Horse euthanized two days before new season starts at Santa Anita Park. Truest Reward, a 3-year-old gelding died during a period when the track was closed to workouts but open for jogging and galloping. The horse broke its left front leg on the training track, which is considered the safest surface. This is the 38th horse to die at the track since December 2018.
Arcadia kicks off 2020 City Council election. Final candidates in District 1 are Mayor April Verlato running for reelection and newcomer Yuli J. Sira. Verlato is currently on the last year of her first term on city council and she as elected mayor her last year. She is an attorney with Verlato and Roberts law firm in Arcadia. She is a native of Arcadia, with a long list of endorsements, including former mayors of Arcadia. Sira is a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker. District 4 has two candidates--longstanding council member and former mayor Peter Amundson and newcomer Paul Cheng. Amundson has completed three terms on City Council and served twice as mayor. He is an Arcadia native, with a long list of endorsements. Paul P. Cheng is a highly publicized attorney specializing in business operations and commercial realty transactions. He previously ran for Arcadia City Council in 2010. Also up for reelection is City Clerk Gene Glasco. He is running unopposed.
Health care workers and employees at Arcadia Methodist Hospital voted to unionize. They voted to join Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union (CHEU) for a stronger collective voice on patient care issues, especially in improving safe staffing.
Arcadia Unified School District has a Latino Literacy middle school program. Nearly seven years ago, the Latino Literacy program started at the elementary school level by Alejandra Worozaken, Catherine Merel and Andrea Mendoza. Then four years ago, the program expanded to the middle school level and Perlita Guzman has been working hard since then to get Latino families to meet weekly for six weeks. All families have the opportunity to learn from various speakers and specialists about topics such as college admissions, high school, trending topics about today's youth, and life experiences in general.
More than 30 years later, USC professor pays off debt. Real estate broker David Hyun and his former student at USC Marshall School of Business, Frank Gangi, president of Gangi Development, are having Peking duck together, which Hyun promised his business students if they made $1 million within 5 years of graduation. Frank Gangi was in Hyun's real estate development class in 1984. Hyun is an Arcadia resident, architect, and real estate broker.
Elections in Arcadia: what you need to know. The election for Arcadia City Council members in District 1 and District 4 is on Tuesday, April 14, 2020. It is a mail-in ballot, which can be dropped off no later than 8:00 PM on Election Day. In District 1, incumbent April Verlato is seeking re-election and is being challenged by businesswoman Yuli Sira, a real estate agent and partner in a local engineering company. In District 4, incumbent Peter Amundson seeks re-election and his challenger is Paul Cheng, an attorney
Arcadia City Council elections to continue, for District 1 and District 4, without interruption through April 14, 2020. It is an all mail-in ballot. Voters can mail completed ballot or drop off at Arcadia City Hall.
Stuck in the backstretch. At Santa Anita Park racetrack, coronavirus cuts off horse caretakers from the outside world More than 750 backstretch workers at Santa Anita Park now live and work in isolation to prevent the spread of COVID-19. They sleep in worn dormitories, sometimes in pairs, tucked among the barns. New restrictions bar visitors. There is a sense of anxiety in the community about the novel Coronavirus and the future of their jobs. No cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus have been reported at Santa Anita Park, which ceased racing last month, but there isn't any proactive testing either. The worries have to do with the track being shut down, or trainers moving to other states and these workers having nowhere to work or stay. If they lose their jobs, they lose their medical benefits and will be struggling.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests continue to build momentum across the nation and around the world demanding justice for the death of George Floyd and bringing the issue of systemic racism to Arcadia, where hundreds gathered to protest at Arcadia County Park.
Union opposes changes to nurse-to-patient ratio. The California Nurses Association plans to stage rallies at nearly 70 hospitals and medical centers today to protest waivers that allow facilities to staff some units below state-mandated nurse-to-patient ratios as nurses are shifted to more critical patients. Union reps will gather at several Southern California hospitals, including Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia.
Half Day After School Camp Offered at Two Arcadia Elementary Schools.
As the 2020-2021 school year begins, Arcadia Recreation and Community Services Department will be offering a half day after school camp that will follow approved modifications by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. These guidelines are subject to change, based on the local protocols related to COVID-19 and will be sent out to parents at registration.
The half day after school camp will be offered at Baldwin Stocker Elementary School and Camino Grove Elementary School from 1-5 p.m. beginning Aug. 24. Registration is $92 per week and will open on a monthly basis. Camp will still offer a variety of organized recreational activities for ages 5-12, led by trained activity leaders. Registration is now open for camp taking place Aug. 24 – Oct. 2 online at ArcadiaCA.gov/recreation.
Los Angeles County saw its biggest bump in coronavirus cases within recent weeks Friday (yesterday). LA County reported 1,401 new cases and 34 new deaths, bringing the official human toll of the virus to 265,776 and 6,488 deaths, not including Long Beach and Pasadena, which operate their own public health departments. Photo: an empty Westfield Santa Anita mall that is closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, is seen in March.
Two related stories.
Early to the party - Voting: Poll workers say regional centers are swamped on first day of in-person balloting.
Scattered paper jams, tech glitches don’t spoil first in-person day at the polls. many of 2020’s early voters showed up to voting centers before they even opened on Saturday, Oct. 24, the first day of in-person balloting in Los Angeles County.
But much to the relief of voters and elections officials, the kind of polling-place meltdowns that left voters angered and election officials worried back in March, when the county debuted its $300 million network of vote centers, did not repeat. Back in March, for the primary, many voters were left seething after tech glitches delayed the opening of some sites and even forced the Hollywood site to close down.
But Saturday’s voting played out much more smoothly. And when issues did pop up, they appeared to have been resolved quickly in most cases.
Behind the scenes, poll workers reported paper jams and other tech issues, some of which caused short delays.
Many voters were certainly eager to cast their ballots. Several voting centers saw a line wrapped around the building before they opened. Such hubs included large polling locations, such as the Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Arcadia, stocked with 45 of the county’s new voting devices.
ELECTION 2020 - breaking down every area race - Voting: A look at who is on the ballots around the San Gabriel Valley, Whittier neighborhoods. So what’s going to be on the ballot?
Congress
Pasadena, Arcadia, Rosemead, Glendora and Claremont residents will choose between incumbent Judy Chu (D) and challenger Johnny Nalbandian (R) to represent the 27th District.
Review by Merrill Shindler - Asian market is authentic. 99 Ranch Market chain has hundreds of good things at its multiple San Gabriel locations, including one in Arcadia. Its mission is to offer authentic Chinese ingredients to underserved Chinese-American communities across America.
A statue to honor Anita M. Baldwin, daughter of Arcadia's founder Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin, will be built at the new Le Meridien Hotel, a luxury hotel in Arcadia. The artist/sculptor is Alfred Paredes, who also created the Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin statue.
Family of murder victim Chyong Jen Tsai, left appalled by District Attorney George Gascon's reforms. Man accused in slaying facing a shorter sentence of 32 years and 4 months-to-life in prison if convicted, instead of life in prison without parole if prosecuted with "special circumstances." Gascon wants judge to dismiss two special circumstance allegations against the accused. Tsai was killed April 9, 2019 at her Arcadia home.
Arcadia High School badminton team won its first CIF championship last week by beating Diamond Bar 13 to 8 in the Open Division (highest level). Arcadia High School created its coed badminton team just six years ago.
Los Angeles County coronavirus-COVID-19 hospitalizations appear to level off, after weeks of steady increases. According to state figures released Monday, there were 1724 COVID-positive patients in Los Angeles County hospitals. The number of patients being treated in intensive care units, however, continued climbing, reaching 454 on Monday, up from 439 on Sunday.