Featured Articles from the La Canada Valley Sun

This post has been updated. See below. A man found dead early Thursday morning along Angeles Crest Highway just above La Cañada Flintridge suffered a possible gunshot wound, said Los Angeles County Coroner spokesman Craig Harvey. California Highway Patrol officers have closed the Crest to traffic as Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. detectives investigate the scene. The body was discovered near the first turnout above the Angeles National Forest snow gate, about 2.7 miles north of the Foothill (210)

Los Angeles police officers have arrested a man suspected in the April 19 robbery of a Bank of America branch in La Cañada Flintridge. Daniel Nardine, 31, dubbed the Foothill Bomber Bandit by the FBI, is also being investigated in a bank robbery in Tujunga the same week. Robbery charges will be filed next week, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. David Silversparre. LAPD officers arrested Nardine on April 24 in Hollywood on drug charges, Silversparre said. He was later linked to the Bank of America robbery.

Two Crescenta Valley High School students are being treated for a serious form of bacterial meningitis following an outbreak that led school and health officials to call a clinic where antibiotics were handed out to all takers. Ashley Insalaco, a senior at CV High, was in the intensive care unit at Verdugo Hills Hospital Tuesday evening surrounded by family members, according to her close friend, Sabrina Walentynowicz, who said she was told that evening by someone on the scene that Ashley was in a coma and non-responsive.

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE - If there was any doubt, the La Cañada High softball team proved it's ready for the CIF Southern Section Division V playoffs in its regular-season finale Thursday. It was the bats that did the talking for the Spartans, who racked up 17 hits in a five-inning 10-0 mercy-rule victory over Rio Hondo League opponent South Pasadena in five innings. “We had good at-bats and that's what I'm looking for,” La Cañada Coach KC Mathews said. “The fact our girls are seeing the ball and going with those outside pitches, driving the ball up the middle and to the right side is what really sticks out to me.” Five players - Katy Lee, Catherine Horner, Annie Monroe, Lauren Cox and Selina Mohr - had multi-hit games for La Cañada (21-4-1, 10-1-1 in league)

For the first time I am revealing to friends that I am a maquisard. They are amazed. During the German occupation of France in World War II, the maquisards, some of them very young, earned a reputation as implacable resistance fighters. They took over whole areas of near-wilderness, sallying out to sabotage railroad lines or military equipment, then disappearing back into their natural fortress. They emerged undefeated to link up with the invading allies in 1944. I was 15 years old and these were stirring times.

Should a town where residents take fierce pride in maintaining a suburban character unique to Southern California settle for just any old mass-marketed alcoholic beverage? The folks at Remedy Liquor, La Cañada Flintridge’s newest retail store, think not. A specialty wine, beer and spirits shop that opened earlier this month in the former 823 Foothill Blvd. location of Flintridge Beverage Store, Remedy Liquor is betting La Cañada’s beverage connoisseurs are ready to try something new and different.

A vinyl-sticker depiction of President Obama has appeared on a wall in Montrose in the style as the world-renowned, yet secretive, graffiti street artist Banksy. The vinyl-sticker — on a concrete wall on Ocean View Boulevard near Foothill Boulevard and the 210 Freeway — depicts the president at a podium giving a speech with the words “That’s right, ladies…” A photo of the poster has been making the rounds through the blogosphere ever since Perez Hilton, included it on his website Wednesday night.

In its January newsletter, La Cañada Unified released the statistics for the La Cañada High School class of 2011. There were 375 LCHS graduates in June of 2011, excluding five foreign exchange students. Ninety-eight percent have enrolled at colleges throughout the country and abroad, of whom 84% chose four-year colleges. (See www.lcusd.com - click on “District Newsletter.”) As February begins, high school seniors from the class of 2012 have completed most of their college applications and have transmitted their midyear final-exam grades.

Residents of La Cañada Flintridge can choose the company that hauls their trash, but in doing so, they might be choosing higher prices. Even with Athens Services and Allied Waste Services competing, and new hauler NASA soon to be offering its services as well, La Cañada residents are paying more than Altadena residents. The Los Angeles County Public Works Department on Sept. 1 entered its new exclusive contract for service in unincorporated Altadena with Athens, which charges $54 a quarter for basic three-can service, compared to quarterly prices of $89.68 for Allied and $91.11 for Athens in La Cañada.

Attorneys representing five people who were charged with beating and torturing two loan modification agents asked for more time last week to reach a potential settlement. Attorney Stephen Wegman and three other defense attorneys asked Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz Jan. 7 if the case could be extended to Jan. 27 to accommodate negotiations on a possible settlement with the district attorney. Schwartz sent the case back to Burbank Superior Court to be settled.

It was a star-spangled evening when Villa Esperanza Services held its fund-raising benefit at the beautiful La Cañada Flintridge home of Ray and Marybeth Dittu. The party, “Blue & White at Night,” was a dazzling success raising $140,000 for Villa’s programs that support individuals with disabilities at every stage of life. Mistress of ceremonies for the evening was actress Jane Kaczmarek, who presented the Villa’s 14th Annual Guardian Angel award to LCF physician Ricki Robinson.

A nearly full moon washed the gardens of the Pasadena Showcase House of Design with a soft glow when almost 300 formally-dressed guests came to take a sneak peek at this spectacular Flintridge estate. During the month that this home will be open to the public, thousands of people will come to pay homage to the home’s architect, Paul R. Williams, and to raise funds for the many school music programs sponsored by Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts (PSHA), which has presented these showcase houses for 42 years.

With traffic roaring in their ears and diesel fumes mixing with the warm spring air, four people settled into canvas chairs on the Gould Avenue overpass above the Foothill (210) Freeway this week, their gaze focused unwaveringly on the roadway below. The four were collecting data for a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority study of local traffic patterns. The data will go into the environmental impact report for the 710 gap. The study is controversial, as La Cañada Flintridge officials and others believe Metro and Caltrans will favor a 4.5-mile freeway tunnel connecting the Long Beach (710)

After meeting four separate times behind closed doors, district officials voted unanimously Tuesday to start the process of firing Gabrielle Leko, the La Cañada High School math teacher accused of making ethnic slurs and other derogatory comments to students in her classroom. Formal dismissal proceedings, however, will not begin until Feb. 27, giving the district and the embattled educator time to consider other options. Following the Tuesday vote, school board President Scott Tracy said this could include an agreement for Leko to leave at the end of the school year.