TEST TIME: Assembly and Senate education committees...

TEST TIME: Assembly and Senate education committees today will consider bills by Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) and state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) that would make it easier for Valley residents to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District. . . . The bills would lower the number of signatures needed to put the break-up question on the ballot. The spin this year? It’s a voting rights issue.

UNSAFE SPEED? When Cal State Northridge officials wanted someone to oversee their book-buying operations, Eldon Speed emerged as the prime candidate. After all, Speed was the former manager of Stanford University’s bookstore. . . . One glitch: Speed is facing charges of grand theft from the Stanford bookstore (B1).

PRESIDENT CHUNK: Jeff Cohen, above, is the latest actor to jump into politics. . . . Best known for his role as Chunk in the film “The Goonies,” the Woodland Hills native, now 20, has been elected student body president of UC Berkeley. His campaign strategy: “My mother was so excited when she found out I was going to run, she sent me 3,000 lollipops with ‘Chunk For President’ printed on them to give away,” Cohen said. “I handed out every one.”

HUNGER PAINS: An unexpected budget crisis has dramatically cut a meal program for shut-in senior citizens in the San Fernando Valley (B1). . . . As many as 40 senior citizens have lost their meals. Said one senior advocate: “This is not a luxury.”

MICRO ROVER: Acton resident Judith Daniels is creating a lot of firsts. . . . She became the first female president of the American Kennel Club last week, overseeing about 1.3 million purebred pooches. Now, she is spearheading a first-of-its-kind canine identification project. “A microchip implant is put in the back of the neck,” Daniels explained. “The dog can be identified by passing a wand or a reader over the shoulders.”