One of just two plants west of the Rockies that recycle car batteries was saved by a judge from state efforts to shut it down. Now the Air Quality Management District is holding hearings with the same end in view. Exide, in Vernon, has people from Boyle Heights to Hancock Park in fear of cancer and other diseases after years of lead and arsenic emissions. Exide says it’s cleaned up its act at a cost of millions. If it shut down, where would 25,000 batteries every day go to die?  We get a progress report.