Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 30, 2010

4

MountainViews-News Saturday, October 30, 2010 

Tournament Moving Fast Towards Jan. 1

Playhouse 
Plaza Project 
Struck Down 
by Court 

Local Arrests Made in 
Contractor Sing Operation 

 
A total of 111 suspected 
unlicensed contractors were 
arrested, including two from 
Pasadena, during the two-
day statewide undercover 
operation last week. 
Fourteen notices were given 
to unlicensed contractors in 
Pasadena to appear in Los 
Angeles County Superior 
Court.

 In a statement Thursday 
the Contractors State 
License Board’s (CSLB) 
said during the two-day 
blitz, October 20 and 21, 
investigators from CSLB’s 
Statewide Investigative 
Fraud Team (SWIFT) 
posed as homeowners or 
community organization 
volunteers, asking for bids 
on projects that ranged 
from swimming pool repair 
to painting, landscaping, 
and tree trimming. Those 
who bid more than the legal 
limit of $500 for labor and 
materials received a Notice 
to Appear (NTA) in court 
for a misdemeanor charge 
of contracting without 
a license. Other charges 
included illegal advertising 
and soliciting excessive 
down payments. State law 
also requires contractors to 
put their license number in 
all forms of advertising.

 “This Blitz is a wake-up call 
for all California consumers,” 
said CSLB Registrar Steve 
Sands. “You must check out 
the people you’re going to 
hire to work on your home 
to make sure they’re properly 
licensed. Your family safety 
or your finances could be 
jeopardized by not taking 
a few minutes to verify the 
contractor on CSLB’s website 
or through our toll-free 
phone system.”

 Sands added that consumers 
often don’t realize the risk 
they run when hiring an 
unlicensed operator. Because 
these phony contractors don’t 
carry workers’ compensation 
insurance, the homeowner 
could be liable if a worker 
gets hurt on the job. Also, 
if something goes wrong or 
the project is abandoned, 
homeowners have few 
options for getting back their 
money.

 The goal of CSLB’s 
twice-yearly blitz is to 
educate consumers about 
potential dangers of hiring 
phony contractors, and to 
encourage people who want 
to work in the construction 
trades and who qualify to get 
their contractor license to 
comply with California law. 

 The Pasadena City Attorney, 
Pasadena Police Department 
and Department of 
Insurance all helped in 
the investigation. The 
Department of Homeland 
Security’s Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement also 
assisted with the operation.

 City contemplates 
next move.

By Dean Lee

 Mayor Bill Bogaard told 
members of the city council 
Monday night that all pubic 
hearings for the $75 million 
IDS Playhouse Plaza project, 
set to start next month, have 
been canceled after a court 
ruling ordered the city to 
vacate the approval of the 
project. 

 The first hearing for 
the160,000-square-foot retail/
office project at 680 East 
Colorado Boulevard was 
scheduled for November 15 he 
said.

 At issue was the city’s 
certification of the 
environmental impact report.

 “This is the result of a 
ruling issued by the Los 
Angeles County Superior 
Court on Friday afternoon 
which granted a writ of 
mandate in part and denied 
a writ of mandate in part in a 
proceeding that was brought 
by certain opponents of this 
project,” Bogaard explained.

 Former Councilman Sid Tyler 
and Planning Commissioner 
Richard Norton founded 
Pasadenans for a Livable 
City, the group that filed the 
lawsuit last year. Executive 
director of Pasadena Heritage, 
Sue Mossman, also joined 
the lawsuit. Councilman 
Terry Tornek had also voice 
opposition to the project. 

 Superior Court Judge 
Thomas McKnew ruled that 
the city must comply with 
the California Environmental 
Quality Act (CEQA) regarding 
a mid-block crosswalk, to 
alternatives analysis, and to the 
impact on historic resources. 

 “The order further restrained 
the city from taking any action 
in furtherance of the project 
unless the revised EIR has been 
prepared, publicly circulated 
and approved,” Bogaard said.

 McKnew said the alternatives 
analysis should look at smaller 
and lower built alternatives. 
He also said the city and 
consultants should examine 
the project with relationship 
to surrounding historic 
buildings.

 Bogaard said the city had not 
decided what actions would be 
taken.

 “I’m certain that the parties, 
the petitioners, the nominal 
defendant, which is the city of 
Pasadena and the real party of 
interest, which is the developer 
of the project are all spending 
some serious time thinking 
through what their position 
is and what actions might be 
taken,” Bogaard said. 

 The project is being built by 
IDS Development Group.

 
The Pasadena Tournament of Roses crowned 
the 93rd Rose Queen, Evanne Friedmann (center) 
Thursday in an official coronation ceremony at the 
Pasadena Convention Center —earlier this week 
the Tournament also announced Food Network 
icon Paula Deen (right) as the Grand Marshal of 
the 2011 Rose Parade festivities. 

 In the official ceremony presented by Citizens 
Business Bank, Queen Evanne was officially 
crowned by President Jeffrey Throop. All seven of 
the Rose Princesses were also honored during the 
ceremony. 

 “The ladies that stood before us today were 
beautiful, smart and poised,” Throop said. “We 
are so honored to have them as a part of our 
Tournament of Roses family. They will continue 
to be excellent ambassadors of the Tournament of 
Roses. We could not be more proud.” 

 
The Tournament revealed Deen Tuesday saying 
that she “is going to whip up some friendships, 
fold in some dreams and roll out some memories 
on New Year’s Day as the Grand Marshal.”

 “I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to be 
a part of such a special American tradition that 
brings such joy to so many every year,” Deen 
said. “In my house, the Rose Parade and the Rose 
Bowl Game have always been a grand tradition 
for ringing in the New Year. To serve as Grand 
Marshal is a dream come true and I look forward 
to sharing the celebration with all of the fans and 
viewers worldwide.”

 Finding bus routes, stops 
and departure times just got 
easier and faster for Pasadena 
residents and visitors thanks 
to a partnership between the 
city of Pasadena and Google 
Transit.

 Google’s Transit Trip 
Planner now includes 
detailed information on the 
six routes of Pasadena Area 
Rapid Transit System (ARTS) 
buses and Metro buses and 
trains.

 It’s similar to getting driving 
directions in Google Maps, 
but by clicking on the “By 
public transit” icon, the result 
of the query provides bus and 
rail directions.

 By visiting www.google.com/
transit or typing “Google 
Transit” into a web browser, 
transit users can access a 
powerful and convenient 
trip planner with a familiar 
interface. People with 
smartphones such as iPhone, 
Android and BlackBerry can 
also use the service.

 Google Transit information 
can also be accessed at www.
cityofpasadena.net/artsbus, 
where all schedules, maps, 
fare information and Metro’s 
Trip Planner are in one 
convenient place.

 “Let’s say you are without a car 
at work, when unexpectedly 
you need to see someone in 
the hospital. Google Transit 
can tell you when the next 
bus is expected, where the bus 
stop is, the time it will take 
to walk to the bus stop and 
how to transfer if needed,” 
said Sebastián Hernández, 
associate planner in Pasadena 
Transportation Department.

 Also listed are bus fares, 
other transit route options 
and images of streets where 
bus stops are located.

 Less consumer knowledge 
is needed than with other 
servers. If someone wants to 
go to the Rose Bowl Stadium 
but doesn’t know the address, 
Google knows it, along with 
addresses of other place 
names and businesses.

 Google Transit is available 
in more than 400 regions 
worldwide and in more than 
10 languages.

 For more information call 
(626) 744-4055.

Arts Bus 
Schedules 
On Google

Citizen Journalism Meet-up

 

 

 

 
The Pasadena Community 
Network and this newspaper 
are holding a workshop on 
Citizen Journalism. 

 This group is the place where 
aspiring journalists can learn 
from trained professionals 
and support their local 
community by covering 
what’s really happening in 
their neighborhoods.

 We will put the news in your 
hands. Learn how to find 
the story, the tools needed 
to capture the story and the 
means to tell the story using 
the power of video, audio and 
print along with online social 
media The next meeting will 
be Oct. 26, from 6 to 8p.m. 
at the Pasadena Community 
Network - Studio G, 2057 N. 
Los Robles Ave.

 For more info call 
626.794.8585 or visit 
pasadenan.ning.com.

 
Learn not just how 
to blog but how to 
report the news


Dallas Raines Live on PCN

 Channel 32 presents the PCN 
weekly series, “ Conversations 
with Stuart Johnson”. Stuart 
welcomes back for the third time, 
ABC7 Chief Meteorologist Dallas 
Raines. Raines will take the viewers 
on a Tornado Chasing adventure 
in the mid-west.Watch Tuesday 
night Nov.2 at 9 pm on Charter 
Cable 32 or streaming online at 
pasadenacommunitynetwork.
com.


Health Department Offers Free Vaccinations

 Flu season is coming! The 
Pasadena Public Health 
Department advises everyone 
in the community to make sure 
they and their loved ones are 
protected this year from the 
seasonal flu and other vaccine-
preventable diseases. 

 “The best way to prevent the flu 
is to get vaccinated, and this year 
there are many ways to ensure 
that you can: Go to a community 
clinic, call your doctor or visit a 
local retailer to get your shot,” 
said Dr. Eric Walsh, director and 
health officer of the Pasadena 
Public health Department. 

 The department is offering 
free community vaccine clinics 
at four locations in Pasadena to 
provide free seasonal flu shots 
and screen eligibility to get other 
vaccines that prevent disease. 
The clinics are open to infants, 
children and adults 6 months of 
age and older; all minors must be 
accompanied by a parent or legal 
guardian. 

 Vaccine supplies at each 
Pasadena site are limited. The 
four community vaccine clinics 
are scheduled as follows: 

 * Thursday, Nov. 4, from 10 a.m. 
to 2 p.m. at Victory Park Center, 
2575 Paloma St. (626) 744-7500. 

 * Wednesday, Nov. 10, from 10 
a.m. to 2 p.m. at Pasadena Senior 
Center, 85 E. Holly St. (626) 
795-4331. Please note this site 
requires pre-registration. 

 * Thursday, Nov. 18, from 11 
a.m. to 1 p.m. at Villa-Parke 
Community Center, 363 E. Villa 
St. (626) 744-6530. 

 Vaccines will also be offered 
at the Pasadena Public 
Health Department’s Adult 
Immunization Clinic during 
regular walk-in hours Tuesdays 
through Thursdays from 8:15 
to 10:45 a.m. and Mondays 
through Thursdays from 1:15 
to 4:30 p.m.; and the Childhood 
Immunization Clinic Mondays 
from 1:15 to 4:45 p.m. Both are 
located at 1845 N. Fair Oaks 
Ave., visit www.cityofpasadena.
net/publichealth or call (626) 
744-6000.

Raines (left) with Johnson 

Countdown to Comet 
Flyby Down To Days

Pet of the 
Week

 On Nov. 4 at about 7:01 
a.m. NASA’s EPOXI mission 
spacecraft will make its closest 
approach to the comet Hartley 2 
at a distance of about 434 miles. 
It will be the fifth time that a 
comet has been imaged close-up 
and the first time in history that 
two comets have been imaged 
with the same instruments and 
same spatial resolution.

 The mission’s encounter phase 
begins the evening of Nov. 3, 
when the spacecraft is about 18 
hours from the time of closest 
approach to the comet’s nucleus. 
At that time the spacecraft will 
stop transmitting through its 
large high-gain antenna and 
reorient itself so its two visible-
light and one infrared imager 
maintain lock on the comet for 
the next 24 hours-plus.

 “When the encounter phase 
begins all images the spacecraft 
takes will be stored aboard 
its two computers,” said Tim 
Larson, project manager for the 
EPOXI mission from NASA’s Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory. “Soon 
after we fly past the comet at 
about 7 a.m. local time, we 
will be able to re-orient the 
spacecraft so that we maintain 
imaging lock on the comet 
nucleus while pointing our big 
high gain antenna at Earth.”

 At that point, the spacecraft 
will begin beaming down its 
cache of cometary close-ups 
while continuing to take new 
images. It is expected to take 
several hours for all the images 
held aboard spacecraft memory 
to be downliked.

 “Hartley 2 has already put on 
a great show with more than a 
few surprises for the mission’s 
science team,” said EPOXI 
principal investigator Mike 
A’Hearn from the University of 
Maryland, College Park. “We 
expect more of the unexpected 
during encounter.”

 For more information about 
EPOXI visit http://www.nasa.
gov/epoxi or http://epoxi.umd.
edu/.


NASA’s New Mars Rover Live On the Web

 

 A newly installed webcam is 
giving the public an opportunity 
to watch technicians assemble 
and test the next NASA 
Mars rover, one of the most 
technologically challenging 
interplanetary missions ever 
designed.

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, 
also known as the Curiosity 
rover, is in a clean room at 
the agency’s Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. 
The webcam, affectionately 
called “Curiosity Cam,” provides 
the video feed, without audio, 
from a viewing gallery above the 
clean room floor. The video will 
be supplemented periodically 
by live Web chats featuring 
Curiosity team members 
answering questions about the 
rover. Currently, work in the 
clean room begins at 8 a.m. PDT 
Monday through Friday.

 Assembly engineers and 
technicians have been busy 
adding new avionics and 
instruments to the rover. 
Beginning Friday, viewers will 
see the assembly team carefully 
install the rover’s suspension 
system and its six wheels. On 
Tuesday, the rover’s 7-foot-long 
robotic arm will be carefully 
lifted and attached to the front 
of the rover.

 Continuous live video of rover 
construction is available at: 
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/
nasajpl . 

 The camera shows a portion of 
the clean room that is typically 
active; but the rover, spacecraft 
components and technicians 
may move out of view as work 
shifts to other areas of the room. 
When activity takes place in 
other testing facilities around 
JPL, the clean room may be 
empty. The camera may also 
be turned off periodically for 
maintenance or technical issues.

 Curiosity is engineered to drive 
longer distances over rougher 
terrain than previous rovers 
with a science payload 10 times 
the mass of instruments on 
NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity.

 The new, large rover will 
investigate whether the landing 
region has had environments 
favorable for supporting 
microbial life and for preserving 
evidence about whether life 
existed on the Red Planet.

 
Tustin, a beautiful, two 
year old, cat is very outgoing 
and affectionate. He would 
be great companion for 
someone in an apartment 
or condo. Tustin was found 
stray and would love to be 
adopted into a new and 
loving home today!

 The regular cat adoption 
fee is $70 which includes 
the spay or neuter surgery, 
microchip, vaccinations, 
and a free follow-up health 
check at a participating vet.

 Please call 626-792-7151 
and ask about A277663 
or come to the Pasadena 
Humane Society & SPCA, 
361 S. Raymond Ave , 
Pasadena CA , 91105 . 
Our adoption hours are 
11-3 Sunday, 9-4 Tuesday, 
Wednesday, Thursday, and 
Friday, and 9-3 Saturday. 
Directions and photos of 
all pets updated hourly 
may be found at www.
pasadenahumane.org

Get Up and Moving with 
Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard

 Mayor Bill Bogaard, along 
with board members and 
staff of the YWCA Pasadena- 
Foothill Valley Chapter, will 
lead a 3.3-mile walk around the 
Rose Bowl Loop at 7:30 a.m. 
Wednesday, Nov. 3, as part of 
Up & Moving Pasadena.

 The YWCA is dedicated 
to eliminating racism, 
empowering women and 
promoting peace, justice, 
freedom and dignity for all.

 Meet at Gate A at the stadium. 
Free parking is available. 
All levels of ability will be 
accommodated.

 Up & Moving Pasadena is a 
community effort to support 
fitness for health. Walks are 
scheduled the first Wednesday 
of every month except January. 

 Find walking tips, start a 
walking group and track your 
progress at www.upandmoving.
org or call (626) 831-2980.

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com