MOST WANTED: There are some new bad...

MOST WANTED: There are some new bad guys in cyberspace, the cops say. “Creepy,” “Stain” and “Bear” are wanted for crimes ranging from beatings to robbery. They’re among those featured on the Los Angeles Police Department’s new “Valley’s Most Wanted” site, hosted by the West Valley Division (B3). . . . The division is the first in the LAPD to launch into cyberspace.

MILLENNIUM MONEY: Ordered new checks recently? If so, you may have noticed something different about the line where the date goes--it no longer displays the number 19 to indicate the first two digits of the year. . . . It’s all part of “preparation for the year 2000,” said Melkon Khosrovian, spokesman for Great Western Bank in Chatsworth. What’s next? 21st-Century Fox?

TWEET DREAMS: Valley bird-watchers tallied up more than 20,000 feathered friends in a 7 1/2-mile radius around the intersection of Balboa Boulevard and Nordhoff Street last month, in the Audubon Society’s annual bird count. Topping the list was the European starling, above, said Arthur Langton, a science teacher at John A. Sutter Middle School in Canoga Park, who organized the count.

WRONG NUMBER: The current battle over area codes (B1) recalls the time when the San Fernando Valley led protests over the phasing out of prefixes in phone numbers. It started when a Chatsworth resident filed a formal complaint over the planned death of the local EMpire, STate and DIamond prefixes. . . .

NUMBERS GAME: Van Nuys lawyer James J. Oppen had a retort during a hearing when a phone company exec said he had no trouble remembering seven digits. “All right,” Oppen replied, “please tell me the number on your automobile license plate.” The official could not, but the cause was lost nonetheless. . . . On March 1, 1962, Reseda and Canoga Park residents switched to all-digit phone numbers.