Santa Anita Park. Federal lawmakers Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-Arcadia) call for halt to racing. Both send letters to California Horse Racing Board demanding ways to address horse deaths at Arcadia track.
Santa Anita Park: DA to examine death of 22 horses at track.
Additionally, Rep. Judy Chu calls for hearings into the treatment of horses at the nation’s racing venues
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is investigating whether the 22 horse deaths at Santa Anita racetrack in the past three months were the result of criminal wrongdoing, authorities said Friday.
The probe began this week following the death of the 22nd horse Thursday.
Santa Anita Park opens today. It kicks off its 75th winter/spring meeting with its first post at noon. The 79-day race meeting continues through April 22.
Online company Expedia has pulled out of the Arcadia, CA marketplace because of the recently approved Measure D, which adds a 10 percent hotel occupancy tax to services provided by online travel companies.
Oak Tree Racing leaves Santa Anita Park after 41 years and races at Hollywood Park for its 42nd season, starting today. It is a 22-day season that consists of four 4-day race weeks. Oak Tree's lease at Santa Anita Park was voided by MI Developments.
The Southern California News Group gives grades for affordable housing in area cities. Every city and county in California is required to plan for adequate housing across income levels but actually building those homes is largely a goal rather than a requirement. Arcadia got an overall D Minus grade.
New state-of-the-art library coming to Arcadia. The Los Angeles County Public Library will replace the current branch in unincorporated Arcadia (4153 East Live Oak Avenue) sometime in 2017 at a new site at 22 West Live Oak Boulevard. It will cost about $9 million from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors capital projects funding.
Arcadia voters consider extending hotel-room tax in the ballot Measure D. It is meant to close a loophole in a city ordinance on the transient tax. Currently, the city imposes a tax rate of 10% of the rent paid by guests to occupy a room up to 30 consecutive days. If the measure passes by a majority vote, the occupancy tax would be imposed the first 90 days of a stay.
Arcadia, Sierra Madre and Bradbury are holding elections today on tax measures and city council members. Arcadia voters will choose two City Council members from the candidates running--Gary Kovacic, John Wuo, Sho Tay, Henry Nunez, and Mary Dougherty--and vote on Measure D, the extension ofthe hotel room tax from a 30-day maximum to a 90-day stay. Arcadia's election is being conducted through an all-mail ballot for the first time.
Breeders' Cup: a classic debate. Horse Bayern veers sharply out of the gate, goes wire to wire, and stays on top after inquiry into the start of the race. Bayern wins the Breeders' Cup Classic. Photos. See also p. B1 and B9 commentary on trainer D. Wayne Lukas and race horse Take Charge Brandi by columnist Mark Whicker. See also p. B8, 35-year-old trainer Chad Brown had a memorable weekend, having saddled 3 Breeders' Cup winners.
All four "tree-sitters" arrested while protesting the destruction of an 11-acre oak woodland in Arcadia appeared in Alhambra Superior Court and pleaded not guilty to one count each of trespassing and obstruction a police officer. They are John Quigley, 50, of Glendale, Julia Jaye Posin, 23 of Venice Beach, Travis Jochimsen, 28, of Lancaster and Andrea Bowers, 45 of Los Angeles. They rejected an offer of community service and payment of restitution from the District Attorney's office. The four will appear in court again April 22 for a pre-trial hearing.
Arcadia certifies city council election victories for John Wuo and Gary A. Kovacic. The results were certified this week after election officials were able to verify and count 661 of the remaining 681 ballots of the April 10 election. There were 105 ballots that had to be disqualified because voters selected more than 2 candidates in the all-mail election. At least some of those were caused by an error in the ballots' Chinese-language instructions that directed voters to select no more than 3 instead of 2 candidates, prompting the city to send out correction notices. Gene Glasco was elected City Clerk. Measure D, the hotel room tax, passed.
Taking the A Train: Metro nixing colors. Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority is getting rid of the colored names of the train lines and switching to letter names. The transition period will begin in about nine months, during which both colors and letters would be used, then the colors will be phased out. The revamped Blue Line to Long Beach will become the A Line. The Red Line subway will become the B Line. Parts of the Green Line will become the C Line. The Purple Line will become the D Line. The Orange Line bus rapid transit in the San Fernando Valley will be the F Line. The Silver Line rapid busway will become the G Line. The Gold Line light rail from Azusa to Los Angeles will be renamed once the downtown Regional Connector is completed at the end of 2021 or early 2022.
Fired Arcadia High School cross country coach James O'Brien questions reason for dismissal. The Arcadia Unified School District's Board of Education upholds its decision to not reappoint Mr. O'Brien as head coach for the 2013-2014 year. He will continue to teach at Arcadia High School.
Birth-tourism sites not easily detected.Terry Moore-Corse, a code enforcement officer in Arcadia has encountered three maternity homes in the past six years, most recently in 2009, when a resident reported "a lot of pregnant women" coming out of a house. Beyond building code and business license violations, there is nothing illegal about coming into this country to give birth, according to the U.S. State Department, which issues visas. Maternity tourism is a money-making cottage industry in which wealthy women from Asia pay anywhere from $25,000-35,000 to have American-born infants.
Arcadia city officials are cracking down on "maternity tourism" boarding houses by dedicating a full-time police detective to investigate the issue. Maternity or birth tourism is a phenomenon in which women, often from China, pay a handsome fee to have their babies in the United States, so the children can be citizens. While that is not illegal, at least five establishments have been shut down for violations, such as unlawfully operating boarding house businesses in residential zones.
An ancient Chinese maternity tradition, from the Sung Dynasty (960-1275 AD), known as "Zuo Yue Zi," is translated as "doing the month."It refers to the care of a Chinese woman during the first month after giving birth. The practice is explained here by Wei-Chen Tung, a former registered nurse at Arcadia Methodist Hospital and now an assistant professor of nursing at University of Nevada, Reno. The practice requires new mothers to follow a strict diet and rest for 3-4 weeks following a pregnancy. Tung says a lot of Chinese women still practice this, so hospitals should be aware of this part of Chinese culture. Maternity tourists--women who want to come to the United States to give birth to a full-fledged American citizen, have given rise to businesses that cater to them, such as the maternity home that was shut down in the 1300 block of South Palm Avenue in San Gabriel on March 8. It had been 5 townhomes illegally converted into a maternity home.