CANCELED CHECKS: Police won’t be operating any...

CANCELED CHECKS: Police won’t be operating any sobriety checkpoints in the Valley during the holidays. The reason? No money. Budget restrictions permit only one per month, which was already conducted at a cost of $7,500 and involved 11 officers for an eight-hour shift. . . . But scofflaws should beware--police say they still will place extra patrols at Valley spots with an historically high incidence of drunk driving.

PERFECT TIMING: “Schindler’s List,” the much-anticipated Steven Spielberg film opening today about an industrialist who rescued Jews during the Holocaust (E1), is very timely, says one Valley resident who survived the Nazi death camps. . . . “When we see what’s happening in Bosnia, it’s important to know that humanity can triumph,” says Si Frumkin, 63, of Studio City, who was 14 when the Allies liberated Dachau in 1945. Frumkin found the picture gripping, but worries that “people are resistant to seeing films about the Holocaust.”

TIMBER! Nobody was thrilled to watch a worker, above, take a chain saw to a centuries-old towering oak in the rear parking lot of Encino Town Center mall. . . . But the city Board of Public Works, after consulting tree experts, decided the oak’s declining health made the city liable for damages if it fell (B2).

FEARS AND TEARS: Schoolchildren, bombarded with constant reminders of the Valley molester, now see him in their nightmares. Said one child: “He chased me, but I woke up before he could get me. I don’t want to see him in real life.” See Street Beat, B2

SAFETY TIPS: Hoping to protect kids from the current molester threat as well as to teach them how to live in an increasingly dangerous world, police offer tips to parents on everything from establishing family code words to keeping doors locked. See Valley Briefing, B5