Saturday March 17, 2007, from 9am - 3pm, at the Southern California Edison parking lot (the lot west of Walnut Grove), it's Household Hazardous and E-Waste Round Up Day.

What they'll accept:  brake fluid, paint, paint thinner, cleaners with acid or lye, pesticides, herbicides, household and car batteries, pool chemicals, motor oil, oil filters, expired pharmaceuticals, anti-freeze, flourescent light bulbs, computer monitors, televisions, computer cpu's, keyboards printers, cellular phones, etc.

Heads up. Lynwood Watch reports that the Montebello city council voted to hire Arnoldo Beltran as city attorney.

http://lynwoodwatch.blogspot.com/2007/02/montebello-city-council-selects-beltran.html

The LW people say that it's because a big developer lives in Montebello.

LA Weekly reports that Beltran is one of three lawyers involved in pulling out recall campaigns against unfriendly city council members.

Backers of the incumbent city council members have been trying to blame "someone else" for all the turnover among city staff in recent years.  They're including this charge in some campaign literture, and they've sent numerous Mike Lewis-penned letters to the editor.  Our own supporters have rebutted those charges in recent letters to the editor:

From Brian Lewin, in the Feb 23 Pasadena Star-News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune:

http://www.lavote.net/LOCATOR/Default.htm

The link above will take you to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder website, where you'll be able to enter your number and street name to learn your polling place for the March 6 Rosemead city council election. 

Confirming your polling place is a good idea, because there are only going to be six polling places open on election day.  That compares to 11 that were open for the September recall election and 21 for the November general election.  That means most of you will be voting someplace different on March 6 than you did in the last election.  And, to make things even more confusing, some of you may also receive a sample ballot for the Pasadena Area Community College District Board of Trustees.  And you might discover that, even though that election will be on the same day as the Rosemead city council election, the polling place is different!  So be sure to double check your polling place, or vote absentee.

On June 6, the Rosemead City Council voted against letting a group of volunteers organize a revival of the city's traditional Fourth of July parade.  Voting for the parade were councilmember John Tran and Mayor Pro Temp John Nunez.  Voting against the parade were Councilmembers Margaret Clark and Jay Imperial, and Mayor Gary Taylor.  This is yet another shocking and disappointing action by our pathetically out of touch city council.

On March 1st, several Arcadia High School Students attended an SOC meeting to document our quest for justice.  SOC will be featured today, March 17th, in their high-school English honors project.  The following is a quotation from them expressing their gratitude and admiration.  

"Our documentary is undergoing final editing and we will be presenting on Friday.  This project has been an eye opening experience, and we could not have done it without the help of you and all of the Save Our Community leaders.  Your warm gestures and smiling faces put us at ease and earned us some great interviews for the documentary.  I will keep you posted as to when it will be done so our group can send SOC a copy.  Please let all of the SOC fighters that we appreciate your openness and what the group does!  Keep fighting for your right.  Once again, from Ben, Lisa, Iris, and myself, Thank you."

From the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, January 8, 2006:

Hampered by budget cuts and a shortage of officers, the time it takes for Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies to respond to public calls for help - including life-threatening emergencies - is increasing, according to Sheriff's Department data.

Since 2002, average response times to emergency calls have risen 4 percent to five minutes in cities that contract with the department. In unincorporated areas, average response times have increased 3 percent to 6.4 minutes. The time it takes deputies to respond to "priority" calls for such things as robberies, burglaries and domestic violence has increased 19percent in contract cities and 17 percent in unincorporated areas, according to the data. Response times to "routine" calls like stolen vehicles, missing people and vandalism have increased 12 percent in contract cities and 18 percent in unincorporated areas.