Mountain Views News          Saturday, April 27, 2013

5


Mountain Views-News Saturday, April 27, 2013 


Armenian Genocide 
Commemorated

Serial 
Arson 
Suspect 
Arrested

 A number of local 
dignitaries, including Los 
Angeles County Sheriff Lee 
Baca, spoke Wednesday 
morning at ceremony in front 
of city hall commemorating 
the Armenian genocide that 
killed 1.5 million people 
in 1915 through 1918. The 
starting date of the genocide 
is conventionally held to be 
April 24.

 Hundreds gathered at city 
hall assembled by Armenian 
National Committee of 
America and at Memorial 
Park, for another ceremony, 
held by the Pasadena 
Armenian Community 
Coalition. Memorial Park 
is the site of a proposed 
genocide memorial to be 
unveiled in 2015 making 
the 100th anniversary of the 
genocide at the hands of the 
Turkish Empire.

 “The scars are not healed,” 
said William Paparian 
Chairman of The Pasadena 
Armenian Genocide 
Memorial Committee, “The 
wounds are still festering, 
and the suffering is real. 
Today, the trauma, the pain 
is still visible in the eyes of 
the survivors. We are still 
haunted by the emptiness 
that comes from losing 
entire families. When a 
loved one disappears, the 
disappearance lasts forever.”

 The Pasadena Armenian 
Genocide Memorial 
Committee received 17 
submissions for the design 
of the Memorial and an 
independent three judge 
panel unanimously selected 
the design by Pasadena 
Art Center Environmental 
Design student Catherine 
Menard.

 Menard’s circular design 
features a 16-foot-tall tripod 
at its center. From the apex 
of the three beams will fall a 
single drop of water every 21 
seconds, totaling 1.5 million 
drops — tears — a year for 
each of the victims. It was 
shown during the city hall 
ceremony. 

 Baca applauded Menard’s 
design saying she was a 
gifted artist and had a bright 
future ahead of her.

 Police arrested and 
charged a South Pasadena 
man Monday with allegedly 
setting 25 fires including 
four in Pasadena. Twenty 
one of the fires were set in 
South Pasadena and all were 
brush and car fires with the 
exception of one, set at the 
exterior door to a business. 

 Police said they took 
Javier Adolfo Viera, 35, into 
custody April 20 after he was 
seen near the area of one of 
the fire. He was arrested 
after fingerprints, left on an 
incendiary device that did 
not burn completely, linked 
him to the fires. Viera, 
was also linked, through 
surveillance to a fire Sunday 
in the 6100 block of North 
Oak Hill Avenue in Los 
Angeles.

Police said Viera self-
confessed to most of the 
fires and a search of his 
home resulted in the 
recovery of more evidence.

 Investigators also said 
Viera eluded capture, while 
under surveillance, by 
driving down a one-way 
street the wrong way, after 
filling a bag with dried 
vegetation. Police said 
incident happened just 
blocks from where the last 
fire was set. A witness also, 
at the time, saw Viera set a 
fire under a vehicle. 

 Pasadena Fire and South 
Pasadena Fire investigators 
joined forces to investigate 
the fires, which were 
occurring since mid-
November. 

 Reports say Viera is the 
father of three young 
children and admitted to 
setting the fires due to job 
related anger and financial 
troubles. 

Logo, Trophy to Mark 100th Bowl Game

 The Tournament of Roses 
along with its partners, 
the Big Ten and Pac-12 
Conferences, and the Bowl 
Championship Series 
unveiled Tuesday a series of 
new programs including a 
new logo and modifications 
to the champion’s trophy 
to commemorate the 100th 
Rose Bowl Game.

 “As the first postseason 
bowl to reach 100 games, 
we are excited to mark this 
momentous occasion with 
enhancements to some of our 
iconic marks,” Tournament 
of Roses Executive Director 
William B. Flinn said. “We 
look forward to the events 
leading up to January 1 to 
celebrate our illustrious 
history and for the future of 
The Granddaddy of Them 
All.”

 Also among the changes, 
officials announced that the 
Rose Bowl will be named 
among five college bowl 
games to rotate as a venue 
for a new two-tier playoff 
system, College Football 
Playoff, replacing the Bowl 
Championship Series (BCS).

 The first College Football 
Playoff championship game 
on Jan. 12, 2015 will be 
played at Cowboys Stadium 
in Arlington, Texas. Other 
stadiums include, the Orange 
Bowl in Miami, the Sugar 
Bowl in New Orleans, the 
Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, 
Arizona and the Chick-fil-A 
Bowl in Atlanta. 

 Five days after this 
postseason, the Tournament 
of Roses will also host the 
16th and final BCS National 
Championship on Monday, 
January 6, at the Rose Bowl 
Stadium. This will mark the 
second time the Tournament 
of Roses has hosted two 
postseason bowl games in 
one week. The last time 
a national champion was 
crowned at the Rose Bowl 
Stadium was on January7, 
2010.

 For more information 
please visit www.
tournamentofroses.com.


Discussion 
with Author 
Dr. Adilifu 
Nama

 Super Black: 
American Pop 
Culture And Black 
Superheroes

Catherine Menard, designer of the Genocide Memorial

Controller to Deliver PCC 
Commencement Address

 New logo to marking 100th 
Rose Bowl Game

 California’s chief fiscal officer, 
Controller John Chiang, will 
deliver the keynote address 
to the 88th graduating class 
of Pasadena City College on 
Friday, May 3, 2013, at 7:00 
p.m. in Robinson Stadium. The 
PCC Class of 2013 is expected 
to number more than 1,500.

 As the state’s chief fiscal officer, 
Chiang has brought extensive 
experience and fiscal leadership 
to the State Controller’s Office. 
He was first elected to the Board 
of Equalization in 1998, where 
he served two terms, including 
three years as chair. He began 
his career as a tax law specialist 
with the Internal Revenue 
Service and previously served 
as an attorney in the State 
Controller’s Office.

 First elected in November 
2006, Chiang was reelected in 
November 2010. Upon taking 
office, he took immediate 
action to weed out waste, fraud 
and abuse of public funds and 
make the state’s finances more 
transparent and accountable to 
the public. He has proposed 
reforms to the state’s public 
pension systems, helped local 
governments navigate complex 
requirements during difficult 
economic times, protected 
California’s precious natural 
resources and ensured that more 
than $2.1 billion in unclaimed 
property was returned to the 
rightful owners. He also created 
“California Strong,” a program 
that offers financial and tax 
assistance seminars for families, 
seniors, small businesses and 
non-profit organizations.

 For more information about 
PCC’s 88th commencement 
exercises, please go to www.
pasadena.edu/graduation.

 In celebration of Free 
Comic Book Day, an annual 
event held the first Saturday 
in May throughout the 
United States, Dr. Adilifu 
Nama, who is Associate 
Professor of African 
American Studies at Loyola 
Marymount University, 
will discuss and sign copies 
of his book, Super Black: 
American Pop Culture and 
Black Superheroes. In the 
first comprehensive study 
of black superheroes in 
mainstream comics, film, 
and television, the author 
finds new avenues for 
exploring racial identity. 
Dr. Nama contends that 
black superheroes have, 
in fact, “provided an 
escape from conventional 
representations of black 
racial identity,” and “have 
offered a galactic vision of 
blackness, often as Afro-
diasporic figures that fuse the 
shiny tomorrowland of time 
travel, interdimensional 
realities, rocket ships, black 
mysticism, extraterrestrial 
beings, light speed, 
experimental technoculture, 
and cybertronic robots with 
the self-esteem politics of 
‘black is beautiful.’ In doing 
so, black superheroes offer 
some of the most stimulating 
and ideologically 
provocative representations 
of blackness ever imagined.”

 The program is free of 
charge and open to the 
public; light refreshments 
will be served. For further 
information, contact the 
Allendale Branch Library 
at (626) 744-7260 or visit 
pasadenapubliclibrary.net.


Co-op Holds Open House 


Pet of the 
Week

 


 The Arroyo Food Co-op held 
their first open house Thursday 
night as a chance for members 
and the public to get a look at 
the new planned store and hear 
about its vision for the future.

 Officials said they hope to 
have the store open at 494 
North Wilson Avenue near 
Villa Street in the fall. 

 “We are planning to carry a 
significant amount of produce, 
fresh locally grown, we also 
want to carry everyday food 
staples, so you can come in here 
shop and get what you need, 
and some products that might 
be harder to find,” said Arroyo 
Food Co-op Board of Directors 
Persident Tricia Keane. “That’s 
in part because we have 
members of the board who are 
vegetarian; there will be a wide 
variety to meet peoples dietary 
needs.” 

 The member-owners vote 
on all the major decisions in 
running the store – either 
directly through member 
meetings or indirectly through 
elected board members.

 “When you join as a member 
you actually own a share of 
the store,” Keane said. “We 
are organized as a California 
Consumer Cooperative 
Corporation, which means 
you as a member get benefits 
of getting dividends, so you do 
earn money.”

Keane said any California 
resident can become a member 
and any member can loan the 
co-op money. 

 “It’s the best loan package you 
can have,” she said. “You choose 
your amount, you choose your 
interest rate, you choose your 
terms.” There is a minimum of 
$500 and interest rates are from 
zero to 2 present she said.

 Rosie is a one-year-old 
Beagle/Dachshund mix. She 
was brought to the shelter with 
a severely infected left eye. 
Our veterinarian surgically 
removed it and she’s making a 
great recovery. Rosie has gone 
out on our Shelter School field 
trip and did extremely well 
with other dogs and people. 
She loves to go out on walks 
too. A loving family would be 
great for her. 

 Rosie’s adoption fee is $125, 
which includes her spay 
surgery, a microchip, the first 
set of vaccinations, as well 
as a free follow-up health 
check at a participating vet. 
New adopters will receive 
complimentary health and 
wellness exam from VCA 
Animal Hospitals, as well 
as a goody bag filled with 
information on how to 
care for your pet. Ask an 
adoptions counselor for more 
information during your visit 

 Call the Pasadena 
Humane Society & SPCA at 
626.792.7151 to ask about 
A323679, or visit at 361 S. 
Raymond Ave. in Pasadena. 
Adoption hours are 11-4 
Sunday, 9-5 Tuesday –Friday, 
9-4 Saturday. Pets may not 
be available for adoption and 
cannot be held for potential 
adopters from phone calls or 
email. Directions and photos 
of all pets can be found at 
www.pasadenahumane.org.

A Noise Within Free Read 
Of Three One Act Plays

 A Noise Within (ANW), the 
acclaimed classical repertory 
theatre company, offers a free, 
one-night-only reading of three 
one-act plays by Pulitzer Prize-
winning Playwright Thornton 
Wilder – The Long Christmas 
Dinner, The Wreck On The 
Five-Twenty-Five and Infancy 
– on Wednesday, May 15, 7 pm, 
as part of its “Words Within” 
reading series at its Pasadena 
theatre. Directed by Abby 
Craden, the readings feature A 
Noise Within resident artists as 
well as artists from the theatre 
company’s current repertory 
productions.

 “Wilder’s short plays are 
important to understanding his 
work as a whole,” says Craden. 
“These three selections offer a 
glimpse into the scope of his 
genius, being superb examples 
of the beautiful and poignant 
writing of one of America’s 
most beloved playwrights.”

 Poignant and moving, The 
Long Christmas Dinner 
chronicles an improbably nine-
decade-long holiday dinner 
with several generations of the 
Bayard family. The New York 
Times wrote, “If God were to 
dabble in anthropology, and 
the recording angels to write 
with wry humor and infinite 
tolerance of human folly, this 
is how the holy books would 
read.” 

 In The Wreck on the Five-
Twenty-Five, Wilder shows “the 
infinite in the utterly mundane” 
(New York Daily News) when 
train commuter who is a 
creature of habit sets off a storm 
of mystery when he calls his 
family to say he is coming home 
late from work.

 In Infancy, a rarely staged 
comedy about fulfilling basic 
needs, babies and adults switch 
roles, shedding light on parents’ 
frustrating behavior. The 
Huffington Post calls this “arc of 
life” “intriguing” and “fun.”

 The evening of readings, 
for which reservations are 
recommended, is designed 
to complement ANW’s 
hilarious and critically 
acclaimed production of 
George Farquahar’s The Beaux’ 
Strategam, adapted by Wilder 
and Ken Ludwig, which plays 
in repertory through May 
26, 2013, as well as a special 
event featuring Tappan Wilder, 
nephew of and literary executor 
for Thornton Wilder, who 
discusses the life and legacy of 
his celebrated uncle, at a special 
illustrated talk, “Thornton 
Wilder’s Versatile Pen,” on 
Sunday, May 5, 2013, 5:30 pm.

Bill To Allow Consumers 
Medication Choice Heard

 Assemblymember Chris 
Holden’s bill to ensure 
consumers have a choice in their 
pharmacy health plans has been 
overwhelmingly approved (7 
to 2) in the Assembly Business, 
Professions and Consumer 
Protections Committee.

 AB 299 follows reports 
earlier this year that health 
insurer Anthem Blue Cross 
was going to require thousands 
of its California patients with 
chronic diseases such as cancer, 
rheumatoid arthritis and HIV/
AIDS to buy prescription drugs 
from a mail order pharmacy. 
“We want to make sure that 
people who take specialty drugs 
are not being discriminated 
against,” said Assemblymember 
Holden. “Forcing patients to 
use mail-order pharmacies 
could create a difficult situation 
for many patients with severe 
illnesses. Seniors especially feel 
comfortable with their local 
pharmacies because they are 
part of the community.”

 AB 299 would prohibit any 
mail-order pharmacy from 
entering into an agreement with 
an insurance plan or disability 
insurer that requires the use of a 
mail-order pharmacy for drugs 
or requires the patient to opt-
out of the requirement. 

“We were pleased to learn of the 
successful passage of AB 299 
today in the Assembly Business, 
Professions, and Consumer 
Protection Committee, and we 
applaud Assembly Member 
Holden for his leadership 
on this issue,” said Jon R. 
Roth, CEO of the California 
Pharmacists Association. “The 
Committee’s action today was 
a significant victory for patients 
and protecting consumer choice 
in pharmacy benefits.”

 AB 299 is heard in the 
Assembly Health Committee 
next week.

Fire Department 
125-Year 
Celebration

 Celebration and reflection 
of the Department’s 125 
years of service to include the 
Department’s Color Guard, 
presentations by Mayor 
Bill Bogaard, City Manager 
Michael Beck, Fire Chief 
Calvin Wells, Deputy Chief 
Kevin Costa and members of 
the Pasadena Fire Dept. The 
event Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. 
– 11:00 a.m. will include the 
Playing of Taps.