Today at 2 p.m., the Glendale Fire Department will be throwing a party for outgoing Fire Chief Christopher R. Gray. He is retiring, following a 30-year career of firefighting. The retirement party will be at Glendale Fire Station #21, at 421 Oak St. in Glendale. Gray, 50, says he is retiring for family reasons. City Manager Jim Starbird has praised Gray, saying his departure will be a loss.

Gray will be replaced by Don Biggs, who last week was appointed interim fire chief by the Glendale City Council. Biggs has been a firefighter for nearly 35 years. Most recently, he was the director of emergency services at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. Biggs is only expected to lead the Fire Department temporarily, until a permanent replacement is found. Then he will go back to working at the studios.

Posted by Alex Dobuzinskis at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

Higgins Development Partners announced this week that it has broken ground on a $130 million office building at the 2300 Empire Center project. The seven-story project is the last phase of Empire Center, which is a mix of shops, offices and hotel rooms. The project is at West Empire Boulevard and Buena Vista Street, close to the Golden State (5) Freeway.

It seems the development company thinks Burbank's quite a plum city to build an office tower in, because office vacancy rates are lower than in any other city in the Los Angeles area. Companies such as Paycheck and Employers Compensation Insurance recently moved to the city, according to Higgins.

Meanwhile, look for the Glendale City Council next week to approve a 16-story condominium project in the downtown area.

Posted by Alex Dobuzinskis at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

A Glendale woman who was stabbed by a homeless man became the city's first homicide victim Monday, said Officer John Balian, a spokesman for the Glendale Police Department. The alleged assailant is Hector Marroquin, 23. Here's the story from the Daily News:

GLENDALE - A 32-year-old woman suffered fatal wounds from a stabbing on the patio of an alcoholics anonymous meeting and her alleged killer, a 23-year-old homeless man, was in custody in connection with the case. The drama began about 5:45 p.m. Monday at the Glendale Windsor Club, at 123 W. Windsor Road. The woman, whose name was being withheld until officials could notify her relatives, was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center where she died, said Cheryl MacWillie, a watch commander at the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. Police arrived and found three witnesses holding the alleged assailant, identified by police as Hector Marroquin, who was being held at the Glendale Jail.

Police said that before the attack the suspect hit the victim's car with possibly a helium tank before allegedly stabbing the woman. But police didn't know what prompted the attack and it was unknown whether Marroquin knew the woman.

Posted by Alex Dobuzinskis at 09:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

At the Bob Hope Airport, as you go up the stairs to the meeting room for the airport authority, there is a photo of the camouflage netting that used to cover the airport during World War II (at least the photo was there when I last stopped by more than a year ago.) During World War II, the airport was a Lockheed plant. Eager to keep the plant protected from Japanese aerial bombardments (which never came by the way), the government had it camouflaged so that it didn't look like an airplane plant from the air. Well, the folks at www.newlaunches.com have just posted some killer photos of how the Lockheed plant looked from the air. Apparently, they tried to make it look like a rural subdivision, which is what you can see in the photo above. Check out the rest of the photos here.

Posted by Alex Dobuzinskis at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

This release from the U.S. Forest Service may make you think twice before trying to make a pet out of that squirrel in your backyard. Technically, the area they're referring to in the press release isn't really in the coverage area, but it may be a place readers have gone to on hikes. The Forest Service has re-opened two picnic areas in Big Tujunga Canyon on the Angeles National Forest, after closing the picnic areas because of a threat of the plague - a plague carried by pesky squirrels. I thought we did away with the plague sometime in the Middle Ages, but apparently not. Check out the release from the Forest Service:

On July 10th, a ground squirrel in Stonyvale Picnic Area was found to be the carrier of fleas which tested positive for the plague. The squirrel was one of twelve that was trapped in the area during routine monitoring. The two sites were closed as a precaution until the area was treated and re-tested. Preventive "dusting" of squirrel burrows in the area ended Monday and the Forest Service received the go-ahead to reopen the areas.

Check out the whole release here.

Posted by Alex Dobuzinskis at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

Lisa Burks of valleynews.com has another report from the Grand View psychodrama. The Glendale City Council has voted to pursue a nuisance abatement action against the cemetery. The council voted to do this instead of spending $400,000 to clean up the tinder-dry cemetery. Burks quotes a couple angry councilmen in her dispatch.

"This cemetery is a nuisance and a fire hazard," said council member Bob Yousefian, who warned that the costs for fire suppression, should a wild fire break out on the property, would amount to three times or more what the council was being asked to currently consider spending to avoid such a disaster.

"I'm prepared to expend this money, however I'm also prepared to change direction and go with an adversarial position," said council member Frank Quintero. "For me, personally, I've had enough. I'm not going to continue to spend tax payer money and somehow have to tip-toe around the owners of this cemetery," he added.

Read the rest of Burks' story here.

Posted by Alex Dobuzinskis at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

The Alex Theatre is going to be having its 8th annual Vaudeville Extravaganza! on Saturday, Sept. 15, which the theater is proclaiming in a press release as the "most anticipated family event held annually at the grand theatre." That's right folks, the artform that brought us the terms big time and alley-oop is coming to the Alex.

The Alex Theatre opened as a Vaudeville and movie house in 1925. Shortly after that, movies got sound and thousands of movie house musicians hit the street looking for work, along with squeeky-voiced actors. Then television was invented and everyone realized they'd rather get their entertainment for free, sentencing us all to years of interviews with George Burns telling us about the "good old days."

The Alex Theatre's show will feature "The Night Blooming Jazzmen" playing nostalgic music, then Reid & Faversham in a tribute to Stan and Ollie (wait that's Laurel and Hardy, who also have a movie in the program), then Farrah Siegel, America's Yo-Yo Champion, then a couple other acts who I'm not sure what they do. The evening will conclude with a cartoon, a vintage newsreel, the Laurel and Hardy movie "The Music Box" and the Three Stooges movie "An Ache in Every Stake."

Suddenly I feel like I should be typing on an Underwood Five typewriter and going out to Ebbets Field to watch the Dodgers play. Actually I'll stick with the computer and Chavez Ravine. But for all you Vaudeville buffs, the show is Saturday, Sept. 15 at 8 p.m., and the cost is $25, and $17.50 for seniors and children. The event is put on by the Alex Film Society, and AFS members get in for only $12.50, unlike the rest of you bananas.

Posted by Alex Dobuzinskis at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)|

Barry Allen, self-appointed public watchdog number one, is still going after Glendale City Councilman Dave Weaver over Miss Asia USA. This month, Allen filed a complaint with the city attorney, accusing Weaver of "improper use of the official position" of city councilman for his involvement with the Miss Asia USA Pageant. Weaver has been a member of the pageant's executive board. In his complaint, Allen accuses Weaver of making improper use of Glendale police officers for the event, commandeering a city library auditorium so the girls could rehearse, making Glendale Water and Power send cases of bottled water and a host of other allegations.

Weaver and City Attorney Scott Howard, whom the complaint was addressed to, declined to comment.
One of the most interesting allegations has to do with payments made by Benvani Inc. to the Alex Theatre for the use of the facility for the beauty pageant. Allen says Benvani Inc. paid $12,500 to the Alex Theatre for Miss Asia after getting $6 million from the city for some open space.

As an exhibit attached to his complaint, Allen included a letter from Weaver to Police Chief Randy Adams asking for some cops to hang out at the pageant for security.

Posted by Alex Dobuzinskis at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

After more than four months on this blog and just over a year working East of the 5, I'm heading west for an assignment with dailynews.com. So here I am handing the keys to the once and future East San Fernando Valley reporter, Alex Dobuzinskis, who I'm sure will unearth more items not fit for newsprint, but good enough for the Web.

May his online future be bright and full of page views and referrals.

Posted by Eugene Tong at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)|

A few things to wrap-up the week:

• It's The New York Times' turn to quiz IHOP CEO Julia Stwart about her Glendale-based company's impending takeover of Applebee's. Who knew her nickname among the franchisees is "Velvet Hammer?"

• Burbank city leaders are anxiously monitoring the effort to rescue the Utah coal miners trapped after a mine collapse. The city -- along with Glendale, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Pasadena and Riverside -- owns a stake at a Utah coal powerplant that gets 5 percent of its fuel from said mine. Leader

• Two new executives at Burbank Unified School District -- Lori Ordway-Peck was appointed to the position of Assistant Superintendent, Business Services, and Kathy Granger was appointed to the position of Director, Human Resources Services. Ordway-Peck comes to the District from the Palmdale Unified School District where she has served as Deputy Superintendent. Granger comes to Burbank from the West Covina Unified School District, where she served most recently as middle school principal. via BUSD release.

• Santa Clarita realtor and blogger Linda Slocum left a review of a Garlic Jim's pizza pie from the chain's Valencia outlet in our comments box. The Washington-based chain is opening an outlet in Burbank.

Posted by Eugene Tong at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

Sorry about the lack of updates the last few days -- granted, it's been busy with the shooting at that Burbank apartment building Thursday night that left three people dead and one in the hospital. Police say it's the first multiple homicide in the city in some 20 years.

All the details are here -- the grief and shock of a neighborhood in mourning.

Meanwhile, valleynews.com blogger Lisa Burks, who lives nearby, has this account of the scene Thursday night.

Posted by Eugene Tong at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

At noon Thursday, Unite Here Local 11, the union trying to organize the Glendale Hilton, will stage a picket to welcome the hotel's new owners.

via Unite Here

On Wednesday August 8, 2007 Eagle Hospitality Trust shareholders voted to sell the Glendale Hilton to AP AIMCAP, a joint venture of Apollo Real Estate Investment Fund V LP, Aimbridge Hospitality LP and JF Capital Advisors LLC.

Workers at the Glendale Hilton hotel cite poverty wages, a lack of affordable health insurance, and dangerous working conditions as some of the problems they have endured. In September 2005, Glendale Hilton employees requested a fair process to decide whether to form a union. The employees' request was met with fierce resistance from the hotel.

In April of 2006 Glendale Hilton workers called for a boycott of their own hotel. 70% of the workers at the Glendale Hilton signed a petition calling on customers to boycott the hotel. Since then, the boycott of the Glendale Hilton along with a boycott of other hotels owned by the same company has cost the outgoing owner of the hotel, Eagle Hospitality more than $1 million in lost business.

Hotel workers hope that the Glendale Hilton's change in ownership will mean an end to this long-running dispute and allow them to end the boycott. "We hope that the hotel's new owners will allow us to decide whether or not to join the union without any interference or harassment from management. I hope they know that we are prepared to stay in this fight as long as it takes, and we are not giving up," said Angela Reid a bartender at the Glendale Hilton hotel.

Earlier:
What Frequent Stay Points Get You at the Glendale Hilton
State of Protest

Posted by Eugene Tong at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

The seedier side of Burbank -- police arrested two women at a hotel near Bob Hope Airport last Thursday on suspicion of prostitution in a sting.

Jessical Gonzales of Fremont and Raeanna Valencia of Fairfield, both 19, were arrested for the misdemeanor and have bailed out, police Sgt. Matt Ferguson said.

The women were allegedly offering escort and massage services in the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena area on Web sites such as Craigslist. Police, following a tip, set up a rendezvous with at the hotel. They weren't actually based out of the hotel, Ferguson said.

Both the ladies were from out-of-town, though police suspect they may be linked to a prostitution ring operating in the San Fernando Valley.

Here's the Leader's version.

Posted by Eugene Tong at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

Jennifer Mann's story on IHOP CEO Julia Stewart in The Kansas City Star looks into pher past as president of Applebee's International, which is the Glendale pancake house chain is looking to pick up for $2.1 billion.

In 2001, Julia Stewart left Applebee’s International after three years as president when it became clear she was being passed over as the eventual chief executive officer.

Stewart moved on and in 2002 became the CEO at IHOP Corp., then a tired and flat pancake chain. She and management, in her words, reinvigorated the business by selling most of the company-owned stores to franchisees and updating the restaurants, menu, uniforms and marketing.

Now, with IHOP’s pending $2.1 billion acquisition of Applebee’s, she appears poised to assume the role she initially missed at Applebee’s — running the company. She believes applying a similar recipe to Applebee’s can return the company to growth.

“A strong point of difference — that’s what Applebee’s desperately needs because we all fall into the ‘look like everybody else, act like everybody else,’ ” Stewart said. “I don’t think anybody in casual dining is setting the world on fire, and it was the same situation when I came to IHOP … but we distinguished ourselves in the (family dining) category, and I don’t view the challenge any differently at Applebee’s.”

The fix may be a bit more complicated. IHOP’s revenue is a third the size of Applebee’s, which is the country’s largest casual dining chain. Stewart intends to finance the $25.50-a-share acquisition and turnaround by selling Applebee’s 508 company-owned restaurants and using a sophisticated debt transaction paid off by future franchise revenues for the two operations.

Posted by Eugene Tong at 05:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

"Sleepy" got pulled over in Burbank for driving without a seatbelt, but little did authorities know at the time, they've hauled a big fish from the world of Russian-Armenian organized crime.

The crime ring canvassed truck yards from Oxnard to Chino, sneaking in at night and lumbering away with big rigs full of fancy TVs, children's clothes, new tires - even a $55,000 shipment of Gatorade.

They hauled the loot - worth some $10 million in all - to a Van Nuys warehouse that served as a central drop-off point, where they unloaded the cargo in the middle of the night. Later, they'd take an inventory, sort it and sell it on the black market.

If not for the arrest of a guy named Sleepy and the carelessness of the group's ringleader - who forgot to buckle up while driving through Burbank late last month - the stolen trucks might still be rumbling through the night, authorities say.

Read the rest of Daily News reporter (and East of the 5 alum) Jason Kandel's story here.

Posted by Eugene Tong at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

via City of Glendale:

RE: Scheduled Outage on Tuesday, August 7th

GWP has notified customers in the addresses stated below of a scheduled outage for Tuesday, August 7th between 8 pm to 11 pm. The outage is necessary to restore the service configuration in this area from an event in 2005. Customers don’t need to call to report the outage. If outage lasts later than 11:00 p.m. customers should call 818-548-2011

· Burchett: 500 block
· Patterson: 500-700 blocks
· Fairmont: 600-700 block
· Chester: 600 block

WHO: GLENDALE WATER & POWER
WHAT: SCHEDULED OUTAGE TO RESTORE SERVICE CONFIGURATION

Posted by Eugene Tong at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

Meanwhile in beautiful downtown Burbank, City Council meetings could start at 6 p.m. instead of 6:30 p.m., and it'll require a majority vote for discussion to go past 11 p.m., according to the Leader.

This in a town where meetings often run past midnight (I personally have stayed till 2:30 a.m. during that Whole Foods in the Rancho flap a couple months ago). It was a 4-1 vote to introduce the changes last week, which also includes combining into one the two seperate public comment periods.

Councilman David Gordon -- that beacon of contratrian freedom and targeted populism who is still fighting the good fight despite backing the losing horses in the council race earlier this year -- dissented. He wanted the start time kept at 6:30 p.m. to accomodate people's work schedules.

If I were conspiracy minded, I would read this as just another erosion of our right to free speech in the name of efficiency, while limiting City Hall accountibility to the public; an overall affront to civil discourse and democracy, the very foundations of our system of government....

But I'm not. I guess we'll see how it all works out, but it won't be happening tomorrow -- the council's dark this Tuesday, 8/7.

Posted by Eugene Tong at 06:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

Speaking of Dave Weaver, what was up with his lashing out at the Glendale city employee unions at the council meeting last week?

It was an oddity that aligned the councilman with his nemesis -- City Hall gadfly Barry Allen -- who blames unions for what he believes is an overstuffed city payroll.

The clip starts at 3:43, when Weaver, who got no love from the Glendale Management Associaiton, and the police and fire unions (the GMA gave $11,000 to incumbent Rafi Manoukian, who lost) wanted to strip their right to contribute to council candidates.

Weaver: One thing I like to see ... I would like to see every association in this city, GMA, fire, police, not be allowed to give a single penny to any council candidate.

To this day, GMA has not congratulated me. the police have not congratulated or spoke to me, fire has been kind enough just to say congratulations. Now there's no dialogue, all because the association sat out there and forced-handicapped who's going to win. We wanted to be on the winning side. I was supposed to lose -- well gee I didn't ... and now we ahve a problem. I love to see that removed off the books.

Uh...not so fast Dave. Isn't there a First Amendment issue here? City Attorney Scott Howard was around to remind our honorable councilman: "With regard to a ban on union contributions, I'm somewhat reticent about recommending that you can do that pursuint to Supreme Court deicions."

In fact, while the city can prevent city employees from donating to City Council candidates due to conflicts of interest (it's in the city charter), it can't prevent individual employees from participating in the political process -- a First Amendment right -- through their unions. Still, the city could set contribution limits.

Weaver wouldn't have any of it -- "I say ban it! Let them defend themselves in court."
Howard: "Actually if we impose our ban as a government, we would be defending ourselves in court."

I wonder which Constitutional right Weaver will try to curtail next...just because some person or group didn't congratulate him on his council win.

Posted by Eugene Tong at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

If you're into following the money, the latest round of Form 460 campaign disclosure statments covering March 18 - June 30 have hit the Web, at least in Glendale.

(In case you're wondering, the Burbank forms were not too exciting...check this space -- the City Clerk may have it up soon.)

According to latest campaign finance disclosures due last week, Rafi Manoukian, the incumbent councilman who lost despite spending nearly $222,000, was the top fundraiser in the April council election with $150,382 from the first half of 2007.

First-place finisher John Drayman collected $73,740, while reelected Councilman Dave Weaver received $68,771.

In comparison, Gray Bric, who won a seat on the Burbank City Council in earlier this year and was the race’s top fundraiser, received just over $21,000 in contributions in the same period. Burbank has a $250 per donor contribution limit, unlike Glendale, where the sky's the limit.

But Bric and candidate-turn-Councilwoman Anja Reinke, who raised nearly $13,000, both enjoyed support from an independent political committee. Working Californians, spent more than $18,000 campaigning for Bric and about $5,000 for Reinke.

Among the biggest donors in the Glendale race — Weaver received a total $17,500 from developer Rick Caruso’s Americana at Brand LLC, the company behind its namesake downtown retail and residential project.

The Glendale Management Association — a City Hall union — gave Manoukian $11,000.

CREPAC/BORPAC, the political arm of the California Association of Realtors, gave $4,000 to both Weaver and Drayman. Local contractor Alen Builders Inc. also gave Drayman $5,000.

Posted by Eugene Tong at 03:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

Denialist -- a word that could get you run out of Glendale. Hoagland's nomination -- an object of scorn for the ANCA was withdrawn today.

via U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, links by me:

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) expressed his support for the White House’s withdrawal of the nomination of Richard E. Hoagland’s to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Armenia. Mr. Hoagland had been nominated to replace Ambassador John Evans who was pushed to retire from his post by the Bush Administration. Congressman Schiff and many of his Congressional colleagues believe Ambassador Evans was recalled for his comments made in February of 2005 in which he publicly recognized the Armenian Genocide.

“The President was right to withdraw Mr. Hoagland’s nomination,” Schiff said. “During his confirmation hearings, Mr. Hoagland continued to deny that the massacre of a million and a half Armenians between 1915 and 1923 was genocide, thereby compounding the injury done to the Armenian people and, especially, the few remaining survivors of the first genocide of the Twentieth Century. I hope that the President will soon nominate a new ambassador who will be more forthcoming in discussing the Armenian Genocide”

Here's more of the release -- and just so you know the score, Adam Schiff is no denialist...

On March 21, at an Appropriations hearing before the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, Schiff pressed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on her opposition to recognizing the Armenian Genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. In his pointed questioning, Schiff repeatedly asked the Secretary of State if she believed that the murder of 1.5 million Armenians could be characterized as anything other than a genocide. The Secretary did not directly respond.

Posted by Eugene Tong at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

To the disappointment of the Glendale and Burbank police departments, pregnant celebutant Nicole Richie will doing her four-day DUI jail sentence at a Casa de Baca -- or Lynwood jail, the same county slammer where Simple Life co-star Paris Hilton served most of her sentence.

Richie was sentenced to four days in jail, three years probation and 21 days in a drug rehab program for her Dec. 11 DUI arrest in Burbank -- she was driving her black Mercedes SUV the wrong way on the Ventura Freeway. The reality-TV star and Hilton BFF (still? I've lost track..) failed a field-sobriety test and told police she had taken a pain killer and smoked marijuana.

Last Friday she entered a guilty plea -- her second DUI conviction (the first was in June 2003) and she could have been jailed for up to a year.

She was allowed to choose between a county and city jail. Although a city jail is considered less arduous, she would not be eligible for early release and would have to serve her full sentence there.

Earlier this week, Richie told the sheriff’s department she will serve her time in a county lockup, said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore. Lynwood is the only county jail for female inmates, which is where Paris Hilton served most of her 23 days behind bars for driving on a suspended license while on probation for HER DUI arrest.

Richie has until Sept. 28 to serve her time. Because county jails are overcrowded, some are guessing nonviolent inmates like her could score an early release.

Earlier:
Getting elbowed in the head on the Nicole Richie beat

Posted by Eugene Tong at 07:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

Via City of Glendale:

The City of Glendale is conducting an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) self-evaluation and transition plan. Areas to be evaluated include facility and program accessibility, accommodations for individuals with disabilities, and administrative policies and procedures.

Individuals who would like to provide input are invited to complete a survey. Surveys are available for organizations that represent individuals with disabilities, community members, employees, and other interested individuals who wish to participate in the evaluation.

Your comments and opinions are important to us and will provide valuable information regarding how the City of Glendale can better serve individuals with disabilities. Surveys can be mailed to you or are available at:

City of Glendale – City Hall
Parks, Recreation & Community Services Department
613 E. Broadway, Room 120
Glendale, CA 91206
(818) 548-2000

Surveys are also available online at: www.ci.glendale.ca.us

Please contact Barbara Thorpe, Disability Access Consultants, Inc at (800) 743-7067 if you have questions or comments. You may also request the survey in an alternate format.

The City of Glendale complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Public Law 101-336, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability.

Posted by Eugene Tong at 07:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

A few bits of news of nominal interest:

• Two Vineland Boys members pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and murdering a witness and accepted terms of life in prison without parole. Jose "Peps" Ledesma, 24, and Javier "Coco" Covarrubius, 23, faced multiple charges stemming from the 2003 murder of 16-year-old Martha Puebla, who was going to testify against one of the gang members, and for dealing methamphetamine. Both men, who are from Sun Valley, pleaded guilty as jury selection for their trial got under way. They would have faced the death penalty if convicted. Daily News

  But it's not over yet -- besides David Garcia, who is facing state murder charges for the 2003 slaying of Burbank Police officer Matthew Pavelka, word this morning from Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Young (whose team got a commendation for the Vineland Boys prosecution) is Horicio Yepiz may yet see his day in court. He was in an institution after he was ruled incompetent to stand trial, but that could change with a compentency hearing Monday.

• Beeline service cutbacks for Glenoaks Canyon. News Press

Posted by Eugene Tong at 01:09 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)|

GLENDALE — A 61-year-old man has been jailed without bail after he allegedly shot and stabbed four of his relatives during an argument, and was later subdued when his victims fought back, police said Wednesday.

Police found Valodia Balabekyan of Tujunga pinned by three men and a woman Tuesday morning when they arrived at an apartment on the 500 block of S. Belmont Street, Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at Glendale Superior Court.

The victims — either uncles or siblings to Balabekyan and resided at the apartment — were shot with a small-caliber handgun. Some also suffered stab wounds and were covered in blood when police arrived. They were treated at area hospitals and were in stable condition.

"Four people get shot, which could've been a horrible situation," Lorenz said. "Amazingly they're alive."

Posted by Eugene Tong at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|

Policy wonking and mad-cap violence:

• Amid concerns about a soft real estate market, the Glendale City Council on Tuesday finalized the details of a proposed fee on local development projects to finance parks and libraries. The draft Development Impact Fee ordinance -- considered a watered-down version by at least one councilman -- could return for approval later this month. Daily News

• As for bizzare crime -- a 61-year-old Tujunga man has been arrested for allegedly shooting three men and a women in a south Glendale apartment after an argument. Police arrested Valodia Balabekyan on suspicion of attempted murder at the South Belmont Street unit 7:45 a.m Tuesday. The victims were all related and were in staple condition. News Press

• Burbank City Council, where free speech is valued at the expense of time and meetings usually run well past 11 p.m, is once again talking about ways to streamline their meetings. One proposal would require a majority vote for a meeting go run past 11 p.m. What did they decide? We don't know since that meeting ran long and past the Leader's deadline.

• A milestone at Bob Hope Airport -- passenger traffic of 2.86 million for the first half of the year is 23 percent higher compared to the same period in 2001, before the air travel industry tanked after 9/11. Leader

Posted by Eugene Tong at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)|