At last, the night returned to mine and my next door neighbor’s house. My enjoyment of the Saints’ game Saturday was interrupted by a man at my door who asked me: “Are you the lady who has been complaining about the alley light shining on your house?” After I replied in the surprised affirmative, he said: “We’ve come to put a shield around it. Show us which one is bothering you.” I directed the man, his fellow worker and their big truck through the alley and pointed out the offensive provider of perpetual daylight whose powerful beams illuminate both mine and my neighbor’s property. They fixed it so the full range of the beams are directed downward onto the alley and not flaring out and flooding our bedrooms.

We are relieved. How long did we have to suffer? It’s ridiculous. Who finally broke down and attended to our needs? I don’t know, I didn’t ask because I don’t care. I suspect it was Councilman Dennis Zine, the foreman of all the city workers on my payroll. Now my foreman needs to see about filling that big pothole in the street in front of my driveway and about getting me a speed bump in front of my house.

I’m beginning to catch some flak from my neighbors about the fact that of all these awful lights in the alley behind our homes, only one — mine — is shielded. When you go outside at night, you see a continuous bank of lights all along the neighborhood that is broken up by one dark spot. I may have a problem that could be worse than the light.

THE UHA WAR — Another monkey wrench has been thrown into tonight’s scheduled election of officers of the United Homeowners Association. It seems the UHA board has made some new rules, which it promulgated in a newsletter, declaring that a voter check-in will be held 30 minutes before the meeting and that only those members who paid dues prior to Sept. 1, 2009 can vote. The group’s bylaws state no such thing; the group’s previous practices have adhered to no such thing, and the group’s membership chairman has issued written notices to residents that their dues are due in January — notices that the dissenters are waving like flags. Fascinating.

In the meantime, UHA President Theo Irving informed the dissenters that he did not have time to comply with their demand to examine the association’s records within the lawfully required deadline because they are “scattered” and he doesn’t know where all of them are. Not missing a beat, the dissenters sent the board another letter, advising the members of their responsibility to maintain proper records and to make them readily available for inspection. They agreed, however, to extend the deadline to no later than Feb. 2 when the group will be given a “date certain” on which the requested records can be made available for review before legal action is taken — on the records availability issue only.

CLASS ACTS — Lucy Okumu, a policy and communications specialist in the Government Group at Strategic Counsel, received the Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a distinction given to an elite group of emerging leaders in politics, government, business, media and the nonprofit sector in the U.S. and Europe each year. As part of her honor, Okumu embarked on a 24-day European program where she and other fellows were immersed in an exploration of the political, economic and social institutions and issues impacting the United States and Europe.

The MMF program educates the next generation of American and European leaders on the importance of the transatlantic relationship and encourages them to work with one another on a wide range of international and domestic policy challenges. You might recall that the managing director of Strategic Counsel is attorney Cynthia McClain-Hill, whom the L.A. Times maligns as a Mark Ridley-Thomas “associate.” McClain-Hill is extremely proud of Okumu’s honor. “Everyone knows that an organization is only as good as its people,” McClain-Hill said. “But we at Strategic Counsel believe that true excellence requires something more. It begins with our company values and extends to our people who share these values and live them in everything they do, every day.” Take that, Times!

IN SEARCH OF... — My good friend Isidra Person-Lynn is working on a project which may be of interest to a few pretty young things in the community who may aspire to a modeling career. Isidra is media coordinator for Johnson Products’ “The Great Model Search 2010,” which was launched nationwide last week to find four beautiful Black faces to grace the new product boxes and to let the world know that Johnson Products, the pioneer of ethnic hair care companies, is back. The Great Model Search is based on Internet uploads from potential models across the country. The top four model aspirants who garner the most public votes (during a voting process later this year) will win contracts to appear on hair care products packaging, $5,000 and other prizes.

Any young woman interested in becoming part of the Great Model Search 2010 should go to www.thegreatmodelsearch.com to upload a headshot. Once approved, a link to her contestant’s profile will be sent, which she will then send to all of her friends and family to get as many votes as possible. Good luck.

THIS AND THAT — The district attorney is investigating Councilman Richard Alarcon to determine whether he illegally lives outside the 7th District, which he was elected to represent. He claims to live in a modest tract house in Panorama City, but the D.A. is looking into complaints that he really lives in Sun Valley in the 2nd District. If the investigation pans out, Alarcon could face felony voter fraud charges. Gee, I wonder what D.A. Steve Cooley has against Alarcon. As you know, Cooley is very selective about who and what he prosecutes. If Cooley were a straight shooter, he’d have done something about former Supervisor Yvonne Burke, Inglewood Councilwoman Judy Dunlap, and Inglewood school board member Arnold Butler, and he would be investigating Los Angeles City Council members (deleted) and (deleted), as well as Alarcon, who has obviously done Cooley a grievous offense.

National children’s rights advocate Marian Wright Edelman, founder and CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund, will be the keynote speaker of the 19th annual Empowerment Congress Summit, Saturday. The summit, hosted by Supervisor Ridley-Thomas and the Empowerment Congress, will be held in the Loker Student Union ballroom at Cal State Dominguez Hills from 9 a.m to 2 p.m. The summit’s theme is “We Are the Second District: Educated, Engaged and Empowered for Action.” Admission and parking are free and a continental breakfast and lunch will be served.

State Sen. Curren Price has scheduled two more town hall meetings for residents and stakeholders in his 26th District. One meeting will be held Saturday at the Los Feliz Community Police Center, 1965 Hillhurst Ave. from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The second will be held at the Culver City Senior Center, 4095 Overland Ave., on Jan. 28 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

AND FINALLY — O-o-o-oh! Massachusetts!