Anyone who admires the country's system of criminal justice, which values procedure as much as outcome, can agree with San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Bob N. Krug.

He ruled that former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten is owed a serious parole hearing, giving the 52-year-old woman her best chance of release since she was convicted in the Tate-LaBianca murders of August 1969. Leslie Van Houten had been denied parole 13 times and felt that the parole board was simply going through the motions, hearing her and then perfunctorily denying her release.

Since she was not in prison under a life-without-parole sentence, she is entitled to parole consideration, the judge found. The reasoning is easy to understand.

To deny her parole consideration is, in effect, to increase her sentence (actually two life sentences) beyond what the law under which she was sentenced authorized. It is to convert her sentence from a normal life sentence, under which parole is possible, to life without parole.

The ruling doesn't mean that she must be granted parole, only that a serious hearing must be held in which the board articulates clear reasons for its decision. If, for example, parole is denied, she must be told what she needs to do to improve her chances at a subsequent hearing.

None of this means Leslie Van Houten has a road to freedom marked, despite what is an exemplary life lived in prison. On the contrary, part of her problem has always been that while she admits stabbing Rosemary LaBianca repeatedly, she says she did so thinking that the victim was already dead, murdered by another follower of Charles Manson.

The argument is close to suggesting that Leslie Van Houten to this day doesn't recognize what she was. She held Rosemary LaBianca, according to court records, while the incredibly murderous Tex Watson stabbed her with a bayonet and then she herself stabbed Mrs. LaBianca when Watson ordered her to "do something."

Just how Leslie Van Houten regards herself isn't clear. Without a clear recognition of what she was, the Chino inmate may not be the harmless person she believes she has shown she is, and therefore not a good parole candidate.

Leslie Van Houten is due her day before the Board of Prison Terms. She is due serious consideration, but she will have to make a more compelling argument at the June 28 hearing than she has made. It's a long way back from the horrors of those August nights going on 33 years ago.

Rialto's Molotov cocktail

As hazardous waste specialists started clean-up of 26,000 gallons of toxic gunk, including cyanide, and 40,000 pounds of explosives stored in Rialto, an EPA official offered this nugget: "If cyanide caught on fire, it could be immediately fatal to anyone breathing it in."

How did this 20-year-old leaking toxic-waste bomb ever happen?

Violations for improper storage of toxics go back to 1996, when the 20-acre facility near the Las Colinas neighborhood was called Broco Environmental. Inspectors found toxics leaking on the ground and chemicals stored together, which explode when mixed.

Now called Denova Environmental, the site was licensed to store industrial hazardous waste, medical waste and dangerous chemicals seized by law enforcement and gun-powder explosives. Last week, EPA workers found flimsy cardboard boxes bulging with discarded hospital vials, old canisters of drug-lab residue and, nearby, enough mortars, detonators and bullets for battle.

It will take the EPA weeks to catalog it all for safe removal.

A jarring disclosure is this: Denova was the only private hazardous waste storage site in the state licensed to store ordnance. What a flammable cocktail: Chemicals that explode when combined and rocket fuel.

Such a licensed potential for calamity doesn't inspire confidence in government permitting. The site could have gone up like a Roman candle, and last year, gave officials a start. Chemical canisters spontaneously ignited, smoldering for hours, which concerned firefighters enough to prepare plans to evacuate a large portion of the city -- a city of 92,000.

Now we know why. It's in this echo: "If cyanide caught on fire, it could be immediately fatal to anyone breathing it in."

But the cold fact of this waste storage facility is it existed because there weren't a lot of easy options. This nation generates about 40 billion pounds of "managed" chemical waste a year, and storage sites are scarce.

For government agencies, including law enforcement, it became repository for explosives and dangerous meth lab chemicals -- a critical need. It will cost agencies more now to ship this stuff out of state.

That's a small price to rid Rialto of this explosive site, which should never be duplicated.

The sound of music

Music is math. Music is art. Music is another language, and a universal language at that. It is all this and more, and the training to read and play music is a gift that lasts a lifetime.

We're reminded of that as schools throughout the Inland region wind up their spring concerts. It's parents' chance to see how far young musicians have come.

Hemet has produced another reminder for everyone. At Valle Vista Elementary School, musicians as young as fourth and fifth grade are playing jazz. Even daring rhythms and syncopation are not beyond the reach of youngsters with a personal interest and committed teachers. There's another important ingredient in this band, too. The Valle Vista PTA helped pay its expenses -- one more clear affirmation that music has an important place in public education.