END-OF-THE-WEEK-RUMINATIONS: "LATEXTRA"

       A couple of the great young female journalists who made the LATEXTRA section sing (see Friday) are Nita Lelyveld and Kate Linthicum.  The kind of living stories of people in L.A. they told I don't want squeezed out of the renewed California section the Times is starting up.

       We need the down-to-earth identifiable reality of those stories for the reporters to grab ahold of and us readers to sink our hearts into.  I suggest reading this Judy Woodruff piece to get my view but from a true reporter; it's called "The News in Our Backyard."

       Yes, "California" shows promise with its widening scope to include heretofore undercovered, important regional and state-wide news.  Just leave room for the the soul of L.A. so we can recognize ourselves.