Featured Articles from the La Canada Valley Sun

The game of basketball looks like it comes easy to Marcus LoVett, Jr. It's getting out of the gym after a game that can be a problem for the Providence High point guard. The 15-year old freshman phenom carries a lot of hype with him and commands attention in any gym he's playing in for the Pioneers. "It takes you five minutes to get him out of the gym because people are asking him for an autograph, a picture or whatever it may be," first-year Providence Coach Ernest Baskerville said.

Katelyn Almeida, Senior, Flintridge Sacred Heart New Mexico-bound defender stepped into the spotlight and provided senior leadership and a steady defensive presence. Was an All-Mission League first-teamer and an All-CIF Southern Section Division I third-team pick on a defense that tallied eight shutouts. Noel Askins, Soph., Pasadena Poly Fleet-footed forward was the Prep League Offensive Most Valuable Player and an All-CIF Southern Section Division III first-teamer.

A scientific instrument designed to take the most meaningful snapshot yet of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is on its way to space, via a lengthy testing detour in Arizona. On May 9 Jet Propulsion Laboratory workers in La Canada Flintridge sent the instrument, part of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, to Gilbert, Ariz., where it will be tested and integrated with the satellite that will house it. NASA plans to launch the OCO-2 from Vandenberg Air Force Base by the summer of 2014.

While most of La Cañada residents were relaxing on the Fourth of July the Los Angeles County Fire Department was busy answering calls all over the county. "We had so many calls, we haven't had time to tally them yet," said Sam Padilla, public information officer for LA County Fire Department. "No major fires but a lot of grass, tree and brush fires all over the area last night [July 4]." According to Padilla a majority of the fires were started by fireworks. Many of the calls came from La Cañada and the unincorporated areas of Montrose and La Crescenta.

At the 9.10.11 in 91011 event this weekend, residents of La Cañada Flintridge will celebrate the unique character of their city on a once-in-a-lifetime coincidence of the date and the local ZIP code. La Cañada Flintridge's ZIP code, 91011, is one of just four in the country composed of consecutive numbers, and this Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011, will be the one time this century it matches the date. Local resident Todd Andrews, chair of the event's organizing committee, said that the idea for the celebration grew out of on offhand remark made at a cocktail party during the last year's holiday season.

It?s been more than 18 months since Rubina Khan?s husband sold her car. The 51-year-old La Cañada mom and grandmother had been told by doctors that she shouldn?t drive anymore. Health reasons kept her from being safe behind the wheel, she said. ?It was difficult, but safety always has to come first,? she added. Khan said she initially became depressed about being homebound. She was unable to get out of the house on her own, or drive down the hill from her Flintridge mountaintop home.

Panera Bread opened its new La Cañada Flintridge store Tuesday, drawing hungry patrons eager to sample menu items that include a Fuji apple chicken salad and a turkey artichoke sandwich. The bakery and cafe is the latest addition to the Town Center, at the northeast corner of Foothill Boulevard and Angeles Crest Highway, home to the Sport Chalet headquarters and several other retailers and eateries. "We have been really anxious to get it open," store manager Layla Tabata said.

A La Cañada Flintridge woman who spent years perfecting every aspect of an aristocrat’s dream home has put it on the market for a staggering $10.7 million, an asking price that aims to set a new bar for local real estate values. It’s an impressive space: 8,000 square-feet of high ceilings, carved marble fireplaces, stately polished limestone floors, seven bedrooms and living spaces wide open to natural light that pours in from an expansive courtyard and pool area. But for all of the grand aspirations, reminiscent of an 18th-century French royal chateau, the 567 Meadow Grove St. estate owned by Heather and Austin Kim is really a monument to obsessive detail.

Hanna Armendariz, Freshman, Flintridge Sacred Heart Rookie phenom was an offensive dynamo with 11 goals, five assists and a second-team All-Mission League nod. Haley Austin, Senior, La Cañada Was Rio Hondo League co-Goalie of the Year and an All-CIF Southern Section Division VI third-team selection. Whitley Boller, Senior, Crescenta Valley Long Beach State-bound talent was an All-Pacific League first-team pick who was phenomenal in the air and a physical presence in the midfield.

CALABASAS - Halfway through the La Can¿ada High boys' tennis team's CIF Southern Section Division I first-round match with Calabasas High Spartans Coach Will Moravec compared his team to the Chicago Bulls. Both the Bulls and Spartans were without key players this postseason, and while Chicago's season is still alive, La Can¿ada's season ended with a 17-1 road loss to the Coyotes, who are ranked sixth in Division I. "Whenever you get to this level in the CIF playoffs, you're playing teams with real depth, and just like in the NBA, one injury can change the whole outcome," said Moravec, whose lone victory came from Christopher Madsen, 6-3, in the final set of the day. "We needed everybody to be healthy today.

Sportswriter Bill Plaschke was sitting in Tommy Lasorda’s office watching the baseball legend eat a piece of pizza. Have one, Tommy offered. No, thanks, Bill said. But it wasn’t the answer Tommy was looking for. If you eat a piece of pizza with me, I’ll give you a scoop for a story, Tommy insisted. Bill didn’t need any more convincing, so he settled in with a cheesy slice and listened as Tommy started talking about his childhood. “That was what sparked my idea for the book,” Plaschke told a group of about 20 fans and readers at Flintridge Bookstore last week when he held a signing for his new book, “I Live For This: Baseball’s Last True Believer.

The large Mediterranean-style house still stands, high above Foothill Boulevard. The original owners were Walter and Beulah Overell. In the 1930s and 1940s, Walter Overell was one of the wealthiest men in Flintridge. He made his first fortune in the furniture business. This was followed by other successful investments. Walter doted on his wife, Beulah Jungquist Overell. Walter loved Beulah so much that liked to name things after her. Given the opportunity, he christened Beulah Drive.

Attorneys argued Monday that it was either religious intolerance or workplace incompetence that drove systems administrator David Coppedge from a post at Jet Propulsion Laboratory last year. Monday's arguments capped a five-week trial in Coppedge's lawsuit against the NASA lab in La Cañada Flintridge, in which he claimed he was removed from his job in 2011 because of his advocacy of the theory of intelligent design of the universe. “This is a series of retaliation - a series of subtly damaging injuries all starting from David's reaction” to discriminatory actions taken by supervisors, said William Becker, Coppedge's attorney.

The rain that pounded the Southland on April 13 did not douse the high spirits of the guests who waded through the puddles to arrive at the 48th Pasadena Showcase House of Design. In fact, more than 200 guests in formal attire came to take a first glance at the grand La Cañada Flintridge mansion that was built in 1927 in a Spanish Colonial Revival style. I think this old house and its first owners, Margaret Kinkelin Robbins and her husband Hunter Savidge Robbins, would have been very excited to welcome these well-dressed guests to their beautiful home for a house-warming party.