Schedules

A proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to shorten the school year by five days is creating panic among educators across California, who say they barely have enough time to fit the state's academic standards into the existing 180-day calendar. The idea to cut funding equivalent to five school days would save $1.1 billion at a time when California faces a massive budget deficit. But state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell called the proposal "devastating."

Boeing Co., citing unresolved production problems, said Wednesday that it would be unable to deliver its first 787 Dreamliner passenger plane until early 2009 -- more than nine months later than it had promised airlines. The latest holdup marks another embarrassing setback for Boeing, which had insisted even as recently as last month that there would be no further delays after having pushed back delivery of the first 787 by six months in October.

Major League Soccer released its schedule for the 2008 season Thursday and it brought a sigh of relief from the Galaxy and David Beckham. Unlike last season when the Galaxy had to pack 19 MLS games, including 12 on the road, into 12 weeks in order to showcase its English midfield star after his mid-July arrival, this year will provide much smoother sailing on the Beckham Tour Part II. Beckham said earlier this week that he expects 2008 to be much less hectic.

How safe is it to fly these days? By most measures, it has never been safer. The only major fatal airline accident in the U.S. in the last seven years was the 2006 crash of a Comair plane in Kentucky as it attempted to take off on the wrong runway. Forty-nine people died. But the American Airlines safety inspection debacle and the grounding Wednesday of scores of planes didn't make fliers feel very secure.

Overwhelmed by a flood of citizenship applications, some immigration offices in Southern California are staying open on weekends to get though a backlog of more than 180,000 people hoping to become U.S. citizens. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Anaheim is doing naturalization interviews on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday interviews are also available at the East Los Angeles and San Bernardino offices.

Californians can be thankful the state held its presidential primary on the earliest day legally possible. And Hillary Rodham Clinton should be especially grateful. Clinton probably wouldn't even be in the race today if California had not rescued her candidacy way back on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, by delivering a timely victory that helped keep her afloat. The Pennsylvania primary Tuesday likely would have been irrelevant.

Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos may run a movie studio, but these days they often feel more like traffic cops, making sure 20th Century Fox's releases don't crash into rival films at the multiplex. To help them through the congestion, the movie chiefs pore over slick white boards in their offices cluttered with color-coded magnetic strips showing the titles of films set for release through 2010. Like chess players in a high-stakes game, they shift films around hoping to outmaneuver rivals.

Aliso Viejo: Community festival with live entertainment, bounce houses, face painting, games and apple pie contest begins at 6 p.m. Fireworks at dusk. Grand Park, 26703 Aliso Creek Road. (949) 243-7411 or www.avca.net -- Anaheim: Canyon Hills Community Council's 4th of July Walk/Run check-in at 5:30 a.m., with celebration and festivities at 12:30 p.m. Canyon High School Parade at 3 p.m. Fireworks at 9 p.m. Peralta Canyon Park, 115 N. Pinney Drive. www.chccanaheim.

Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) recently wandered around Capitol Hill armed with a video camera and a question: Why do we vote on Tuesdays? "Um. . . . " That was the response from most people -- even lawmakers. "Don't be embarrassed if you don't know the answer," Israel reassured his perplexed interviewees. "Hardly anybody does, including most members of Congress."