The Rotary Club of Monterey Park will host a Casino Night on Friday, April 9th starting at 7:00 P.M. at the Boys and Girls Club of the West San Gabriel Valley, 328 S. Ramona Avenue, Monterey Park, CA 91754. Proceeds will support both local and international club projects.

One person died and $50,000 damaged was caused by an apartment fire that occurred Monday morning (March 1, 2010) at 03:49 a.m. according the Monterey Park Fire Department.

The fire occurred at an apartment complex located in the 600 block of West Fernfield Avenue in south Monterey Park.

By Shel Segal
PASADENA – The Mark Keppel High boys’ basketball team’s quest for a CIF Southern Section title came to a screeching derailment Friday night as the Aztecs shot poorly from the floor and lost to Pasadena High, 63-48, in front of an electrically packed crowd at Muir High in the CIF Southern Section semifinals.

San Gabriel –  Dr. Jennifer Perry, associate professor of anthropology, Pomona College, will lead a History Forum about Chumash Indian people at San Gabriel Mission History Day from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, March 13, rain or sun, as part of mission’s monthly History Day.

High flying Mark Keppel Aztec boys basketball team lost, 63 to 48 against Pasadena High School in the CIF Southern Section quarter finals Friday night (Feb. 26) at Muir High School.

SGVJournal Photog  Mario Villegas photos shows, top left, Aztec Justin Young runs into Pasadena's Steven Shares. Below: Mark Keppel point guard Timmy Wong going up for a basket in the fourth quarter of the game.

PHOTOS BY MARIO VILLEGAS.

More details later.

San Gabriel, CA – In an effort to revitalize San Gabriel Boulevard, one of the city’s most important business districts, the City of San Gabriel is preparing a new streetscape plan and will hold a meeting on Wednesday, March 3, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the San Gabriel Library. 500 S. Del Mar Avenue.

Rosemead, CA – The Rosemead School District has partnered with the American Cancer Society to host the Relay for Life of Rosemead on Saturday, May 22 thru Sunday, May 23 from 9 a.m. to 9 a.m. (24 hours).The event will take place at Muscatel Middle School, 4201 N. Ivar Avenue.

By Shel Segal

It is playoff season for winter sports. Here's a look at how some west San Gabriel Valley prep teams have faired in the CIF Southern Section postseason:

By Shel Segal

ROSEMEAD - The Rosemead boys' basketball team got off to a slow start, losing a plethora of nonleague games under first year coach Gilbert Jimenez. Then something started to happen.

They started to come together.

By Shel Segal

ROSEMEAD – The Rosemead City Council has shown interest at its Feb. 9 meeting in partnering with other groups to help restore the decades-old Dinsmoor House that is located on Ellis Lane.

The house, which is consider to have historical significance to the city, has fallen into some disrepair over the years and will take a considerable amount of money to restore, officials said.

By Shel Segal

ROSEMEAD – Despite the recession that has gripped the national and world economy, Rosemead Mayor Margaret Clark said the city is “financially stable” with a good amount of reserves on hand and a solid sales tax base.

Speaking at the State of the City breakfast hosted by the Rosemead Chamber of Commerce Tuesday at the Doubletree Hotel, Clark said Rosemead is in the top 10 cities in Los Angeles County in maintaining its sales tax base. While the average sales tax drop during the recession in the county is 16.9 percent, Clark said the city is off just 6.3 percent.

Monterey Park Library will be closing on Fridays and Saturdays beginning March 1, to comply with budget cuts approved by the Monterey Park City Council at a meeting on Wednesday, February 17.

"In order to meet the demand of city budget reductions, the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library board is reducing days of operations and part-time staff beginning March 1, 2010" announced City Librarian Dr. Barbara Williams.

The library will contine to open Sundays through Thursdays. For specific hours, contact the Library.

During the council discussion of library closures, several council members expressed concern over closing on Fridays and Saturdays. However, Dr. Morrow explained the staffing requirements for those days. With the loss of part-time employes, the library cannot open on Saturdays, she said.

""We will work with the City Manager, he City Council and labor associations over the next few weeks to create additional strategiees that eneable the Library to continue to meet the knowledge, informatin and entertainment needs of the cocmmunity," said Dr. Williams.

Rosemead: Virginia Peterson, Garvey School District Superintendent, has been named California Superintendent of the Year for 2010 by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).

Ms. Peterson was honored at the AASA National Education Conference February 11-13, 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Monterey Park installed Councilman Anthony Wong as mayor at a special  council meeting held on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at city hall.

Wong succeeds Mitchell Ing who has been in the Mayor’s spot during most of last year. Ing presided over his last meeting early Wednesday at a four-hour session to cut the city budget.

Monterey Park City Council will hold a special meeting Wednesday, Feb. 17 to look at proposed “adjustments” to the current budget to make up for reported potential shortfall of $4 million in city revenues resulting from the nation’s economic conditions.

The meeting will be held in the City Council Chambers at City Hall beginning at 8 a.m. The meeting is open to the public.

LOS ANGELES – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)  last week announced the settlement of two lawsuits against Landwin  Management, Inc., which operates the San Gabriel Hilton Hotel, for $500,000  and significant remedial relief in cases alleging national origin discrimination   and sexual harassment.

Both suits were filed in September 2007 under Title  VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In the first lawsuit (Case No. CV 07-06169 SJO), the EEOC charged that non- Chinese banquet servers were rejected for hire based on their national origin  when the San Gabriel Hilton severed its contract and hired Landwin  Management to operate the establishment in April 2005.

Note:  The following is a reprint of an article written by Monterey Park resident Terry De Wolfe for the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) . NAMI-SGV is a long time supporter of “Medicare for All” and parity for mental illnesses in all insurance programs.

In the political health care battle that resulted in the recent narrow (5 votes) passage of “something” by the House of Representatives, single payer health insurance –  “Medicare for All” (HR-676) - was exempted from the process. And while other plans were priced and analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office, Medicare for All was denied CBO review. This Cinderella was not invited to the ball.

Sometimes you read things in the newspaper that are hard to believe. One of my old bosses, Al Diaz, said that these crazy stories were made up by an “overnight editor” for news wire services who didn’t have enough stories, so he made up a few to meet his quota. You know the kind of stories that I mean. Things such as “man bites dog,” or “man goes over Niagara falls in a barrel and survives.’

Best yet are the countless stories of someone flushing down something valuable into the sewer and recovering it years later in the belly of a fish.