Featured Articles from the La Canada Valley Sun

Coach Gavin Williams came into this season knowing it would take heart if his La Cañada High wrestling team was going to emerge as the 2011 Rio Hondo League champions. That's exactly what Williams got from his athletes in a duel against South Pasadena on Tuesday with the league title on the line. The Spartans received some big performances, as they have all year long, and held off the Tigers for a 47-30 victory. The win secured La Cañada's (3-0 in league) first Rio Hondo League championship in two years.

For more than 20 years Michael Huber had been an example of high Christian morals and devotion to community and children. He was sentenced last week in a Pasadena courtroom to four years and eight months in prison for child pornography. Before being arrested, the La Crescenta resident spoke to church groups and PTA audiences, impressing them with his compassion and his understanding of today's youth. He spoke and everyone listened. That was not the case Monday, when he sat and listened to former friends ask him why he had taken their trust and victimized their children.

Annemarie Gabrielle Polizzotto, of La Crescenta, age 15, left our world on Saturday night July 23, 2005. It was a result of a tragic accident in San Bernardino. She was with a group there to cheer on her sister Maddalena's 12-year -old all-star team when the accident occurred. Immediately, an overwhelming stream of tributes began to flow in - an outpouring of candlelight vigils, flowers, cards, huge gatherings of friends, moments of silence and prayers continue to mount. All to honor this very specied young lady whose short life touched so very many hearts.

A group of 158 young men were graduated on June 5 on the campus of St. Francis High School in La Cañada. Fr. Antonio Marti, O.F.M.Cap., the Provincial of the Western American Province of the Capuchin Franciscan Order, represented his Eminence Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles at the graduation. Fr. Matthew Elshoff, O.F.M.Cap., the school president, and Thomas Moran, the school principal, also officiated at the 55th commencement ceremony of the local Catholic, college-preparatory institution.

The long-awaited opening of a specialty grocery store in the vacant former Sport Chalet location on Foothill Boulevard will take at least another six months, but other area entrepreneurs promise they’re still on track to open this summer. Henry’s Market previously planned to open across from Town Center as early as this month, but a corporate merger in February that changed Henry’s to Sprouts has also forced construction delays, according to Sprouts President Doug Sanders. Sprouts remains committed to opening a store in the heart of La Cañada Flintridge — only now likely in January 2012, Sanders said.

A dozen years after La Cañada residents Harold “Skip” Tillman and his wife, Joni, were found buried in remote graves, investigators say they have new developments regarding the murders, but are staying tight-lipped about any details. “There are some things that we're working on, but it's not anything I can divulge right now,” said Det. Ryan Ford of the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department Cold Case Homicide Division. “It's definitely a case that we have open and we're actively seeking out additional leads and information.” Skip Tillman, an accountant, and Joni, a homemaker, were last seen dining at J.J. Steakhouse in Pasadena on Feb. 6, 2000.

A settlement between the city of La Cañada Flintridge and the family of the victims who died in the April 1, 2009 runaway truck crash on Angeles Crest Highway is expected to be formalized this week, according a lawyer involved with the case. Attorney Scott Grossberg, who was representing the city on behalf of the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority, said Monday that the CJPIA had decided to issue a settlement of $50,000 to the family of Angel Posca and his 12-year-old daughter Angelina, who perished in the accident.

In January, Superintendent Wendy Sinnette and the LCUSD Governing Board moved to request that the state of California give the LCUSD the revenue it lost due to the two "wind days" that closed the LCUSD schools in December 2011.  Given the shortfalls facing the LCUSD, no one can argue against this decision.  However, despite the fact that the teachers of the LCUSD have been paid for the two "wind days," no mention has been made of actually restoring these  two lost instructional days to the ultimate losers in this situation: the parents and students of the LCUSD.

This winter, focus on your writing at the UCLA Extension Writers Studio, four days of intensive writing workshops held Feb. 9-12 in Los Angeles. The Writers Studio brings together a community of aspiring creative writers and screenwriters to work with accomplished instructors. Participants choose one of 10 workshops in which they work closely with a professional writer in classes limited to no more than 20 students. The 2006 Writers Studio workshops are: SCREENWRITING Tools of the Trade: Creating a 120-Page Screenplay out of a One-Sentence Story Idea, Janna Gelfand (Academy Award-nominated producer, author of A Practical Guide to Flawless Screenplay Form)

When the calendar says October, it's time in California to start thinking about a desert getaway because it won't be long before temperatures come down enough to make a trip to the desert quite appealing. The sun's still there in the late fall and winter, but those oppressive summer daytime temperatures moderate quite a bit. With its unique plants, topography and gorgeous views, the desert can be a magical place. The cooler months offer the best hiking weather of the year and you'll love exploring a landscape that can be both barren and awe-inspiring at the same time.

It's hard to imagine a country with just 13 swimming pools. Three years ago, when Jeremy Piasecki, a Marines warrant officer, began to dream of putting together a national water polo team in Afghanistan to boost the moral of the country's swimmers, that's all the fledgling team had to work with. Now, the dream has grown, and the Afghan team has its collective eye on qualifying for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. But how does a team with access to so few pools adequately train to compete against the world's best teams?

When La Cañada Flintridge resident Oliver Kolevski's 11-year-old son, Max, was diagnosed with gluten and lactose intolerances a year ago, he had a hard time finding healthy foods for him to eat. “I had to find a way to send my son to school, without bread, without macaroni, without all these things,” said Kolevski. “And I had to figure out how to keep him healthy and happy - and at the same time to enjoy his food - and that become pretty serious business.” Kolevski said that he found some success with products like goat milk and corn pasta he found at markets like Sprouts and Trader Joe's, but he wanted to give his son more nutrition and variety.

A portrait by a noted local artist that had been hanging unceremoniously near a set of bathrooms at La Cañada Elementary School has found a new home. La Cañada Unified has placed the life-size painting of the community's first school teacher, Helen Haskell, on permanent loan to the Lanterman House museum , where it will be restored and eventually displayed in the second-floor ballroom. The piece dates to the early 1890s and is the work of the subject's husband, Stephen Seymour Thomas, who made his living painting the rich and famous, including President Woodrow Wilson, and settled in La Crescenta shortly after World War I. “La Cañada Elementary did not have a large enough space to properly display the portrait,” said Sharon Hancock, office manager at the school and the catalyst behind the loan.

Friends said their goodbyes when Sue Savona left her Glendale home just before Christmas to drive across the country for the holidays. They were shocked last week to learn that the La Cañada High School graduate and former Jet Propulsion Laboratory worker will not return. Savona, a mother of nine, experienced severe stomach pains while traveling with her husband Gary and nine children to visit family in Green Bay, Wisc. Gary Savona took her to a hospital in Tulsa, Okla., and continued on to Green Bay to drop off the children.