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Will Kus, a longtime Sylmar resident and valleynews.com writer, has just posted a few interesting photos of firefighters putting out blaze, that sparked in a pile of garbage in Sylmar on Monday. Check them out yourself at valleynews.com
There's a brush fire burning up the Hollywood Hills, threatening the Los Angeles Zoo, in case you haven't checked your favorite news Web site lately. Here's a photo from citizen journalist Lisa Burks, who, during a break from work at Yahoo! in Burbank, snapped a shot with her cellphone camera. I would encourage everyone else out there who passes by the smoke to take shots (carefully, please) and we'll post them here. Thanks to Burks for the shot. We'll keep you posted on the condition of the fire. Our own intrepid Eugene Tong is in the thick of the smoke now shooting video, surely to be posted here shortly. Stay tuned.
Lisa Burks writes at valleynews.com that former Glendale Mayor Bob Garcin had the ashes of his father and stepmother removed from the beleaguered Grand View Memorial Park. Garcin gave Burks access to the disinterment yesterday of Edwin and Lucille Garcin as long as she followed one court-imposed rule -- no photos.
Garcin hopes his actions prompt other families of loved ones buried at the cemetery, which has been under state investigation for over a year for having misplaced remains and other financial issues.
Burks retraces her footsteps to the Garden of Prayer, outside the North Mausoleum, where Garcin's parents were laid to rest in 1954 and 1966.
She writes ...
Two Eternal Hills groundsmen, Leo and Alfredo, began the process by prying Edwin and Lucille's markers off the wall with shovels. They came off with relative ease and set to the side. A bit of cement remained on each, which the guys later chipped off before the stones were placed in the trunk of Bob's car.No formal ceremony was planned, so Leo and Alfredo immediately began the job of gingerly digging out relatively narrow space of dirt between the inner and outer retaining walls with narrow shovels, first above Edwin's spot.
Approximately 20 minutes later, the top of a small concrete vault was reached. Next came the process of excavating the earth around the vault, with very little wiggle room in which to work, maybe an inch or so on any side. The procedure took longer than usual due to having to work within such a small space, Leo told me.
Everyone's mood was somber and respectful.
At times, Bob wept.
Read the rest here.
James Omahen writes today in the Atwater Village Enquirer on valleynews.com that the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council and others are lobbying the city of Los Angeles and the Department of Water and Power to change the annual Light Festival Christmas celebration at Griffith Park. Folks apparently want it to become solely a walking or shuttle-riding experience not a drive-through.
He writes ...
Some advocates for change have also suggested moving the display to another location in the park which would better accommodate the numbers of people and the vehicles they come in. Then there are those who believe to counter global warming or to spare the park wildlife of such disturbances, this annual event should just be discontinued.
Full disclosure: This reporter has both walked and driven the route and, yeah, it's kinda kitchy, but still pretty cool and definitely a parade befitting of our car-obsessed culture. And nobody walks in L.A.
Read the rest here.
Atwater Village resident James Omahen started a new blog today, The Atwater Village Enquirer on valleynews.com.
Omahen tells us that carp can grow to 5 feet, weigh up to 80 pounds, and can live for more than 60 years. They spawn more than rabbits, laying 300,000 eggs at a time. They eat everything, the bottom feeders, even their own eggs and young. Here's the carp entry on Wikipedia.
A colleague here joked that he hoped dogs don't go missing ...
Omahen writes ...
So when she's not digging around for stories at Grand View Memorial Park cemetery, Lisa Burks is a habitué of ebay. She writes ...
Most of the memorabilia-type items I find are related to Forest Lawn, (Go figure) schools or businesses.But today I found what I consider to be a true treasure: a listing for a fantastic, vintage postcard depicting a gorgeous home nestled in Glendale's foothills.
She's hoping someone out there in the world can identify the home in the postcard. Send in your comments, if you think you know.
valleynews.com
Blogger Lisa Burks asks "who's in Mr. Lenn's Grand View grave?"
That is the question behind the latest mystery surrounding the creepy story at Grand View Memorial Park, which has apparently lost track of who's buried where, at the century-plus old Glendale cemetery. The story reads like a Sherlock Holmes novel, with an attorney speculating he's solved the mystery of who's buried in John Lenn's grave.
Burks writes ...
After two recently successful court-ordered interments at the little cemetery with big problems, a third was cancelled this week when an apparent occupant was discovered in what should have been an unused grave.
Paul Ayers, a lawyer for the family of Lenn, speculates, "In 1989, Wayne Warrington was buried in Grave 69. In 1999, Ms. Howard sold Mr. Lenn then empty Grave 68, but did not update her records to memorialize the sale. In 2002 when Patricia Warrington died Ms. Howard sold the family what she thought was an available grave next to Wayne Warrington. In my opinion the most likely decedent now in Grave 68 is Patricia Warrington."
Read "Two bodies and a cancelled funeral at Grand View".
Update at 12:40 p.m.: Attorney Paul Ayers forwarded a court document, an order for Lenn's burial, that you can read here.
Sharon Y. Garrett, the president of the NAACP's San Fernando Valley branch, posts a story today on valleynews.com about a meeting she is set to have April 5 with officials at Burbank High School. The issue -- violence among Armenians, African Americans and others on and off campus. She has been getting angry letters from parents complaining about Armenian students challenging others to fights, and blaming school administrators and police for not protecting students and not punishing the culprits. This issue has been brewing under the surface for quite a while now. Maybe this will open up some dialogue. Read the story here.
Lisa Burks, who has been writing for valleynews.com about the beleaguered Grand View cemetery in Glendale, took a break to put on her fire coverage hat this afternoon and posted great photos of a large white/gray plume from a brush fire in the hills of Universal City. She writes ...
I took these photos from the fifth floor balcony at Yahoo! Search Marketing headquarters in Burbank, located at 3333 W. Empire Ave., between Buena Vista and Hollywood Way, near Bob Hope Airport.
Check out the rest of her photos here.
Joan Curson writes at valleynews.com about Brian Ochab, a Burbank resident, who has been getting Hollywood's attention lately. He created a short film for the new Steven Spielberg/Mark Burnett reality show "On the Lot." The show divides 16 undiscovered directors into teams who compete to finish a short film each week. The winner receives a $1 million development deal with DreamWorks.
Ochab's short, "Pitching Loose Women," is, in the words of the Hollywood pitchman character in his flick, "an epic adventure of lost love, like Indiana Jones meet Mogambo." Ochab opens the short, which you can see online here, by parodying the opening of the 1966 Batman television show.
Funny stuff.
Citizen journalist Gary Judy scoops writes on valleynews.com this morning with news about Nayiri Nahabedian throwing her hat in the ring for a seat on the Glendale School Board this spring. The vote is April 3. She's running on a platform that includes securing funding to make schools safer for kids by engaging parents and the community. Her endorsements include the Glendale Teachers' Association, Glendale Police Officers' Association, Armenian National Committee of America, and the Glendale Young Democrats. Other notables include Pam Ellis, who's on the Glendale Board of Education, state Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, former state Assemblywoman Carol Liu, Glendale Councilman Rafi Manoukian, Glendale Community College Board of Trustees President Dr. Armine Hacopian, Glendale Community College Board of Trustees member Victor King, and Montrose Shopping Park President John Drayman, who's also a candidate for the Glendale City Council.
In her candidate statement, the Cal State Los Angeles professor writes:
I am running for Board of Education in our city. I am running for this seat because I have a fundamental commitment to excellent public education. As an educator myself, I know what it takes to have outstanding public schools. First-rate education is crucial for our children's success, and I have the experience and the ability to fight for excellent public schools.
Updated March 29 at 6 p.m.
Burbank community activist Eric Michael Cap, who has been leading the charge to get the Burbank City Council to impose strict new rules on smoking outdoors, posts an update on valleynews.com. His story, "D-Day looms for Burbank smokers," says the council is set to vote tomorrow on the controversial issue. He predicts fireworks.
A standing-room-only crowd and some very lively debate is expected prior to Council deliberations and the vote, he writes.
The public hearing will take place Tuesday, March 27 at 6:30 p.m. at Burbank City Hall, 275 E. Olive Ave.
Read the proposed second-hand smoke control ordinance here.
Intrepid citizen journalist, Fronnie Lewis, knocks us out with the latest round in the Burbank Whole Foods bout.
In a development that has surprised many, Whole Foods, a giant in the natural and organic foods business, has emerged as the Rocky Balboa in the controversy surrounding a proposed market in the equestrian Rancho District of Burbank. Like the tenacious pugilist in the first Rocky movie, the project at the corner of Main Street and Alameda Avenue has taken a vicious beating from its adversary - in this case, a group of relentless Rancho residents. Up until the March 20 Burbank City Council meeting the possibility still existed that Whole Foods might squeak out a victory in the last round and win approval from the council members.
The print edition of the Daily News today kicked off a new feature, Education Revolution countdown blog. This is where you can go to be read online, and get a shot at being published in the print edition.
This is the kind of feature available on valleynews.com, the Daily News' citizen journalism project.
Readers are submitting stories, photos, event notices and are able to comment on other people's stories instantly onto the valleynews.com site.
Our site and others, which have been popping up regularly lately by news organizations around the country, are being touted as the best way to spread the word about what readers care about quicker and further than ever before. Newspaper bosses are reinventing the way they put out news and interact with their readers by using such new features.
Besides the fact that it's fun to come up with something new, news companies are realizing they don't have all the answers and need to connect with readers even better than they have in the past.
You've heard about YouTube.com, where you can upload videos. You know about MySpace.com, where you can create your own Web page. Blogs are popping up like mushrooms. Others have conversations in online bulletin boards.
There are projects in the works like Jay Rosen's Assignment Zero, in which hundreds of people across the globe volunteer to do interviews, research and write stories online, tapping into the expertise of many as opposed to just one reporter and editor - or small team - reporting on deadline.
Rosen is a New York University journalism professor and one of the country's biggest proponents of citizen journalism.
Another recent example of this new kind of journalism is taking shape in Lake Tahoe. The TahoeDailyTribune.com recently kicked off its version of this new form of reader/user participation in the newsgathering process. On top of the paper's environmental stories, readers can contribute facts, tips, and sources to the stories on "The TahoeNotebook."
Two journalism graduate students at the University of Nevada, Reno, created the Notebook when they found in a study that news was frequently only "framed as a conversation between elites and officials."
They created the Notebook as a middle-ground between Internet bulletin boards, that they say few journalists read, and citizen journalism, which many citizens with day jobs, don't have time to write. So, readers can shape the news with the idea that through teamwork, the reporter and his or her readers can create an even better news product than either can produce alone.
This is fascinating. In the old days, you sent in a letter to the editor. You can still do that, by the way. But your letter likely will get edited to only a single sentence or two, and then you may or may not see your words in print. With the Internet, everyone gets a chance to weigh in and hash out ideas in real time. What a concept.
So stop reading this now, register on valleynews.com and share your thoughts about this story or any other idea.
Feel free to e-mail me at jason.kandel@dailynews.com or call at (818) 713-3635.
With all the talk lately about the menace of gangs, Alejandro Guzman, a colleague of mine, went out to David M. Gonzales Park in Pacoima on Saturday to bring back a different kind of gang story - one that ended on a more peaceful note. Two gangs clashed, but this time in a game of spirited flag football and, get this, they also had a picnic and barbecue. Alejandro reports that there was tension, and police were out in force, but in this one, no one went home on a gurney. Alejandro writes at Taking it out on the field at valleynews.com:
Members of the Langdon Street and Pacoima Flats gangs joined Victory Outreach Church and other youth groups Saturday for a series of football matches and a picnic at David M. Gonzales Park in Pacoima.The event - held by Victory's Gang Intervention program - was just one part of Victory's ongoing effort to build relationships with gangs in the San Fernando Valley. By bringing the gangs together, there is a chance to bring peace between them, said Victory's Pastor David Martinez.
He pointed out that the events main organizer, Howard Loyd, a member of Victory's Gang Intervention team, also turned his life around after a life of gangs and drugs.
It was Loyd who had the idea to invite both gangs out to play football and enjoy the picnic.
Loyd, now 45, shows the physical markings of a man who has had one rough ride on the streets.
He served four years for burglary in a Kansas City state prison. He lost use of his left arm as a result of his lifestyle - a drug deal gone bad which ended with him being dragged down the street by a car. He was only 21 years old at the time.
Loyd lifted his shirt to unveil a four-inch scar on his stomach - a big reminder of the time he was shot.
I talked with Steve Maradian the other day. He's the president of the Los Angeles Community College District in charge of overseeing a $50-million project to convert the historic Van de Kamp building into a new satellite campus.
He hopes that by the fall of 2009, the site will hold some 4,000 students who will be taking basic job skills training, a much-needed option for a heavily Latino district. Some classes will be offered at as little as $20 a unit. Others will be offered free of charge, Maradian says.
The site has sat vacant for about two decades and some residents have been a little steamed over whether the project will really be taking off. Weeds are climbing up a chain-link fence, trash is piling up on the sidewalk, and a big rig, sans trailer, a mini RV, and a roach coach sat near the curb on a recent day.
Maradian says the project has been mired in bureaucracy -- and a quake fault line was recently discovered near the site, adding a new list of requirements to stabilize the building.
But hopefully, if everything goes smoothly, a groundbreaking will occur in as little as three months, he says. He promises to work closely with surrounding residents to reduce impacts of increased traffic, and he even praised the local Coalition to Save Van de Kamp for helping keep the district on track.
They'll preserve the building, add a lane to the nearby Glendale Freeway and have bus service to shuttle students to the campus.
I want to hear from readers on this site about how you feel about the project. You can register here and post your comments, e-mail me or call at (818) 713-3635. What's on your mind?
Tired of sending press releases and other news tidbits to news organizations and crossing your fingers, hoping big media will do a story on it. Well, wait no more. You can join the scores of readers who are now players in helping make news on valleynews.com, the Daily News' new citizen journalism Web site.
You can join others who are embracing citizen journalism and becoming Internet columnists in their own right. There's Lisa Burks, who gives you your fix fix of news from Grand View Memorial Park cemetery in Glendale on her blog, Grave Concerns: Inside Grand View Cemetery. You can see what the John Burroughs Indians softball teams are doing, by reading Richard Colon’s blog, The Forgotten Sports. If you’re pining for the good ’ol days of the San Fernando Valley, check out Robert Greene’s blog, How Green Was My Valley.
Jenifer Johnson takes readers along on her work-out regimen for an upcoming seven-day, 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the AIDS/Lifecycle 6 on her blog, Jen’s AIDS Lifecycle Quest.
These bloggers are among those included on a new best of blogger’s list on valleynews.com, that I have the pleasure of heading up. It’s called Jason’s List, and you can read it online now. This a list of some of the most interesting blogs that you can find on valleynews.com.
These are the folks who write regularly about their innermost feelings on life, their passions and life’s curiosities. These bloggers share a kinship with me and my colleagues because they love the written word and are eager to share slices of life from the trenches of the San Fernando Valley.
I am always combing the site, looking for great blogs to feature on the list. You too can be featured on the site and be considered for publication in the print edition. All you have to do is register on valleynews.com, write your heart out and post it onto the site, then e-maill me or feel free to call me at (818) 713-3635 and let me know about your blog.
Bottom line — make it interesting.
CITY AND STATE
City of Glendale
Glendale Police
Glendale Fire
City of Burbank
Burbank Police
Burbank Fire
Bob Hope Airport
Glendale Unified School District
Burbank Unified School District
Glendale Community College
Glendale College Guild
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena CA-29
LA City Councilman Richard Alarcon
LOCAL INTEREST BLOGS
Daily News Blogs
It's a Crime (Daily News)
Lisa Burks' Grave Concerns
GrandViewMemorialPark.info
Lisa Burks Online
Richard Colon's The Forgotten Sports
Atwater Village Newbie
Atwater Village News
Burbank Wire
Dan Evans
GloZell Loves Jay Leno
Nature Trumps
The Valley Observed
POLITICS
Will Rogers
Burbank Democratic Club blog
Valley of the Shadow
Adam Schiff's blog
Eric Garcetti's blog
EAST LIFE
Good Wine Under $20
Chowhound LA's Glendale/Burbank thread
Burbank Library Blog
Book Talk - Glendale Library
CurbedLA Glendale/Burbank
El Vaquero -- GCC student paper
The Falcon -- Crescenta Valley High
ARMENIAN
hyelog
Asbarez.com
Cilicia.com
Life in Armenia
Life in the Armenia Diaspora
Armenianpedia.org