranges, wintry-white all year, are mountains of marble. Chippings from many millennia form the great quarries of Massa, Carrera, Querceta.

A federal judge approved plans Monday for a mine that would extract 56.1 million tons of sand and gravel from a canyon near Santa Clarita, despite the objections of environmental groups and local governments. Opponents say the project would adversely affect air quality, traffic and water supplies in north Los Angeles County. The decision was hailed as a victory by Brian Mastin, spokesman for the Mexican concrete company Cemex, which holds the federal mineral rights for the project.

A decision by a federal judge in Los Angeles is expected today on a consent decree that would allow a Mexican concrete company to build a gravel mine near Santa Clarita. Long opposed to the project, the city of Santa Clarita recently won the right to intervene in a lawsuit that the company, Cemex Inc., brought against Los Angeles County after the Board of Supervisors blocked the project in February 2002. City officials are planning a protest outside the Roybal Federal Building at 10 a.m.

Most people can tell you exactly where they were when the bus and all those children disappeared. In the way of small towns, the connections to that dark moment are personal. Lois Rambo, who runs the lunch counter at Pioneer Market Cafe in Chowchilla, says her daughter would have been on that bus if she hadn't stayed home sick from school that day. Jodi Heffington Medrano, who owns a salon on the square, was one of the children who disappeared. Photos: Chowchilla kidnappings Even those who weren't born yet can't remember a time when they didn't know the story of the Chowchilla kidnappings.

Every Sunday, the weavers of the Oaxaca Valley travel to the weekly market in Tlacolula to sell their handmade wool rugs. Working our way through crowded streets, past vendors selling freshly plucked chickens, exotic peppers and homemade mescal, my wife, Lietza, and I found the renowned artisans on a quiet side street.

Three workers fell into a stone-crushing machine today at a quarry near Washington-Dulles International Airport and two of the men died, authorities said. The third worker at the Loudoun Quarries escaped with minor injuries.

After weeks of slow-speed pursuit, the Cleveland Indians have finally passed the Oakland Athletics in the American League wild-card race. Manny Ramirez homered and drove in three runs Tuesday night in a 14-6 rout of the Athletics at Cleveland. "It's good to be in first," said Indian Manager Charlie Manuel, who can be forgiven for the faulty arithmetic. Cleveland remains 7 1/2 games behind Chicago in the AL Central. "But we have to go out there and play just as hard tomorrow."

Zero was the number of the day at Poly High on Wednesday as the host Parrots disposed of Valley Pac-8 Conference rival Birmingham, 2-0. Pitcher Eddie Castellanos improved his Valley-leading record to 6-0 and his team improved its flawless conference record to 7-0. But the zeroes on the scoreboard weren't the only ones. The oftentimes spectacular Poly defense committed zero errors behind Castellanos, who pitched a seven-hitter to notch his fifth complete game.

Terri H. Sargeant interrupted her career to care for two small children in a spacious new two-story house in Cowan Hills, a neighborhood in east Orange where property values are at a premium and tranquility is assured.