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Volume 18, No. 10
Community News, Arts & Opinions Since 1996
MUSD students link to International Space Station
20 students pose questions to Kevin Ford, Chris Hadfield and Tom Marshburn 220 miles from Earth
Please see page 4
Lower than usual voter turnout in elections Kennedy unofficially takes Holden's seat in Pasadena BY TERRY MILLER Election polling stations remained open until 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5, for eligible voters to make their choices for Pasadena City Council Districts 3, 5 and 7 and PUSD Board of Education Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7. Temple City also had seats for council up for grabs. Please see page 27
Unofficial election results in Temple City council race Incumbents Yu and Chavez re-elected
Change your clocks, change your batteries and update your disaster supplies The Pasadena Fire Department reminds you to change all of your Smoke Alarm batteries when you change your clocks forward this Sunday, March 10th Change Your Smoke Alarm Batteries! Replace old batteries with fresh, high quality batteries to
FOR GREAT EVENTS IN YOUR CITY
Mission 23 astronauts Kevin Ford, Chris Hadfield and Tom Marshburn answer some tough questions from MUSD students Tuesday morning. The Monrovia High Math and Science Academy joined with MUSD and NASA/Teaching from Space program to provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to speak to working astronauts on the space station 230 miles above the earth. -Photo by Terry Miller
BY SUSAN MOTANDER Monrovia High School and its Math and Science Academy (MASA) brought the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) a little closer to home for many Monrovia school students. The high-
light of several activities was the downlink from the Space Station which put several Monrovia Unified School District’s fifth grade students in direct communication with 3 astronauts on the space station. The festivities began on Saturday with a Science
‘Unacceptably high’ number of school districts face deep fiscal challenges State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson reported today that 500,000 fewer California students attend school districts in financial jeopardy now than last May, though an unacceptably high number of districts still face deep fiscal challenges. Azusa Unified, Burbank Unified, El Monte Union High, Pasadena Unified and Rosemead Elementary are on the Qualified list. Qualified
certification is assigned to a local educational agency when it is determined that, based upon current projections, the local educational agency may not meet its financial obligations for fiscal year. The state’s First Interim Status Report for 2012-13 shows that 124 local educational agencies (LEAs) serving 2.1 million students are in either a negative or qualified Please see page 15
Expo on the Monrovia High School campus. Various groups including the local ham radio operators, JPL, Rockwell Collins, the Planetary Society along with others set up informational booths to introduce students to various aspects of science and space exploration.
At the expo students were able to ask questions of engineers an other scientist involved in space exploration. There were laser demonstrations, remote controlled aircraft, telescopes for viewing the sun, and Please see page 13
Nicholas J. Lisk, 501, 11%. Vincent Yu, 1,643, 35%. Matthew J. Wong, 907, 20%. Tom Chavez, 1,586, 34%. As of March 5, 2013, 10 p.m. All precincts reporting; includes vote-by-mail ballots. Precinct turnout: 1,089, Vote-by-mail turnout: 1,537, Overall voter turnout: 2,626, Voter turnout rate: 15%. Current rankings may change depending on provisional ballots, which will be reviewed starting March 7. There are 213 provisional ballots. Under state law, election results must be certified by March 30. Those results will be certified at the March 19 City Council meeting, 7:30 p.m., at 5938 Kauffman Ave. At that meeting, the elected City Council members will be sworn in to serve their four-year terms. A new Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem will also be selected; those named to the post will serve for one year.
Sawkins and De La Torre returned to San Gabriel Council Gutierrez loses seat to Jason Pu BY SHEL SEGAL Two of the three members of the so-called “Team San Gabriel” have been reelected to the San Gabriel City Council in Tuesday’s municipal election, while one of the members of that squad has lost his seat to a rival. In addition, Measure SG – which would increase the city’s hotel occupancy tax from 10 to 12 percent – passed overwhelmingly. Kevin Sawkins and Mario De La Torre have been returned to the coun-
cil with 21.0 and 19.8 percent of the vote, respectively. Also being elected to the council was Jason Pu, who garnered 20.5 percent of the vote. Losing his seat to Pu was Council Member David Gutierrez. Gutierrez, who was running on an unofficial slate with De La Torre and Sawkins, picked up 19.3 of the vote. Rounding out the five council candidates was Please see page 7
Jason Pu