FALLOUT: Thousands of teachers will be put...

FALLOUT: Thousands of teachers will be put out of work, and some campuses may even have to shut down if Prop. 187 passes and is enforced, Los Angeles Unified School District officials say (B1). . . . Board of Education President Mark Slavkin said Friday that the district stands to lose up to $628 million in federal funds. “This is very real for all students,” Slavkin said. “There is no surplus, no savings, no extra money generated for schools to use.”

POPE’S PROSE: Pope John Paul II’s new book, “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” which arrived at bookstores Thursday, should help “humanize him as a figure,” says Gabriel Meyer, associate editor of the National Catholic Register, an Encino-based weekly. . . . The Pope shares very personal stories about his youth, Meyer said, showing “he is not just a law and order man.”

NEW WEAPON: Often left in the dark in their war against gangs, police in Van Nuys Friday took possession of a new, high-tech weapon widely employed in the Persian Gulf War--night vision scopes that will give them sharper, lighter images (B1). . . . “One of the problems has been that they have seen us before we see them,” says Van Nuys Captain James McMurray. “I think we just changed the balance.”