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Full closure of Dalton Ave. in Azusa starts today
Monday Edition of the
Monrovia Weekly ArcAdiA Weekly MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18 - FEBRUARY 24, 2013 VOLUME 18, NO. 7
Monrovia and Samuelson-Fetter reach agreement
Construction estimated til end of March The closure is scheduled to begin on Monday, February 18, 2013 and continue until the end of March 2013 for 24-hours per day, 7 days per week. Construction work hours are 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Crews will be constructing the grade crossing improvements on Dalton Avenue at the railroad corridor (located between 9th Street and Foothill Boulevard) as part of the 11.5-mile Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension light rail project. This work requires a full closure of Dalton Avenue at the railroad crossing for approximately 6 weeks. Dalton Avenue in Azusa at the railroad corridor (located between 9th St and Foothill Blvd) Dalton Avenue will be Please see page 5
Monrovia Police searching burglary suspect BY SUSAN MOTANDER
The old Monrovia depot is at the center point of the Station Square development. -Photo by Terry Miller
BY SUSAN MOTANDER In a special meeting, the Monrovia City Council approved a settlement with Samuelson & Fetter, L.L.C. (S&F), the developer that had sued the city for $106 million. The lawsuit was based on S&F’s claims that the city had violated the Design Development Agreement they had over the development of the project
known as Station Square. The parties entered into a stipulation for judgment to settle the lawsuit. A stipulation is an agreement between the parties by which the parties agree to what the judgment that concludes a lawsuit will be. The lawsuit claimed that the city sold land to the Gold Line for its Operations Yard and parking lot, land it had previously promised
IRS intensifies national crackdown on identity theft Part of effort to protect taxpayers, prevent refund fraud Continuing a yearlong enforcement push against refund fraud and identity theft, the Internal Revenue Service today announced the results of a massive national sweep in recent weeks targeting identity theft suspects in 32 states and Puerto Rico, which involved 215 cities and surrounding areas. The coast-to-coast effort against 389 identity theft suspects led to 734 enforcement actions in January, including indictments, information, complaints and arrests. The effort comes on top of a growing identity theft effort that led to 2,400 oth-
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er enforcement actions against identity thieves during fiscal year 2012. The January crackdown, a joint effort with the Department of Justice and local U.S. Attorneys offices, unfolded as the IRS opened the 2013 tax season. IRS Criminal Investigation expanded its efforts during January, pushing the total number of identity theft investigations to more than 1,460 since the start of the federal 2012 fiscal year on Oct. 1, 2011. “As tax season begins this year, we want to be clear that there is a heavy price to pay for perpetra-
tors of refund fraud and identity theft,” said IRS Acting Commissioner Steven T. Miller. “We have aggressively stepped up our efforts to pursue and prevent refund fraud and identity theft, and we will continue to intensely focus on this area. This is part of a much wider effort underway for the 2013 tax season to stop fraud.” The national effort with the Justice Department and other federal, state and local agencies is part of a larger, comprehensive identity theft strategy the IRS has embarked Please see page 7
to S&F. The settlement, which was approved by the successor agency’s Oversight Board on Wednesday afternoon, now needs to be approved by the state’s Department of Finance. In the stipulation for judgment, the City of Monrovia as the Successor Agency to its own Redevelopment Agency agrees to sell lot of property along Pomona and Magnolia
Avenues adjacent to the Gold Line Station site for $2,780,000. The city agrees to pay Samuelson Fetter $510,000 of which $100,00 will be retained by the city to be used to offset the cost of zoning and other fees in regard to Lot A. The city will also reimburse S&F for the environmental insurance premium costs not to exceed $100,000.
-Courtesy Photo
In the afternoon of January 31, the victims interrupted an attempted burglary of their home in the 100 block of Norumbega Drive. The victims arrived home to find a female Hispanic holding open the back gate from their yard to the alley behind their home. She was Please see page 5
Body in Big Bear cabin positively identified as Dorner Human remains found in the burned Big Bear cabin have been positively identified as those of fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner. Dorner had terrorized Los Angeles and all state police agencies for the past week while on his rampage and killing spree. “The charred human remains located in the burned out cabin in Seven Oaks have been positively identified to be that of Christopher Dorner,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff and Coroner’s Office said in a written statement. “During the autopsy, positive identification was made through dental examination.” The Coroner said The charred body was
-Courtesy Photo
found in the rubble of the cabin that burned down after a dramatic and highly publicized gun battle Tuesday afternoon. Dorner’s last stand with law enforcement came after a gun battle with San Bernardino deputies that brought his death count to
four. Dorner seriously wounded one deputy and killed another. Deputy Jeremiah MacKay leaves behind a wife and two young children. Please see page 8