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.

Spotlights Nurses and Other Healthcare Professionals

National Hospital Week dates back to 1921. Launched to promote trust and goodwill among community members, it began as a celebration of Florence Nightingale’s birthday, May 12. Known as the founder of modern nursing, Miss Nightingale also revolutionized the way hospitals were run.
Methodist Hospital is more than just a place where people go to heal; it is a central part of the community, fostering good health and representing hope. On Monday Hospital officials and staff held a Community Day at the newly remodeled hospital offering all kinds of screenings.
The 2012 National Hospital Week theme, “Making Miracles Happen,” is just part of what Methodist does on a daily basis.
“Our employees are champions at caring for our patients, and we are extremely proud of each member of our staff,” Dan Ausman, President and CEO, said. “National Hospital Week is a celebration of our people, and we recognize the important role they play in creating a sense of trust in our patients and our community.”
National Nurses Week, celebrated every year May 6-12, this year runs concurrently with Hospital Week.
Founded in 1903, Methodist Hospital is a 596-bed, not-for-profit hospital serving Arcadia and surrounding communities. Services include comprehensive acute care such as medical, surgical, perinatal, pediatrics, oncology, intensive care and complete cardiovascular services, including open-heart surgery. Methodist Hospital is an approved STEMI cardiac center, a certified stroke center and a center of excellence in bariatric services. The hospital’s cancer center is accredited by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. Methodist Hospital is accredited by The Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States.

With the June 5 primary election just a few weeks away, Pasadena City Clerk Mark Jomsky reminds the public that the registration deadline to vote next month is May 21.

Registrants must fill out a hard-copy form and return it to the County Elections Office, Jomsky said. Registration forms are available at most government buildings in Los Angeles County, including all Pasadena city offices, public libraries and community centers. Forms also can be downloaded from the California Secretary of State’s website at www.sos.ca.gov/elections/register-to-vote/.

In addition to federal and state elective-office races and the Pasadena Unified School District sub-district proposal, Measure A, this year’s primary ballot includes state measures dealing with legislator term limits and the cigarette tax as well as county tax measures related to hotel occupancy and landfills.

For more information about this year’s elections, including finding your polling place and options for casting your ballot, visit the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder online at www.lavote.net

Temple City fourth grader Ashley Mok, 10, is very busy this spring. Not just because she’s a student at Cloverly Elementary School; but also because she is playing violin in a quartet that is helping her orchestra, the renowned Los Angeles Children’s Orchestra (LACO), raise money to travel to New York City next year.
LACO will perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall in spring of 2013, and fundraising efforts have begun in earnest. On Saturday, May 5, four of the orchestra’s members, including Ashley, played for the public at the Japanese Village Plaza, in downtown Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo district.
In an hour of playing, the children raised $225. “It’s expensive to get to Carnegie Hall, and every little bit helps,” says Susan Pascale, who conducts the orchestra and directs the South Pasadena Strings Program. The program’s orchestras performed at Carnegie Hall in 2009 and 2005, and Ashley and her sister, Kristen Mok, performed with them during the 2009 trip.
The other three quartet members are from South Pasadena. The four good friends are coached by South Pasadena Strings Program teacher Zach Dellinger. The children have named themselves ‘The Four Strings Quartet.’
Along with ‘Sakura,’ the ensemble performed other pieces from its large repertoire, including works by Hayden, Bach, and modern composers. In April, the four performed for U.S. Representative Adam Schiff’s Art Competition at the Huntington Gardens. On Mother’s Day, they will play at South Pasadena’s Oneonta Congregational Church on Garfield Avenue, at 9:30 a.m.
For more information, go to http://www.stringsprogram.com, or contact the South Pasadena Strings Program at 626-403-4611.

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