February 2009 Archives

Tuesday night's Whittier City Council meeting only took about an hour, but a lot of news and action still happened in this short time frame.

Probably the biggest news wasn't even on the agenda. Two residents of Sunrise Drive complained about the paparazzi cluttering up their street and got a sympathetic reaction from council members. Staff writer Airan Scruby writes about this in more detail here: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_11783491.

The council also decided no to any kind of Independence Day celebration. See this story for more detail: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_11783483. Look for more detailed stories on both later this evening.

Councilman Owen Newcomer also decided to pull Seta Restaurant's request to remain open until 2 a.m. and ask for a public hearing on it. We'll have more on that issue this weekend.
The council decided to pay Buxton of Texas $70,000 to provide a market study for the city. The company will focus on four areas: Uptown, the auto deal areas and shopping center areas along Whittier Boulevard, and the Fred C. Nelles site.

As expected, it also agreed to set a public hearing for Steve's BBQ to ask to remain open until 2 a.m. It is expected to be held on March 10.

And a scheduled public hearing on the case of the 13- to 15-foot wall at the 14800 block of Mar Vista St., has again been put off. This time, it's until March 24. The City Council already has twice put off a public hearing scheduled on the request by owner Hugo Gutierrez for a variance. City officials say Gutierrez has made a new proposal, but refuse to give any details. Still, the council has discussed it during several times during closed session. It can do that under the exception for legal actions. The city has a code enforcement action pending against Gutierrez.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Southern California mother of octuplets is being offered $1 million to star in hardcore porn.

It's bad news for local film makers and lovers. The second annual Whittier Film Festival has been cancelled. Here is the official announcement by the organizers:

"We regret to inform you, due to unforeseen events in the economy and the withdrawl of our sponsors, we are unable to produce the Film Festival this year. Any credit card charges will be refunded back to you shortly. We are hoping to continue the festival in future years. We appreciate your understanding.

"Thank you to all of you who submitted films, volunteered hours, and advertisedwith us,we really appreciate your involvement. We look forward to working with you in the future."

More than 700 people flocked to Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital's Sweetheart Gala at the Huntington Beach Hyatt Resort Saturday night, and one of the most important guests in attendance was "Mr. Whittier" himself, Hubert Perry.

Perry was carousing with guests before the dinner and dancing began when he collapsed. Of course the room was filled with doctors and they sat the 95-year-old Perry on a chair while he caught his composure.

Seems his blood pressure dropped, causing the legendary hospital benefactor to faint.

We're happy to report all is well with Perry, one of the most likeable nonagenarians you'd ever want to meet.

 

There may be some new developments in a couple of Whittier's hottest issues: the tall wall built by a Mar Vista resident and the freight-car sized container in the parking lot of Battel's Hardware and Tool Co.

In the case of the 13- to 15-foot wall at the 14800 block of Mar Vista St., the City Council has twice put off a public hearing scheduled on the request by owner Hugo Gutierrez for a variance. City officials say Gutierrez has made a new proposal, but refuse to give any details. Still, the council has twice discussed it during closed session. It can do that under the exception for legal actions. The city has a code enforcement action pending against Gutierrez.

In the second case, Jeff Collier, director of community development, said an ordinance most likely will be drafted to provide some kind of flexibility in the use of containers.
What that means is uncertain because city officials aren't giving any more details. But a new ordinance isn't expected to go to the Planning Commission for three to six months. And it appears that Battel's will be able to keep the container for a while longer.

 

Whittier Councilman Bob Henderson has consistently opposed most requests from Steve Hernandez, owner of Steve's BBQ, for more hours or even to have hard liquor. But look for Henderson at the council's Feb. 26 meeting to provide a key third vote to allow a rehearing of his request to be open until 2 a.m.

The reason is that Councilwoman Cathy Warner, who would have provided the third vote, may not be able to make the meeting. Her youngest daughter may be giving birth in Arizona, causing her to miss the meeting. But Henderson agreed to provide a courtesy vote to allow for a hearing at the March 10 meeting.

"I didn't want to say I was in favor of changing, but Cathy has a family situation," he said. "I'm not going to play games for just calling it up."

But don't look for Henderson to support the additional hours for Hernandez..
"I think it's bad policy," he said about the early hearing. "If you tell somebody you're doing to do a review in six months, you don't let people lobbying you change your mind."

Officials say a Hispanic man in his late 30s or early 40s attempted to kidnap a fourth-grader at Paddison Elementary School as he walked home after dismissal Friday.
Little Lake City School District Superintendent Phillip Perez said the boy was on his way home about 3 p.m. when he was approached at the corner of Crewe Street and Zeus Avenue by a man driving a black, older model pick-up truck, possibly a Toyota.
The man grabbed the student by the wrist and yanked him toward the truck, Perez said, then yelled something that sounded like "zombie" to the boy.
The boy managed to break free and ran back to the school where the principal was standing outside, Perez said.
School officials contacted authorities and the boy's parents.
Perez said the suspect is described as being 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighing about 150 pounds with black or brown hair and wearing a white-and-black hooded sweatshirt.
He had a light complexion, goatee, was in his late 30s or early 40s and spoke English, Perez said.
Anyone with information should contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Norwalk station at (562) 8963-8711.

     This e-mail has been posted on snopes.com and also on the Whittier Police Blog. Snopes has a Jan. 21 date on the e-mail.

     Whittier Police spokesman Jason Zuhlke said a report was taken of the incident but police did not tell the writer that a lot of carjackings were happening.

     The only carjacking Whittier Police handled recently was the attempted carjacking of a pregnant woman on Lambert Road at Greenleaf Avenue on Dec. 29.

La Mirada's budget problems are about to hit home in meetings that both will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. You might even be able to watch the action both just by walking a few feet from the council chambers to the City Hall conference room.

During the regular council meeting, public hearings will be held on raising building fees by about 33 percent. A second hearing will be on raising the rates for Splash! as a way to reduce the subsidy by about 25 percent. We'll have a story on these two hearings in Tuesday's newspaper or on this newspaper's general Web site if you rely on the Internet for your news.
At the same time, the La Mirada Athletic Council, which consists of many youth athletic organizations, will be discussing a proposal for an athletic field usage fee of $10 per La Mirada resident child and $15 per non-resident. This group meets in the City Hall conference room. Both of these proposals are at least in some ways related to the city's need to save about $4 million to ensure that this year's and next year's budgets are balanced.

Pioneer High School is losing its principal, Alex Flores.

Flores, 39, is leaving at the end of this month to take a new job -- a promotion -- as senior director of personnel at the Compton Unified School District.

The school board accepted his letter of resignation during a special meeting last night

Flores has been at Pioneer for three years. He says his new job should provide more consistent work hours, which will give him more time to spend at home with his young son and daughter.

He'll be replaced for the rest of the school year on an interim basis by Nicki Buchholz -- an assistant principal at Whittier High School -- while the district searches for a permanent replacement for Flores.

Buchholz is scheduled to start at Pioneer on March 2.

Records show Nadya Suleman was a licensed psychiatric technician but the license issued in 1997 expired on July 31, 2002.

She was injured while working for the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk. She filed a worker's compensation claim in September 1999 and October 2001, said Patricia Ortiz, public information officer for the state Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Workers' Compensation.

Ortiz said parts of body affected by the injuries were the neck, trunk, back and lower extremities. She didn't have details of when and how the injuries occurred. She said the case file has already been archived.

Aside from two traffic tickets, Suleman hasn't had any run-ins with the law in Los Angeles, San Bernardino or Orange counties.

Suleman was cited by Fullerton police on July 26, 2007 for driving at an unsafe speed for the prevailing conditions. She paid the ticket.

The same agency gave her a ticket on May 6, 2003 for driving without possession of a license. According to records, the citation was dismissed after proof of correction was shown.

In addition to filing for bankruptcy, Suleman's mother, Angela, sued Allstate Insurance Company on March 8, 2002. She claimed in her suit that the insurance company delayed and failed to make adequate payments after water damaged personal property and her house in the 12200 block of Honolulu Terrace in Whittier on Aug. 15, 2001.

She, her daughter and baby grandchild had to relocate during the cleanup, according to her lawsuit.

Her lawyer asked the state court to dismiss the case which was granted on April 7, 2003.

The bankruptcy, which was filed last year, was also dismissed.

Angela Suleman told the Los Angeles Times she has paid her debts

Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, has an idea of how to get more money to schools from the lottery. Here's the press release from Mike Spence, his chief of staff:

Sacramento - Assemblyman Curt Hagman today announced that he is introducing legislation to put to a halt to the construction of the new $185 million new headquarters for the California Lottery Commission in Sacramento. "During this budget crisis, the last thing we should be doing is wasting money and time on a new building. How can we justify this spending, while schools are sending layoff notices to teachers?" said Assemblyman Hagman.

The California State Lottery Act was approved by the voters in 1984. The commission approved a $185 million design contract for the new building last week. The Legislature has placed on the ballot a proposal to privatize future lottery operations. Assemblyman Hagman's bill would stop the contract and divert the money to public schools.

"Children in classrooms need the money more than the bureaucrats at the lottery need a new building." Hagman said.

 

Someone dropped off the following letter addressed to Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Bellflower regarding Nadya Suleman, the 33-year-old Whittier woman who just just gave birth to octuplets after having six other children. We couldn't use it as a letter to the editor because it was not signned, however it is worth sharing:

Our family is outraged how your hospital can go on national television and "celebrate" the birth and delivery of eight babies born to a single mother, who already had six children under the age of seven. Shame, shame on you!!!!

While we realize the mother came to you already expecting multiple births and needing medical attention, your "showcase" of her births on national television has helped to condone unmarried pregnancy, and perhaps "births for profit" through our welfare programs and proceeds through national television fame. Where are your ethics?

Instead of boasting about the delivery of octuplets born to a single mother who doesn't deserve them, your administration should have been working with the Lupoe family and their job issues to prevent the tragedy that took seven lives.

We certainly hope that Miss Suleman's Kaiser Hospital medical expenses will not be passed off onto our Medi-Cal system wherein the citizens of California will pay for it through our taxes.

Medical ethics have been breached in this so-called "history making" delivery and your organization should not be taking pride in it.

Signed,

A responsible, hard working, tax-paying family who is tired of supporting those who mooch off our government assistance programs.

cc: All Local News Stations