Growing up amid the car culture of the Los Angeles area, Terry McGlynn never envisioned himself as a public transportation advocate. Years later, however, the assistant professor of biology at California State University, Dominguez Hills now uses every mode of alternative transportation available in his 90-minute commute to the university from his home in Pasadena. The description of his efforts to save on fuel – and the stress of driving – recently won him a spot as a finalist in the “Tales of the Fast Lane” rideshare story contest sponsored by public television personality Huell Howser and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Hansonia Caldwell isn’t a detective by trade but the emerita professor of music’s knowledge of scared music of the African Diaspora provided the clues needed to solve a mystery on an episode of PBS’s “History Detectives.” "Slave Songs of the United States" is a book in the collection of the Mayme Clayton Library and Museum in Culver City, Calif. Clayton’s son, Avery, wanted to know if the compilation, which was originally published in 1867, was indeed the first record of Negro spirituals and presented the question to PBS’s “History Detectives.” Wes Cowan, appraiser and auctioneer, interviewed Caldwell onscreen last summer in the CSU Dominguez Hills University Archives and Special Collections to enlist her aid in solving the mystery.