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ALTADENA - SOUTH PASADENA - SAN MARINO

Mountain View News Saturday, July 20, 2024

Curiosity Rover Discovers 
Surprise in a Martian Rock

San Marino Upcoming 
Events & Programming

Duo Found Guilty For 10-Day 
Liquor Store Robbery Spree

 

 Two Los Angeles men were 
found guilty Thursday for 
committing a string of robbers, 
that included BevMo in 
Pasadena, in a 10-day span 
that ended in the duo leading 
law enforcement in a chase in 
Los Angeles County before 
crashing a stolen car into a tree 
then running across six lanes 
of highway traffic during rush 
hour.

 At the conclusion of a three-
day trial, a jury convicted 
the two defendants, Anthony 
Flores, a.k.a. “BabyGfar”, 28, 
of Los Angeles; and Ivin Kitu 
Sanford, 32, of Los Angeles with 
Hobbs Act robbery. They will 
be sentenced by United States 
District Judge Hernán D. Vera 
on October 24.

 According to court documents, 
beginning in May 2023, the 
defendants conspired to rob 
and robbed two BevMo stores, 
stealing high-end liquor stored 
behind security glass and, in 
some instances, threatened 
employees with violence. 
Flores and Sanford would then 
sell the liquor to individuals 
on Instagram. The incidents 
involved the following locations:

 Long Beach: Flores stole 
approximately $2,604 worth of 
liquor.

Lakewood: Flores stole 
approximately $800 worth of 
liquor. Additionally, Hardgraves 
allegedly threatened to shoot a 
store employee if he attempted 
to interfere with the robbery.

Furthermore, Flores and 
Sanford conspired to rob two 
additional BevMo stores located 
in Pasadena and West Covina.

 After the robberies, Flores was 
surveilled and seen selling the 
bottles. Flores was arrested and 
released. On June 5, 2023, the 
two defendants again attempted 
to rob the Canyon Country 
BevMo store. Flores and Sanford 
physically subdued a store 
victim-employee and attempted 
to steal high-end bottles of 
liquor. The defendants fled in 
a stolen silver Dodge Charger 
with a stolen license plate and 
attempted to evade officers 
during a traffic stop. Flores and 
Sanford led law enforcement on 
a chase through Los Angeles 
County before crashing into a 
tree. After the crash, defendants 
ran on foot across the California 
State Route 14, a 65-mile-per-
hour highway, during rush 
hour traffic. Flores and Sanford 
were later found in bushes in a 
desolate area.

 “Callous disregard for the law 
undermines our community’s 
sense of safety,” said United 
States Attorney Martin Estrada. 
“These defendants’ violent 
robberies and attempts to evade 
officers put lives at risk. Our 
Operation Safe Cities initiative 
aims to ensure that violent 
crimes are met with serious 
consequences, and today’s 
convictions demonstrate our 
steadfast commitment to that 
goal.”

 Operation Safe Cities establishes 
strategic enforcement 
priorities with an emphasis on 
prosecuting the most significant 
drivers of violent crime. 
Across this region, the most 
damaging and horrific crimes 
are committed by a relatively 
small number of particularly 
violent individuals. This 
strategic enforcement approach 
is expected to increase the 
number of arrests, prosecutions 
and convictions of recidivists 
engaged in the most dangerous 
conduct. It is designed to 
improve public safety across 
the region by targeting crimes 
involving illicit guns, prohibited 
persons possessing firearms, or 
robbery crews that cause havoc 
and extensive losses to retail 
establishments.

 The case against the third 
defendant, Jabco Hardgraves, 
a.k.a. “Jacob Hardgraves,” Baby 
Monster,” “Lil Turtle”, 27, of Los 
Angeles is still pending and is 
not currently set for trial.

 The Federal Bureau of 
Investigation, Los Angeles 
County Sheriff’s Department, 
West Covina Police 
Department, and Long Beach 
Police Department investigated 
this matter.

 Assistant United States 
Attorneys Kevin J. Butler and 
Jena A. MacCabe of the Violent 
and Organized Crime Section 
prosecuted this case.


Old Mill's Music Under The Stars

 The Old Mill's Music Under the Stars with Trio Elica will 
be held on tonight at 8 PM. This performance is the premier 
of Trio Elica. While the musicians have played together for 
many years, this new Trio was born out of a desire to create 
exceptional and daring performances of great music not 
often featured by standard chamber ensembles. Stop by the 
Mill to purchase tickets in person (11 AM -2 PM) or purchase 
your tickets online.

Annual Bulky Item Pickup Event

 Athens Services will be conducting its Annual Bulky Item 
Pickup event today in the City. Residents who have bulky 
items such as mattresses, furniture, or appliances that 
they would like to dispose of should call (855) 557-1007 or 
schedule online ahead of time. Please make sure the items 
have been set out at the curb or designated pickup location 
by 5 AM on Saturday, July 20. No e-waste or household 
hazardous waste is allowed. For a full list of eligible items, 
please see the above flyer. Should you have any questions, 
please call 888-336-6100.

Nomination Period Opens

 The City of San Marino announces the opening of the 
Nomination Period for the City of San Marino 2024 General 
Municipal Election, which is consolidated with the County 
of Los Angeles and scheduled to be held on November 5, 
2024, which will seek to fill two (2) Offices for Member of the 
City Council for a full four-year term ending on December 
13, 2028.

 The requirements for candidates for elective offices of the 
City are as follows: a United States citizen; at least 18 years 
of age; a resident of the City of San Marino for at least 30 
days prior to filing nomination papers; and, a registered 
voter in the City of San Marino at the time of nomination. 
Qualifying individuals may contact the City Clerk's Office at 
(626) 300-0705, during normal office hours Monday through 
Thursday between the hours of 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM and 
Friday between the hours of 7:00 AM. and 11:00 AM.

 The Nomination Period opened on Monday, July 15, 2024, 
and closes on Friday, August 9, 2024, at 5:00 PM.

 For more information, please contact the City Clerk’s Office: 
(626) 300-0705 or CityClerk@SanMarinoCA.gov or visit our 
elections page.

Smarter Living Series: Staying Safe in Your Home

Wednesday, July 24 at 1 PM, San Marino Community 
Center, MPR 1

 The number one emergency response for the San Marino 
Fire Department is major falls. Major falls can result in 
serious injuries, requiring months of rehabilitation. The Fire 
Department and Fire Chief Mario Rueda will discuss actions 
you can take to avoid falls in the home. This presentation 
will also include a visit from Southern California Edison, the 
City’s electrical service provider, on how to survive a power 
outage. Registration is not required.

Red Cross Blood Drive

Thursday, August 1 from 11 AM – 5 PM, Barth Community 
Room

 Looking to help save lives? Come to the American Red 
Cross Blood Drive! Appointments are required. To schedule 
an appointment, visit RedCrossBlood.org and enter sponsor 
code CROWELL. On the day of your appointment, visit 
RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass to complete the pre-donation 
reading and health history questions. This will streamline 
your experience and save up to 15 minutes! All donors will 
receive a $20 Amazon.com gift card by email.

National Night Out 2024 at Lacy Park

 Save the date! Join us for National Night Out 2024 on 
Tuesday, August 6, from 6-10 PM at Lacy Park! 🎉 We'll have a 
DJ, a Movie in the Park (Paw Patrol), games, and food trucks! 
National Night Out promotes positive police-community 
partnerships. Don't miss out on an unforgettable night. See 
you there! 

Fire Department Recent Happenings

 The Fire Department has completed annual brush 
inspections for properties in the City’s Very High Fire Hazard 
Severity Zone, The Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone is 
a designated area within the City containing approximately 
90 properties that are at higher risk for ignition and spread 
of wildfire. Thank you to residents within the Very High 
Fire Hazard Severity Zone for assisting the Fire Department 
in making our community safe from wildfire. For more 
information about annual brush inspections visit www.
SanMarinoCA.gov/BrushClearance.

 The Fire Department continues to focus training efforts on 
the department’s three probationary firefighter/paramedics. 
As part of demonstrating his proficiency and knowledge of 
fire flow, Probationary Firefighter Kovshilovskiy built a “doll 
house” prop to demonstrate smoke and fire flow path when 
doors, windows, and the roof are open during a fire.

 Scientists were stunned on 
May 30 when a rock that NASA’s 
Curiosity Mars rover drove 
over cracked open to reveal 
something never seen before 
on the Red Planet: yellow sulfur 
crystals.

 Since October 2023, the rover 
has been exploring a region of 
Mars rich with sulfates, a kind 
of salt that contains sulfur and 
forms as water evaporates. But 
where past detections have been 
of sulfur-based minerals — in 
other words, a mix of sulfur 
and other materials — the 
rock Curiosity recently cracked 
open is made of elemental, or 
pure, sulfur. It isn’t clear what 
relationship, if any, the elemental 
sulfur has to other sulfur-based 
minerals in the area.

 While people associate sulfur 
with the odor from rotten 
eggs (the result of hydrogen 
sulfide gas), elemental sulfur 
is odorless. It forms in only a 
narrow range of conditions that 
scientists haven’t associated 
with the history of this location. 
And Curiosity found a lot of it 
— an entire field of bright rocks 
that look similar to the one the 
rover crushed.

 “Finding a field of stones made 
of pure sulfur is like finding 
an oasis in the desert,” said 
Curiosity’s project scientist, 
Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory 
in Southern California. “It 
shouldn’t be there, so now we 
have to explain it. Discovering 
strange and unexpected things 
is what makes planetary 
exploration so exciting.”

 It’s one of several discoveries 
Curiosity has made while off-
roading within Gediz Vallis 
channel, a groove that winds 
down part of the 3-mile-tall 
(5-kilometer-tall) Mount Sharp, 
the base of which the rover has 
been ascending since 2014. Each 
layer of the mountain represents 
a different period of Martian 
history. Curiosity’s mission is 
to study where and when the 
planet’s ancient terrain could 
have provided the nutrients 
needed for microbial life, if any 
ever formed on Mars.

Floods and Avalanches

 Spotted from space years 
before Curiosity’s launch, Gediz 
Vallis channel is one of the 
primary reasons the science 
team wanted to visit this part 
of Mars. Scientists think that 
the channel was carved by flows 
of liquid water and debris that 
left a ridge of boulders and 
sediment extending 2 miles 
down the mountainside below 
the channel. The goal has been to 
develop a better understanding 
of how this landscape changed 
billions of years ago, and while 
recent clues have helped, there’s 
still much to learn from the 
dramatic landscape.

 Since Curiosity’s arrival 
at the channel earlier this 
year, scientists have studied 
whether ancient floodwaters 
or landslides built up the large 
mounds of debris that rise up 
from the channel’s floor here. 
The latest clues from Curiosity 
suggest both played a role: some 
piles were likely left by violent 
flows of water and debris, while 
others appear to be the result of 
more local landslides.

 Those conclusions are based 
on rocks found in the debris 
mounds: Whereas stones 
carried by water flows become 
rounded like river rocks, some 
of the debris mounds are 
riddled with more angular rocks 
that may have been deposited by 
dry avalanches.

 Finally, water soaked into all 
the material that settled here. 
Chemical reactions caused by 
the water bleached white “halo” 
shapes into some of the rocks. 
Erosion from wind and sand 
has revealed these halo shapes 
over time.

 “This was not a quiet 
period on Mars,” said Becky 
Williams, a scientist with the 
Planetary Science Institute 
in Tucson, Arizona, and the 
deputy principal investigator 
of Curiosity’s Mast Camera, 
or Mastcam. “There was an 
exciting amount of activity here. 
We’re looking at multiple flows 
down the channel, including 
energetic floods and boulder-
rich flows.”

A Hole in 41

 All this evidence of water 
continues to tell a more complex 
story than the team’s early 
expectations, and they’ve been 
eager to take a rock sample from 
the channel in order to learn 
more. On June 18, they got their 
chance.

 While the sulfur rocks were 
too small and brittle to be 
sampled with the drill, a large 
rock nicknamed “Mammoth 
Lakes” was spotted nearby. 
Rover engineers had to search 
for a part of the rock that would 
allow safe drilling and find 
a parking spot on the loose, 
sloping surface.

 After Curiosity bored its 41st 
hole using the powerful drill 
at the end of the rover’s 7-foot 
(2-meter) robotic arm, the 
six-wheeled scientist trickled 
the powderized rock into 
instruments inside its belly for 
further analysis so that scientists 
can determine what materials 
the rock is made of.

 Curiosity has since driven 
away from Mammoth Lakes 
and is now off to see what other 
surprises are waiting to be 
discovered within the channel.

 For more about Curiosity, 
visit: science.nasa.gov/mission/
msl-curiosity.

Michael Feinstein Sings Tribute 
to Tony Bennett &Frank Sinatra

 


 Principal Pops Conductor 
Michael Feinstein puts down 
the conducting baton and 
picks up the microphone 
for one night only to sing a 
Tribute to Tony Bennett and 
Frank Sinatra on Saturday, 
July 27 at the Los Angeles 
County Arboretum. An 
old-fashioned crooner with 
luxuriant vocals that meld 
the traditions of old and new, 
Feinstein has been dubbed 
the “Ambassador of the Great 
American Songbook” for his 
preserving, presenting and 
interpreting that seminal 
body of work. The multi-
platinum-selling, Emmy and 
Grammy Award-nominated 
entertainer has curated an 
evening filled with tunes 
from these legendary singers 
in quintessential Feinstein 
fashion. Hear timeless classics 
from “The Best is Yet to 
Come” and “I Left My Heart 
in San Francisco” to “Fly Me 
to the Moon” and “New York, 
New York,” topped off with 
Michael’s personal behind-
the-music stories about time 
spent with these larger-than-
life personas.

 “When I think of the great 
male singers of the 20th and 
21st centuries, inevitably 
the first names that come 
to mind are Frank Sinatra 
and Tony Bennett. They 
both had extraordinary 
voices that had the ability 
to make us feel every word 
and syllable they sang very 
deeply. They addressed social 
issues through the music and 
lyrics they gave us, and they 
were also wildly entertaining. 
Both of these men were 
great storytellers and great 
entertainers, and I’m looking 
forward to exploring their 
legacy with you.” – Michael 
Feinstein

 All Pasadena POPS concerts 
are held at the Los Angeles 
County Arboretum and 
Botanic Gardens. Grounds 
open for picnicking and 
dining at 5:30pm and 
performances begin at 
7:30pm. Don’t miss the best 
outdoor dinner party in 
town with spacious circular 
table seating with fine 
linens, or lawn seating for 
those who want to bring a 
blanket – each option carries 
on the tradition of picnic-
dining with your family and 
friends listening to Michael 
Feinstein and the San Gabriel 
Valley’s premier orchestra! 
Concert goers can pack their 
own food and drink or enjoy 
pre-ordered gourmet box 
dinners for on-site pickup, 
two full bars, and a variety of 
food trucks.

 The Arboretum is located 
at 301 North Baldwin Ave., 
Arcadia, CA. Subscribers 
may purchase pre-paid onsite 
parking at the Arboretum, 
and all concertgoers can 
purchase guaranteed and 
convenient parking at Santa 
Anita Park, with non-
stop shuttle service to the 
Arboretum’s main entrance.

 Single tickets start at 
$35 and are available by 
calling the box office at 
(626) 793-7172, online at 
PasadenaSymphony-Pops.
org or at the Arboretum on 
concert days. 

The Legacy of 
Charles White

Artist Reception/Art 
Talk Saturday, Aug. 3 
• 11am-1p Altadena 
Main Library 
Community Room

 
Showcasing the legacy of 
renowned California artist 
Charles White, the exhibit at 
the Altadena library features 
artwork by White’s students 
from Tutor/Art, a youth 
program established following 
the Watts Rebellion.

 Amazingly, these former 
students, now in their 70s, 
have remained in contact. 
This will be a 50th anniversary 
celebration of their 
transformative experience 
under White’s tutelage. The 
diversity of their backgrounds 
and lifetime trajectory is 
broad, but they share one thing 
in common: an enduring love 
and respect for the man who 
inspired them render their 
unique points of view into 
visual art. 

 The exhibit has special 
significance in Altadena given 
that it is the home of Charles 
White Park, the only public 
park in California named after 
an African American visual 
artist.

 The exhibit is curated by Art 
Aids Art, an Altadena-based 
nonprofit arts organization co-
founded by Thomas Harding 
and Dr. Dorothy Yumi Garcia.

 The Altadena library is 
located 600 E. Mariposa Street. 
For more information visit: 
altadenalibrary.org.

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