Featured Articles from the La Canada Valley Sun

Ten Years Ago A La Cañada High School senior shot in the face during an after-prom party at a residence on Greencrest Road was in stable condition at Huntington Memorial Hospital 10 years ago this week, as investigators continued tracking down clues that would lead them to the shooter. Some of the party-goers reported that several South Pasadena High School students had shown up uninvited at the location and a fight erupted. The following week, it was reported in the Valley Sun that a 17-year-old South Pasadena student was arrested on that campus and charged in the shooting.

Officials have closed off part of Angeles Crest Highway after a man apparently took his own life by mixing chemicals to create a toxic substance, authorities said. [ Updated 2:30 p.m.: Authorities have reopened Angeles Crest Highway following an apparent sucide investigation involving a chemical substance].  An adult man's body was discovered in a vehicle around 10 a.m. Wednesday near mile marker 39.31 of the Angeles Crest Highway, said Lt. Angela Shepherd of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station.

Dancing is her passion. Kelly Phelan has been taking dance instruction classes ? from ballet and tap to jazz, Broadway and lyrical ? for just about half of her 8-year-old life. The youth said there?s nothing she?d rather do than tap her toes and move her feet. But, there?s more to this week?s Valley Sun All-Star than rhythm, tempo and talent. The Palm Crest Elementary School third-grader also has a passion for people and making life a little brighter for those less fortunate. Kelly?

John Goddard, the La Cañada Flintridge adventure-seeker who earned the nickname “the real life Indiana Jones,” has died. He was 88. When he was 15 years old, Goddard made a list of 127 goals, from exploring the Nile River to scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro. He completed all but a few of the tasks, some of them death-defying, earning international recognition. After a battle with a rare form of cancer, Goddard passed away on Friday, May 17 at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, said his son, Jeffery Goddard.

It was a normal night in the 91011.The east La Cañada parking lots were full. The Flintridge Proper waiters served flutes of champagne mixed with gin and flowers. At Taylors, bartenders quietly cranked out gin and tonics while servers carried baskets of crusty sourdough bread. The Sakura sushi chefs were busy with nigiri, maki and sake. Min's filled order after order of pad Thai. While the customers at Min's waited, they leafed through stacks of local papers. For example, the Valley Sun. The Valley Sun, which was strangely full of letters to the editor.

After postponing talks for several months, the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board is ready to again consider the possibility of putting another parcel tax before voters in 2014 and could conduct a survey to gauge public interest as early as May. Board members on Tuesday discussed a timetable for a survey to gauge voter support. A decision on whether to officially move forward with the $20,000 survey is expected to be made at the next regular meeting on April 16. A new parcel tax would help the district avoid the fiscal vacuum that would occur when Measure LC, the $150 parcel tax passed by voters in 2009, expires in June 2014.

Though separated by two divisions in the CIF Southern Section, the La Cañada High and Flintridge Prep baseball teams have run through similar seasons in 2013. Both began 2013 with teams coming off seasons in which they failed to make the playoffs and both were looking to regroup under first-year coaches. And now, both have rattled off surprising runs to respective league titles, as the Spartans won the Rio Hondo League crown and the Rebels claimed a share of the Prep League championships.

This weekend La Cañada Flintridge will put its best foot forward with its 39th annual Fiesta Days celebration. The event has grown from modest beginnings into a three-day series of activities culminating in a Memorial Day parade, which last year drew thousands. In addition to the parade, fireworks, live music, a vintage car show and a free screening of “Puss in Boots” in Memorial Park will draw residents to the action. Organizers have added new attractions to Fiesta Days each of the last two years.

Oh my, I've been loving this weather. Coastal eddy can come and stay for the entire summer. These cool mornings are divine, and the air smells so sweet. Speaking of fragrances, the other night I was held hostage in my car for nearly 40 minutes because there was a huge skunk inspecting my front yard and I didn't dare open the door. I sure as heck didn't want to frighten him. While I was thumping my fingers on the steering wheel, he was leisurely sniffing the flowers. He then squeezed himself under the front gate and continued his property inspection in my front courtyard.

A somber mood hung over the city this week as students, staff and parents remembered a student who jumped to his death Friday afternoon from a building on the La Cañada High School campus. Campbell Forrest Taylor, 17, was a senior at the school. Friends described him as an ambitious and outspoken young man who channeled his creative energy into theater and the school newspaper, The Spartan. PHOTOS: Memorial at La Cañada High “He was not afraid to take on controversial issues,” said Kevork Kurdoghlian, a former editor of The Spartan and 2012 graduate of La Cañada High.

After neighbors criticized Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy for exceeding its city-mandated enrollment cap, the school will admit a smaller freshman class this fall. A total of 385 students - the maximum number the school can hold under a conditional-use permit granted by the city in 1994 - will attend the school in August. The current enrollment is 410. Last year, members of the group Protect LCF complained to the city that the school's enrollment was over its limit. They objected to the resulting extra traffic to the curvy, narrow streets that lead to the hillside campus.

When Harvey Lee Block was in junior high school, he took an aptitude test to determine what professional paths might hold the most promise. At the time, he excelled at athletics and had his heart set on someday earning a football scholarship, so he wasn’t too excited to learn he could have a bright future as a clergyman or social worker. “I laughed at that,” he said. “I really wanted to be an athlete.” Today, the 70-year-old Block is living proof that the test was right.

School is officially out for the summer, but the doors of the La Cañada Playhouse, La Cañada High School’s theater, are open and filled with youngsters for the Summer Acting Camp, which began Monday. The Summer Acting Camp has been produced by the Theatrical Education Group, based out of Los Angeles, and Justin Eick, LCHS’ theater director and the Theatrical Education Group’s artistic director, for the past 14 years. The Camp originated in Glendale but has been at La Cañada High for the past three years.