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Los Cerritos MARCH 15, 2013 Serving Artesia, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, La Palma, Lakewood, Norwalk, and Pico Rivera 45,000 Homes Every Friday Volume 28, No. 11 LosCerritosNews.net
La Palma Intercommunity Hospital Opens Public Indoor Fitness Pool
DISTRICT ATTORNEY OPENS INQUIRY INTO CENTRAL BASIN WATER DIRECTOR'S CAMPAIGN DONATIONS
Pool is a Result of Collaboration Between LPIH, the City, and the Anaheim YMCA
An LCCN Exposé on Campaign Donations Culminates in Investigation
By Rachel Hogue
By Randy Economy and Brian Hews
L
a Palma Intercommunity Hospital had an unused rehabilitation pool, and the City of La Palma had a need. This was the starting point for a journey of partnership and creativity that would turn this once unused hospital pool into a community asset. “Here was an asset that was no longer being used, and I knew there must be some way to benefit the community,” said Virg Narbutas, Orange County Regional CEO for Prime Healthcare.
randy@cerritosnews.net publisher@cerritosnews.net
A La Palma’s Recreation & Community Services was looking to expand water recreation activities in the city, and it became clear that the hospital could help.
Flood Hits Classrooms at St. Linus Catholic School in Norwalk
“We had a pool,” Narbutas said. “The city needed to expand their water programs, we just needed a partner to help develop
See POOL page 7
Los Cerritos Community News investigation has culminated in an official inquiry by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Bureau of Fraud and Corruption Prosecutions/Public Integrity Division pertaining to controversial Central Basin Water District Director Letica Vasquez. The case against Vasquez
Steve Keithly Concedes La Mirada City Council Election to Andrew Sarega
A
See FLOOD page 7
Artesia City Council Tackles Faulty Alarm Systems
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City election officials as well as officials from the election company Martin and Chapman who provided the ballot counting machines held at least two additional tabulations of the ballots and when all the dust settled Sarega pulled off what many long time city hall observers called the “biggest upset in the history of La
here are over 525 burglaries and/ or attempted break-ins a year in the City of Artesia, if you base the number of crimes directly from the number of times the Sheriff’s Department responded to the sounds of alarms emanating from both the business and residential sectors in the small municipality. Amazingly though, out of these 525 alarms, only less than 5% are real burglaries. More than 95% or approximately 500 of them are false alarms. These are the staggering facts and figures gathered and presented by Pradeepkumar Elayath, Administrative Services Manager, during the regular Artesia City Council meeting held last week. “Responding to excessive false alarms
See SAREGA page 10
See ALARMS page 10
randy@cerritosnews.net
randy@cerritosnews.net
flood at Saint Linus Catholic School in Norwalk has temporarily displaced several grades of students and has caused more than $50,000.00 in damages. The flood took place during a 24 hour period on Saturday into Sunday earlier this month when a urinal in the boys bathroom overflowed for almost a 24 hour period, Sister Catherine Casey, told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper and the La Mirada Lamplighter in an interview. “One of our urinals in the boys bathroom malfunctioned and caused several of our classroom and offices to be flooded, it
See D.A. INQUIRY page 7
By Rico Dizon By Randy Economy
By Randy Economy
was opened on February 27. The focus of the i nvest igation centers on Vasquez “failure to report donaLetica Vasquez tions” to the C a l i fo r n ia Secretary of State on a Form 460 as reported in LCCN three weeks ago. In the letter, obtained by LCCN, District Attorney Jackie Lacey and Head Deputy District Attorney Anne Ingalls confirmed that a “complaint has been as-
I
n one of the closest and most bizarre election campaigns in the history of La Mirada, challenger Steve Keithly has conceded defeat to upstart political new comer Andrew Sarega on Wednesday more than one week after the election and after ballots had to be counted and recounted no less than three times. On Tuesday, the La Mirada City Council certified the official results of the balloting that took place on Tuesday. After election night, after a malfunction of the election counting machines Keithly held a razor thin nine vote lead over Sarega, who works for an Orange County law enforcement agency as an officer.
CLOSER, FASTER
Steve Keithly
Andrew Sarega
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