A woman who lives in the Country Club Park area of Mid-City has come down with the first human case of bubonic plague in Los Angeles County since 1984. Health officials think she caught it from infected fleas near her home, but they're still checking. Plague is common in the rodent population, especially squirrels and rats, but infrequently jumps to humans around here. It's easily treatable with antibiotics, so go ahead and cringe if your favorite TV news goes all black death about the news. By the way, the symptoms are fever, muscle aches, nausea, headache, sore throat, fatigue and "swollen, tender lymph nodes associated with the arm or leg."

Only tangentially related (if at all): The County Supes today passed an ordinance requiring most dogs in the county's unincorporated areas to be embedded with an ID chip and be spayed or neutered.