REAL REAGAN: When a Canoga Park pawnshop...

REAL REAGAN: When a Canoga Park pawnshop owner and a former Secret Service agent are indicted on charges of peddling phony Ronald Reagan memorabilia (B1), one has to wonder . . . whose presidential merchandise can you trust? Try the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library gift shop near Simi Valley. No autographed baseballs there. But for $150 you can pick up a book or speech and know for sure it was signed by “The Gipper.” “We get it straight from the President,” said manager Carolyn Mente.

JACKIE O: It’s one thing to be fooled about whether Ronald Reagan’s signature is the real McCoy. . . . But it takes a certain leap of faith to be duped, as one memorabilia dealer was, by claims that a baseball was signed by both President Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, as they flew to Dallas in November, 1963. The late First Lady was known for a lot of things, but signing a baseball on Air Force One? Sure.

CARRYING ON: Sam Winston, above, was to tires what The Colonel was to chicken . . . a distinctive pitchman as well as company founder. His death last month puts the Burbank-based Winston Tire Co. in a quandary. Will the company carry on as before or sell out to another tire maker? . . . Details in Valley Business (D7A).

COUNTING SLEEPS: Hotel business in the Valley was down 13.4% last July from a year earlier, said a survey by PKF Consulting. That’s a bigger drop than the county average but no cause for worry, said PKF’s Melissa Mills. The 1994 rates were inflated by World Cup soccer crowds. And the outlook is bright. “There’s strong demand in the Valley that didn’t used to be there,” Mills said.

FREEWAY RULES: The death of a woman who tried to cross the Hollywood Freeway on foot (B2) prompts a Highway Patrol safety review: If stopped in an inside traffic lane, turn on your flashers and stay in the car--in your seat belt. Although your car may be hit, it is safer to be in it.