The latest on our Web site is an update on a story to expect over the weekend. The story highlights a local hero, Davis Cruz, who spends his time and talents cooking for the sick and the doctors who treat them.

For more on Cruz and what he’s done for Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, check out this weekend’s Whittier Daily News and watch our Web site.

One local chef has cooked for fancy restaurants and hotels, but now says hospital food is where it’s at.
Davis Cruz, executive chef for Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, says he’s passionate about making food that’s healthy, safe and tasty for patients and hospital staff alike.
“I like perfection,” Cruz, 47, said.
He likes good food, too. But Cruz said rules about the preparation of food in a hospital make it hard to create a delicious meal. That’s because of the high temperatures food must maintain for patients’s safety. This means that overcooking is common and hospital food tends to be tasteless and colorless.
Cruz said he fights that problem at PIH by cooking in smaller batches and timing cooking carefully, so dishes don’t sit at high temperatures for hours, drying out or getting soggy.
According to Cruz’ boss, Director of Food and Nutrition Laura McNeil, his method is working.
“We receive lots of compliments,” McNeil said, adding that people from the community often come to the cafeteria for lunch, as if it’s a restaurant.

It rained today and may rain tomorrow. Naturally, that means we must be talking about the drought.

In today’s newspaper, Rebecca Kimitch wrote about the state Water Project saying that as of now it can only deliver 15 percent of the water requested by the Metropolitan Water District.

In Sunday’s edition, I’ll be writing about the effect on our readers. Central Basin Municipal Water District has come up with a draft plan showing how it would allocate water in case MWD decides to implement its rationing plan.

It could be drastic, ranging from a 2 percent cutback at stage one to a 58 percent reduction at stage 10.
And water officials tell me not to get too overconfident it’s raining. We had a good deal of rain early a year ago and yet we’re still in a drought condition.

So after speaking with George Miranda at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office Thursday morning about how the county is offering early voting to people in this county, I decided to beat the crush that some 4.5 million registered voters are going to be placing on county poll locations everywhere Tuesday and drove the six miles from the Whittier Daily News office to election central in Norwalk.

My first impressions were bad. Parking was tough and when I finally found the line of patriots waiting to cast their votes, it wound around half the building. I struck up a conversation with some guy who could pass for the Rev. Al Sharpton. He lived in Los Angeles and decided to vote early because he had the time Thursday and would be in Atlanta on Tuesday.

After an hour I was elated to get in the front door, only to be directed to the third floor. I walked in this huge room with about 100 hapless souls sitting on chairs holding three-digit numbers in their hands. As election workers created emergency ballots for us patriots that reflected local races and ballot measures in the cities where we live, I sat looking at the clock, thinking about how much work was piling up back at the office.

After another half an hour my number was called. I got my ballot and was herded to another small room with the most rudimentary voting machines ever. A plastic partitian and a black ballpoint pen. I carefully marked my choices through the rather long and historic ballot, found my way to the elevators and was out the door. From time in to time out: One hour, 35 minutes.

Not too bad, I thought, to have lived and contributed to a historic moment in our nation’s history.

If you want to vote early and avoid Black Tuesday, the Registrar’s office is at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk. The early polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and Election Day.

Visit lavote.net or call (800) 815-2666 for more information.

Vote. Be a true patriot.

A few weeks ago, we reported that the mayor had filed a formal complaint with the District Attorney’s office, which said his opponents on Measure P (a one percent sales tax hike) were bending the rules when it came to campaigning against the tax.

Here’s the latest on that story:

PICO RIVERA — Staff in the District Attorney’s office say they are not investigating a complaint by Mayor Ron Beilke that opponents of a tax hike violated campaign law.
Beilke filed a compliant Sept. 30 with the Fair Political Practices Commission and the District Attorney’s office against Councilman David Armenta and two residents who oppose Measure P, which would raise sales tax by one percent in the city if passed on Election Day.
Beilke said a flier distributed by opponents of the measure did not have a mailing address posted on it and therefore violated law. Beilke said he also saw an advertisement in a weekly PennySaver and fliers stuffed in mailboxes.
“Their willfull failure to follow the required procedures in the law regarding distribution of political materials is against the law and we believe this should be prosecuted,” Beilke said in his complaint.
Deputy District Attorney said his department will not take the case because they only prosecute in situations where the mailers were “hit pieces,” or when the mail attempts to defraud voters.
“We are not going to take that case,” Demerjian said. “I referred him to the Fair Political Practice Commission.”
In his letter to District Attorney Steve Cooley, Beilke said Rose Rosales, Virginia Aguirre and Armenta distributed the fliers. Beilke chairs the Protect Vital City Services — Yes on P Committee.
According to Demerjian, the law about illegal mailers only applies if information was actually mailed — anonymous fliers handed out would not violate the law.
If charged under the Political Reform Act, the three could have faced up to $10,000 in fines and up to six months in jail.
Beilke said he saw Rosales distributing fliers at a Neighborhood Watch meeting, but that he had not seen Aguirre or Armenta distributing information.
Beilke said he was offended when Rosales interrupted him at the September Neighborhood Watch meeting for Norco Street. He and other council members had come to the meeting to talk about Measure P and support it. According to Beilke, Rosales interrupted him and spoke against Measure P.
He said he believed it was wrong for a resident to “demand the floor” at a Neighborhood Watch meeting.
Beilke plans to pursue action through the FPPC, but said he is not surprised that the district attorney will not prosecute.
“Honestly, this is small,” Beilke said. “I can see that this is an issue that they’re not placing great importance on, and that’s alright, that’s fine.”
Armenta would not give his reaction to the news that he would not be investigated by the district attorney’s office.
“I have nothing to say,” Armenta said. “It’s just sad that the mayor has put out all these politics. Pico Rivera deserves better.”
Rosales was not immediately available for comment.
Aguirre said she’s not surprised that she won’t be charged by Cooley’s office, and she had not worried about the complaint.
She said she has not been actively distributing fliers, but she supports the effort to do so and tells her friends and neighbors that she disagrees with Measure P.
“In the first place, it wasn’t even true,” Aguirre said. “That was fabricated to make us look bad. There was nothing there.”

Representatives of Whittier-area nonprofit organizations laid out the challenges ahead of them and brainstormed on possible solutions this morning at Whittier College, which held another session of the “College and Community” program it started four or five years ago.

The program first started as a way to strengthen the ties between the college and the community. It brought community groups to the college and networked with them to create student internships and community service projects.

But now, the program has evolved, said Whittier College official Joyce Kaufman.

The groups — ranging from the American Red Cross to schools and churches — are now coming together to tackle common concerns. On Monday, they identified those concerns in order to get together an action plan that they’ll try out before meeting again in December.

Check out Tuesday’s paper for more details.

It appears that Whittier’s economy is in a mess. In the last year, three car dealerships — Board Ford, Chrysler and Mitsubishi have closed. Mervyns is going to close at the end of the year.

So just how will the city deal with these problems? In Sunday’s newspaper, I’ll write about the problem and what City Manager Steve Helvey plans to do about it. I know this is a tease, but let’s just say I’m glad I’m not in his or the council’s shoes. So make sure you pick up a copy of Sunday’s newspaper.

Needless to say, 2009 figures to be a rough year for Whittier.

Norwalk Mayor and longtime Santa Fe Springs city leader Mike Mendez says he got the honor of a lifetime Friday when the Santa Fe High School gym was officially named after him.

Mendez, 61, graduated from Santa Fe in 1965 and has spent countless hours as a volunteer supporting that school and other campuses in the Whittier Union High School District, officials said.

The gesture was emotionally overwhelming for Mendez, whose voice was full of emotion in accepting the honor. It came during a homecoming pep rally at the school.

For more on this, pick up a copy of Saturday’s paper.