While ever other city in San Gabriel offers its residents free state of the city information and updates on an annual basis, the City of Rosemead wants you to cough up $15 for that privilage. You do, however, get lunch apparently.

We asked the Chamber of Commerce if residents had to pay if they didn’t want lunch but wanted to hear about the State of their City. We were told catagorically “Yes”. Everyone pays.

We called the city clerk of Rosemead and asked a simple question: “Does everyone have to pay.?” To hear about their city’s challenges from the Mayor. The answer was ” Yes” . They were not sure, however about the requirement to pay a price to hear the Mayor, if one doesn’t indulge in luncheon.
They will be getting “back to me” on that question.
Mayor Sandra Armenta will present Rosemead’s State of the City Address at a luncheon hosted by the City of Rosemead and the Rosemead Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, June 6th, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., at the Garvey Community Center, 9108 Garvey Avenue, Rosemead.
Tickets are $15 for residents and $20 for individuals/non-residents. This fee includes lunch and the event is open to the public.
Mayor Armenta will provide a pictorial tour of the many improvements to our community that have been made recently along with a look at projects that are being planned and an overview of Rosemead’s 2012-2013 Strategic Plan. She will also share some of the challenges the City faces.

The ACLU of Southern California is filing suit against California Secretary of State Debra Bowen on behalf of the Justice Party and the Constitution Party of California, which seek to have their nominees for President and Vice President included on November’s presidential election ballot, and individual voters who support the groups. The case was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Political groups cannot place their candidates on California’s ballot unless they are formally recognized by the State as political parties. Yet the deadline for qualifying as a recognized political party is more than 10 months before the Presidential election. Since California first enacted the early party-qualification deadline in 1953, only seven new political parties have met the qualification standards, and only one new party has done so since 1995.

“California’s party-qualification scheme violates the bedrock constitutional principle that like-minded individuals can join together freely and compete on fair and equal terms in the political arena,” said David Sapp, staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. “Courts have repeatedly struck down qualification deadlines that fall much closer to the relevant election, so California has no justification for continuing to enforce its January deadline, which is unquestionably among the most burdensome in the nation.”

Early party-qualification deadlines burden voters’ First Amendment rights because it is difficult for political bodies to organize and engage with potential members when elections are so remote; and new parties often gain attention and galvanize support in response to the positions taken or candidates nominated by the established Republican and Democratic Parties, which will not nominate their Presidential candidates or finalize platforms this year until August and September, respectively. Relying on these factors, the United States Supreme Court ruled in 1983 that Ohio’s early deadline for independent candidates for President, which fell on March 20 (more than two months later than California’s deadline), violated the First Amendment.

The Justice Party was founded in late 2011, based on the principles of a truly participatory,
grassroots structure of government capable of ensuring social, economic, and environmental justice for all. The Constitution Party was founded in 1992 by Howard Phillips as a national political party, and its current platform seeks to limit the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries. Supporters of both parties in California have attempted to educate voters, attract members, and fundraise during the current election cycle. Because of California’s January deadline, however, party supporters were notified in late January that they could not qualify as recognized parties for the November Presidential election, thwarting their efforts to mobilize voters and build their membership.

The suit seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction prohibiting Secretary of State Bowen from enforcing California’s party-qualification scheme for political bodies wishing to qualify as political parties and have their duly nominated candidates for President and Vice President listed on the November Presidential ballot.

Information on the Justice Party in California is available at http://CaliforniaJusticeParty.org, and information on the Constitution Party of California is available at http://californiacp.blogspot.com.

Name of case: California Justice Committee, et al. v. Bowen

Deputies Moore and Sepulveda stand in honor of David March - Photos by Terry Miller

Ten years ago today LASO Deputy David March was shot during a routine traffic stop . Today, as they have for each year on April 29, Deputies honor his memory at the site where March was gunned down in 2002.

A Driven Opinion:

Be Careful When Asking Directions in Burbank
Burbank’s Finest Just Might Follow You
By Terry Miller
It was a lovely, quiet morning for a drive. Bright, clean visibility and a mild Tuesday spring morning. My back seat passenger was a young feral kitty I was taking to the vet to get neutured thanks to the wonderful people at FixNation in Burbank who spay and neuter and vaccinate feral cats for free to help keep Los Angeles’ cat population in check.
Once I approached the final phase of my epic journey to Burbank from Pasadena, the google map directions confused me – it’s not too hard to do this these days. Suddenly I spied, with my baby blue eyes, a Burbank motorcycle police officer giving someone a ticket…”I’ll ask him for directions…police officers are after all to serve and protect!” I said to self.
Guys are notorious for not asking directions, but in this instance I was late and thought I was lost!
He was the epitome of the nice, neighborhood cop…polite, helpful , and more than willing to point a lost motorist in the right direction to transport this poor kitty to get “fixed”.
As it happened, I wasn’t that far from my destination just off San Fernando Road when I asked said officer for directions.
I thanked the polite officer, popped into the Honda Civic, buckled up and was off to the appointment for which I was already about 15 minutes late.
The poor kitty was not too happy about this trip at all. First he was trapped, spent the night in our bathroom and now he was in Burbank…the last place he , or I for that matter, wanted to be. Surgery to prevent any more unwanted kittens is the only way to help this guy and the colony where he lives.
There is a vocalization only cat lovers can truly understand and empathise with when a feline is in a trap. They are not at all happy and the sound can be quite disturbing and somewhat distracting.
As I approached the turn for my destination , I happened upon my rear-view mirror.
Flashing red and blue lights indicated to me that something was going on. I pulled over a bit to allow the police to pass, and to my surprise , that something going on was apparently my driving ability. I was stopped by a Burbank motorcycle police officer, approximately 4.5 minutes after I asked for directions from one of Burbank’s finest..
The officer approached my car and asked for my license, registration and insurance. I took one look and the pleasant officer’s face and said, “you were the very kind officer who just gave me directions for FixNation.”
Replying in the affirmative and smiling, he proceeded to write me a ticket, for speeding. The officer claimed he clocked me at 50 in a 35 MPH zone …remember this is a 2004 Honda Civic…not a Maseratti or a legendary MGB sports car. He already had inside information about my destination, methinks!
I have a completely clear and clean driving record. Not even a hiccup! I never thought I’d laugh about getting a speeding ticket but this situation was somewhat ironic to say the very least.
My feline friend became suddenly quiet at this point, I guess he felt he’d better be on his best behaviour when an officer of the law is writing his chauffeur a ticket.
The officer handed me the ticket to sign( promising to appear, but not admiting any guilt) telling me that there are a lot of trucks coming and going from the industrial area where he pulled me over- I didn’t see a single truck at 7:55 AM – and that is why they keep the speed limit low on this road Speed is a common problem along San Fernando Rd. apparently.
I smiled and thanked him, apologized profusely for not paying attention to my speedometer, although I didn’t believe I was actually speeding. I may not have been paying attention to my speedometer but I know I wasn’t driving any faster than any other motorist on that stretch of road at that particular time.
The ticket said the Laser clocked me at approx. 50MPH. He smiled and said I hope this was the ” last bump in the road for you today. Drive carefully.”
I assured the ever-so-kind and personable officer I would, and drove off, slowly with a smile on my face. What are the chances of that happening, I mused.
The moral of the story…think twice about asking a motorcycle officer directions, at least in Burbank. They know where you are going!