Rookie Season

The Florida Marlins may be the champs of professional baseball, but they’ve got nothing on freshman Assemblyman Robert M. Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys.

Hertzberg last week boasted that he batted 1.000 in his rookie season with the Sacramento Legislators all 13 of his bills that landed on the governor’s desk were signed into law.

Hertzberg was quick to add that he also won the chairmanship of the powerful Assembly Public Safety Committee.

“I expected to be a back-bencher sitting in the second row of the Agriculture Committee,” said Hertzberg.

Knocking on Death’s Door

Already well known for teaching students how to keep things alive in its agricultural department, Pierce College in Woodland Hills is now turning its attention to the other end of the life cycle.

President Bing Inocencio has proposed that the community college offer a degree in mortuary science.

“There is certainly steady employment in this field,” Inocencio said. “People forget that mortuary work is an honorable, well-paid occupation.”

The mortuary science degree is one of 16 new career programs that Inocencio proposed to better prepare students for entry into the workforce. Not surprisingly, the mortuary science degree is getting a strong reaction.

“I’ve had businessmen ask me incredulously about this degree,” Inocencio said. “I explain that as a college president, it is my job to spot opportunities for my students. Mortuary science is simply one of them.”