FRIENDLIER SKIES: It just got less expensive...

FRIENDLIER SKIES: It just got less expensive to fly from LAX to the San Francisco Bay Area--but it’s still cheaper to leave from Burbank. USAir and United slashed weekday LAX-San Francisco fares to $89 one way (D1). . . . Burbank Airport’s busiest carrier, Southwest Airlines, already offers $69 tickets to Oakland or San Jose.

NO GNU: Artistic director Jeff Seymour is closing his award-winning Gnu Theatre in North Hollywood because of the poor economy and because he wants to build a sound stage in North Hollywood to shoot a movie. . . . Seymour says, however, that he’ll return to live theater eventually. (Morning Report, F2)

CHEWBACCA BACK: A vanished Rottweiler named Chewbacca is back at the North Hollywood offices of Actors and Others for Animals, thanks to a Good Samaritan from the Antelope Valley (B3). . . . His suspicions aroused when a “scroungy” couple offered him the valuable-looking dog for $100, Steve Roach paid $50 and traced ownership through an ID number tattooed on Chewbacca’s leg. . . . It was a profitable move. The animal-loving actors paid a $1,000 reward for their mascot.

WASTE NOT: Local government recycling programs have expanded rapidly. In 1988, there were 1,000 nationwide. Four years later, there were 4,000. . . . In the Valley, 268,000 households are part of Los Angeles’ recycling effort to comply with a state law requiring cities to reduce landfill waste by 25% by 1995. See Valley Briefing (B5).