oddball, weird, assorted: June 2008 Archives

Janette Williams, Star-News star, reminded me of the early days of the online newspaper with this gem:

The escape of Moe the Chimp from his compound in Devore has created somewhat of a stir in the newsroom.

Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred will hold a press conference this afternoon with Moe's parent's St. James and LaDonna Davis, at her office on Wilshire in Los Angeles this afternoon.

The search for Moe continues in the dense and brushy mountains near Devore. Three reporters will be covering this story for the paper tomorrow.

Here in the nerve center of the operation we are split into two factions: Those who want Moe coverage and those who want No Moe coverage. What do you think?

West Covina's most famous chimp, Moe the Chimp has escaped from Famous Exotics in Devore, according to reports from the San Bernardino Sun. Here's the top of their story:

Moe is making headlines again.

On Friday afternoon the chimp, featured in several news stories over the years, escaped from Jungle Exotics, a commercial business in the Devore area.

By Saturday wildlife volunteers and county animal control had searched for the animal in the heavily-forested area near the business.

A privately-owned helicopter circled over the area on Saturday.

The chimp has never escaped into the wild before, and would not have access to any food or water.

For the most part, the animal which once lived in West Covina and has been housed at different sanctuaries since the late 1990s, is a friendly and social creature.

But anyone who comes across the chimp is urged to contact local authorities instead of approach him.

I've got an email in to Gloria Allred, attorney for Moe's family St. James and LaDonna Davis of West Covina. I plan to update the post when she writes back.

Here's some of Watchara's photos from the Sheriff's mounted patrol Friday night in East Pasadena. As you can see a few people were arrested in the operation. For more photos and details checkout Watchara's photo gallery.

Aaron Proctor, the most electrifying man in blog entertainment, mailed his nearly famous ham and egg award to our very own prep professor Fred Robledo. Here's Fred holding the award aloft at his cubicle!

Fred's going to make up for the win, covering the annual high school Hall of Fame game at Bassett High School tonight. Oh, why did he get it? For watching a sports event on tv in the newsroom....hmm isn't that what sportswriters are paid to do?

Can't tell you how many Monday Night Football games and episodes of RAW I've watched here...quite a few to be sure. 

BTW I think Aaron might want to consider branching out to Monrovia for the next installment.. apparently Mayor Rob Hammond is recycling material for his letters to the editor.

There's word on the street that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to take away safe and sane fireworks this year.

That's right. A few days before the Fourth of July, he decides that legal fireworks are bad and might cause fires.

Hmmm so how does that explain the 6,000 lightning strike fires in Northern California earlier this week? ....Is he going to ban lightning next?

What about hobo campfires?

How about cigarettes?

The truth is,  a ban on these sales only hurts the little people; little leagues, Knights of Columbus, Girl Scouts --- civic organizations that do good in the community without taking taxpayer dollars.

Tell me how many fires were started by legal fireworks this year?

Avenues gang members rounded up.

Man shot twice confronting Hollywood taggers.

Black Student Union at Charter Oak High School targeted by yearbook vandal.

Suspicious packages create stir at ELA College.

City begins overhaul of former strip club site at Corky's Corner.

Unlike the mythical panty story, this actually happened in the San Gabriel Valley.  Whittier Daily News reporter Ruby Gonzales has the scoop on a guy who died around April 15. Apparently the county tax collector was looking for him but the grim reaper got there first:

A man apparently died three months ago but his body was discovered Tuesday afternoon after a county worker came knocking.

Guy King, 65, was found on his couch next to a paper bag with a carton of milk and some yogurt that expired on April 18, said Whittier Police spokesman Jason Zuhlke.

He said King apparently kept to himself and his family lives out of state. A neighbor last saw King two months ago.

The grisly discovery was made Tuesday afternoon in the 10800 block of Kibbee Avenue by a county employee and a neighbor.

Zuhlke didn't know what county department the worker was from and why he was at King's home.

However, records show the bank had a lien on the house.

From NBC 7 in San Diego:

ALPINE -- City and county authorities are investigating the death of a San Diego police dog whose body was found in the back seat of a patrol car at his handler's home.

According to the San Diego Police Department, the dog was a 5-year-old Belgian Malinois named Forrest. Forrest stayed with his handler at this house in Alpine, about 20 miles east of downtown San Diego.

Sources familiar with the investigation identified the dog's handler as Paul Hubka, a 22-year veteran who's a director of the San Diego Police Officers Association. Sources told NBC 7/39 Hubka returned from an overnight shift, went into his house, and came out a few hours later to discover Forrest's body in the back seat of his patrol car.

Police, sheriff's deputies and animal control officers converged on the neighborhood and began an investigation that's still awaiting necropsy results.

Maybe we jumped the gun on the heat wave equaling a crime wave up in the SGV.

The scanner's been pretty quiet this morning...maybe its too hot to be stupid.

Anyway, the National Weather Service is predicting record temperatures. They've extended the red flag fire warning through Saturday night and issued an excessive heat warning.

Here's what the Associated Press is saying about the weather:

Firefighters worked in extreme heat to corral small brush fires as a strong high-pressure system cooked the air from the central coast south to Los Angeles and San Diego.

At Ice Station Valencia, a rink in the broiling Santa Clarita Valley, hockey director Larry Bruyere, 55, said: "You don't mind working here on days like this."

Los Angeles County opened 42 daytime cooling centers for seniors and suggested people visit air-conditioned malls and libraries in the evenings. The National Weather Service warned people to take precautions for heat that could quickly kill children or animals left in cars, even if the windows were cracked open.

As people cranked up air conditioners, energy use in Los Angeles peaked at 5,854 megawatts Thursday, breaking records for the month of June, according to the city Department of Water and Power.

Some links to monitor through the day:

CAL ISO -- Power usage in California.

NWS -- Warnings, forecasts, observations

INCIWEB -- Keeping track of fires for the Feds.

Several weeks ago I wrote about a group of French journalists who contacted me regarding a documentary about crime in Los Angeles.

Initially they suggested following me around for a couple of days and asked that I give them the names of people familiar with LA area crime. I coughed up the names. And, it sounds like the project is coming along fine.

The next time I heard from these folks it was to see if I could arrange an interview with James Ellroy. He's loved like Jerry Lewis over there apparently.

I declined and told them to arrange the interview themselves. Don't know if that happened or not. Somehow I doubt it did.

Anyway, here's the latest email exchange between me and the Frenchies:

Gotta love those small town police blotters. Check out this entry from South Pasadena:

6-16-08, 6 PM, 1300 block of Fair Oaks (dry cleaners). Suspect (customer) complains to victim (employee) about a stain that wasn't removed from a shirt. Suspect demands a refund and argues with victim. Suspect grabs cell phone from victim's hand and hits victim in his chest. Suspect then exits store and throws cell phone on sidewalk. LOSS: None. SUSPECT DESCRIPTION: Female, White, 56 years.

A few weeks ago, I had a surprise late-night encounter with three coyotes roaming the streets of Los Feliz.

It seemed like feral dogs were everywhere that week. Photographer Watchara Phomicinda snapped a picture of a skinny one rooting about an empty field in Irwindale. I can't remember where else they turned up, but they were around.

Last year at this time it was black bears. Bears in Monrovia; bears in Duarte; bears in Bradbury; bears in Azusa.

Old-timers probably know this already, but I was fascinated to find out that predators are nothing new in the San Gabriel Valley or Whittier for that matter.

Grizzlies, wolves, cougars and coyotes roamed pretty freely in these parts right up until the turn of the 20th century.
They're pretty much gone. If only we could say the same about their human counterparts.

***
Whoops.
In my haste to write a brilliant column each week, I've been making grammatical errors. To all you English teachers out there, my deepest apologies.

I had this pointed out to me via a marked-up column sent in the mail by Ms. Beryl Collins of Arcadia.

The mark-up, done nicely in red ink, actually contains just three sentences.
It begins with, "What school did you attend?"

To answer that I guess I have to tell you a little about myself. For the most part I am a product of the California public school system.

After my parents moved to California, I attended Laura M. Hansen Elementary in Saratoga and Joaquin Miller Junior High in San Jose.

The Jesuits took over from there, and although there were some summer school classes at Lynbrook High, I graduated from Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose.

Since then, I've attended UCSD, San Jose State, Pasadena City College and Mt. San Antonio College.

That seems like a lot of education. Even after all that, I still don't know how to construct a proper sentence.

The sentence below was one example pointed out by Ms. Collins. It appeared in a column that ran in this newspaper on June 3:

"I'm sure there's countless similar stories."

She suggests I should have constructed the sentence as: "I'm sure there are countless similar stories."

All I can say is that I'm really glad she hasn't been reading my text messages.

U no wot i mean?

Thanks for the tip, Ms. Collins, I'm sure there are countless similar examples.

***

Are the copper thieves getting bold or what?

Whomever hit an Edison substation in Whittier knew exactly what to take, and absconded with copper grounding wire. It could fetch a tidy sum at the recycling center.

What's probably most irritating about the theft is that Edison had to turn off the power in most of Pico Rivera and portions of Whittier on a hot afternoon.

One can only hope the thief's refrigerator was affected and his (or her) beer got warm.

I took a small break from blogging here over the past couple of days. I must say it was refreshing. I haven' t even used a computer since Thursday.

AND, I stayed away from newspapers, television news, conversations about politics and ...you get the picture.

Unfortunately there was little time to relax. I went to a father's day party in my son's kindergarden class; got a cracked molar crowned (temporarily); attended a niece's graduation party; dropped my Mother-in-law off at the Mission for a jubilee Mass; took my boys to Urban Outfitters in Old Pas; played gigs with my band Saturday night and Sunday morning; barbecued Sunday night; watched the Lakers; Watched the US Open playoff today...Whew

It's nice to be back.....

This one from someone named GiraDORK:

Girardot, The lack of respect you show to the Police Department is in direct correlation to the lack of respect you get as a so-called journalist. You are a hack. Stop trying to be the Truman F*&king Capote of the ghetto and just report the facts. Leave your issues at the door before you start typing.

There was a rally of sorts at Pasadena's Memorial Park Wednesday. KFI's John and Ken brought about 75 listeners out to express their anger about state Sen. Jack Scott's proposal to ban Mylar balloons.

I thought the event would be fun, as these two guys are pretty good as expressing the welled up angst and anger of their demographic (which I fall into) ...But honestly I was kind of bored.

The KFI crew seemed pretty bored too.

For what its worth, Ken looked downright angry at times, especially during a couple of very minor technical snafus.

That said, I thought the latex balloon effigy of Jack Scott was pretty cool

In the end, I heard more "facts" and "figures" about Mylar balloons in an hour yesterday than I've heard about the Lakers/Celtics series on Sports talk radio this week. I think it would have been more fun if Kobylt and Chiampou camped outside Staples Center to protest fixed NBA officiating, or perhaps they could have set up shop in front of LA City Hall to find out why Mayor Villaraigosa's transportation deputy drives a Hummer.

OK. By way of full disclosure, I've seen these guys do two other remote shows.

One was outside OJ's Brentwood house in the days after Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were slashed to death -- but before OJ was arrested. They were pretty entertaining that day ...there's even a YouTube video of the event ---where I've seen a much younger version of me interviewing somebody.

The other was in the protest pit outside the 1996 Rebuplican Convention in San Diego. That was pretty funny, because as I remember it John and Ken picked a slow day and seemed desperate to talk to somebody who was mad about Bob Dole (as if he had a chance).

Those shows were a lot more fun, even without Pasadena dignitary Aaron Proctor on hand to provide some comic relief.

BTW, former KFI Talkshow host John Ziegler thinks these shows are completely phony. Here's his Web site recalling his stint at the station.

Here's John and Ken defending their antics.

Here's my pictures:

A balloon effigy of state Sen. Jack Scott.

As you can see the "rally" turnout was pretty low.

Pasadena gadfly and politician and wrestling promoter Aaron Proctor providing the laughs.

I had such high hopes. But another Belmont is over and there's no Triple Crown winner.

You have to wonder about the crack on Big Brown's hoof and how it affected his performance on the 1 1/2 mile track.

Kent Desormeaux had some excuses ..the heat a stumble "long before we went into the last turn. I had no horse."

Desormeaux said there's no relationship between the heel and the sorry finish.

Maybe next year. There's a reason why the Triple Crown is the hardest accomplishment in sports -- three races in four weeks -- a grueling pace...for the equine athletes

Big Brown's shot for glory in the Belmont got me thinking about a horse named Charismatic, a horse that truly had an opportunity for greatness only to break down in the stretch of the Belmont in 1999 and finish third.

That after winning both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness....

Charsimatic got me thinking about jockey Patrick Valenzuela, one of the most troubled, yet charismatic, jocks ever to ride at Santa Anita or Hollywood Park.

Valenzuela's struggles with substance abuse, suspension, and a robbery accusation, only highlight the demons some riders face.

If anyone had his share of demons, it was Charismatic's rider Chris Antley, "the Ant Man."

It was Chris Antley's heroic move jumping from Charismatic's back in the Belmont stretch that saved the injured horse's life. Sadly Antley's own life was cut short when he died in Pasadena in 2000.

The case was initially treated as a homicide, but for some reason Pasadena police dropped their investigation after learning Antley had ingested a toxic cocktail of illegal substances that may have contributed to his death.

I stumbled across a Web site this morning called "Vice Tube" its a round up of criminal activities chronicled on YouTube. Interesting blog. Check it out here.

It's one of several crime-themed blogs put up by our friend Trench Reynolds with the Crime News Network.

Thursday was Pasadena Star-News education reporter Caroline An's birthday.

She celebrated in style apparently with a cake and a Tiara.

Notice the absence of foil balloons

KFI's John and Ken are headed to Pasadena to protest a state Sen. Jack Scott bill that would eliminate balloons made of foil.

This little note is at the bottom of their announcement:

*Please be responsible balloon holders. The release of balloons is NOT encouraged.

Cops are looking for a woman who stole almost 800 lottery tickets from a La Crescenta gas station and tried to cash a few of 'em at a Pasadena store a few hours later.

The tickets were reported stolen on May 30 about 5 a.m., officials said.  Apparently the theft was the result of a smash and grab that netted about 4 Grand in food and the lottery tickets.

A security video making the rounds this morning, shows the same woman in both locations.

Detectives described the suspect as Hispanic, about 25- 30, 5 feet 3 inches tall and 160 pounds, with long dark hair.