MEDFLY MEAL: While the helicopters are loading...

MEDFLY MEAL: While the helicopters are loading malathion for aerial spraying tonight (B1), Medfly task force members will be loading up on burritos and salsa at a restaurant in the flight path. . . . After learning that Camarillo’s El Tecolote Cafe lost business in the first round of spraying, members of the Fruitfly Action Cooperative Taskforce decided to dine there tonight. “We’re a group of volunteers, and people keep asking me, ‘How can I help?’ ” spokeswoman Elisabeth Brokaw said.

CHILDREN’S CRUSADE: Just the thought of it overwhelms Oxnard school officials--a mass walkout planned at all five Oxnard high schools to protest Proposition 187 (B5). . . . They had enough trouble containing the 200 students who marched out of Rio Mesa High School last week. But that’s nothing compared to what L. A. County is facing: a protest that could involve districts throughout the county. The Nov. 2 event is being staged by the same group that mustered 70,000 protesters for a march against the initiative to bar illegal immigrants from public services.

SIGN LANGUAGE: They asked for speed bumps. The county wouldn’t oblige. They asked for better enforcement. Still the cars kept barreling down Sylvan Drive, a winding country lane just outside Simi Valley. . . . So the residents took matters into their own hands, posting a pair of creative, yellow signs on the dead-end street. “There’s no reason to be driving so fast on this street,” resident Cheryl Stangeland said.

RELIEF AT LAST: Last year, the money bought 444,507 meals and 18,655 nights of lodging for Ventura County residents. But United Way officials worried that federal emergency food and shelter funds would dry up this year. . . . Tuesday they learned that the $504,629 check is in the mail, down just 1% from 1993. Now, organizers just have to decide how to divvy up the money. Organizations can submit applications until Nov. 16. For information, call 485-6288.