MAKEOVER: The waiting is over for the...

MAKEOVER: The waiting is over for the folks at the Crown Cork & Seal Co. beverage can plant in Van Nuys, and it was worth it. That’s because the company’s headquarters in Philadelphia will spend $37 million to rebuild the plant, which was damaged in the quake. . . . “It’s great news,” said plant manager Donald Queen. “There was no guarantee they wouldn’t close it.”

EYE FOR EYE: Paddling vandals is getting a lot of publicity. In fact, a state Assembly committee Tuesday supported the idea. But Victor I. Reichman, a Superior Court commissioner of juvenile courts in Sylmar, suggests another punishment for graffiti vandals: spray-painting a minor’s possessions--with parental permission. . . . “Then he or she will feel what it is like to have it done to them,” Reichman said.

TRYOUT: So what if the all-woman Colorado Silver Bullets (1-20) have been firing blanks all season? They’re still in a league of their own, and plenty of women would love to join them. Sunday, in fact, 70 women attended a tryout (above) for next year’s team. . . . “This is a chance of a lifetime,” said former CSUN softball star Shannon Jones (C12).

ON TRACK: The ride from Lancaster to Los Angeles is getting shorter and shorter. On Metrolink, that is (B8). . . . The original commute, which started a week after the Jan. 17 quake, took 2 hours and 25 minutes. But they’ve cut 30 minutes off that, and hope to slice another 15. “We want to be in a situation where our travel times are competitive with the automobile,” said Metrolink’s Richard Stanger.

SHORT CIRCUIT: The FCC made it clear Wednesday it wants women and minorities to be a big part of the new market for wireless telephones (D1). . . . But Richard Somers, president of American Mobile Systems Inc. in Woodland Hills, says it won’t be that easy. “There’s a big fear that only the large, well-funded corporations can really get into this.”