TOUGH IN POCKET: It’s Week 7 in...

TOUGH IN POCKET: It’s Week 7 in the NFL, and many questions remain: Can the Cowboys threepeat? Are the Chargers for real? Can Lonnie Lardner take a hit? Who? Lonnie Lardner, the Sherman Oaks reporter who does human-interest stories for Fox’s NFL pregame show. Some critics have called them puff pieces. . . . “Yes, I can take a hit,” she says. “Human interest is my specialty, and I like football better knowing the players.”

FAR OUT: Sheriff’s Deputies Randy McNary and Bill Axelrod patrol a long, lonely beat--from Santa Clarita all the way out to the Kern County line (B1). . . . Bright lights and big city are miles away, and so are urban problems. “I went to one house, basically to tell a 10-year-old boy he has to go to bed,” Axelrod says. “I couldn’t believe it.”

FACE TO VASE: A Goodwill Industries employee, Rose Ruiz (above) can’t resist checking out a vase at the company’s Preferred Merchandise Sale, where not-your-average discards were snatched up by hundreds of shoppers who waited for doors to open Saturday morning (B1). . . . Spode china, Rolex watches--all were on sale below retail.

WARM RECEPTION: Charlie Arango’s accomplishment in a football game Friday night was well-recorded, with cameras from three local television stations rolling as the Birmingham High senior, who is missing his left hand, made his first reception of the season (C14). . . . But it was nothing new for his teammates. “Charlie makes that catch all the time in practice,” said Tony Nichols, one of his closest friends on the team.

PROTEST MARCH: A rally in support of jailed former Los Angeles Police Officers Laurence M. Powell and Stacey C. Koon drew more than 200 people to Canyon Country on Saturday (B8). . . . Demonstrators protested a court ruling that prison terms be increased for the two men for their role in the Rodney G. King beating.