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MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2014 - JANUARY 19, 2014 - VOLUME 3, NO. 2
Lee Baca stepping down as Los Angeles County Sheriff
BCS – Florida St. puts on the heat in last 13 seconds
LASD homicide detectives assist Monterey Park PD with shooting
Heisman Trophy winner leads Seminoles in dramatic comeback to win National Championship BY SHEL SEGAL A two-yard touchdown pass from Jameis Winston to Kelvin Benjamin with just 13 seconds left put Florida State University over the top against Auburn University, 34-31, on Monday night at the Rose Bowl in the final BCS national championship game. The win ended the Seminoles’ perfect season at 14-0. Auburn finished at 12-2. Winston threw 6-for-7 for 77 yards on the gamewinning 80-yard drive. Please see page 3
An emotional Lee Baca said he decided to retire three days ago during the Monday press conference in Monterey Park. -Photo by Terry Miller
BY TERRY MILLER In what can only be described as a highly emotional press conference Tuesday, Sheriff Lee Baca announced his plans to step down at the end of January. Hundreds of media representatives, colleagues and deputies plus numerous supporters of the embattled
Sheriff attended the press conference in Monterey Park. The news of Baca’s decision to step down caught people by surprise inside and outside the county agency. He was in a tough re-election battle while dealing with many serious accusations of impropriety against him and at
West Covina School District in hot water over religious freedom BY SHEL SEGAL Officials from the West Covina Unified School District are being asked by a religious freedom group to apologize and implement policy changes in wake of a teacher of an incident involving a first grader and a teacher, according to a published report. The first grader – 6-year-old Isaiah Martinez who attends Merced Elementary School – apparently brought candy canes to give to his teacher, Valerie Lu, and students in his class on Dec. 13, 2013, according to the report. The canes came complete with an attached mes-
sage that said the cane was a symbol of Jesus Christ, according to the report. Attorneys for Advocates for Faith & Freedom, an Irvinebased nonprofit law firm, on Monday issued a letter to the district and asked for a formal apology, according to the report. After talking to school principal Gordon Pfitzer, Lu took back all of the candy, ripped the religious-based message from the canes, threw the messages away and gave the canes back to the 6-year-old to give out to the students, according to the report. Pfitzer allegedly told Lu that “Jesus is not al-
lowed in school.” Martinez’s sister told a local news station that all the 6-year-old wanted to do was just pass out the candy to his classmates. The family said the boy was finally allowed to do so with the notes attached, but that it had to be done off campus and on the last day of school just before everybody left for winter break. Robert Tyler, an attorney for Advocates for Faith & Freedom, said he strongly disagreed with how the district reacted and called on the prohibition of “adoptPlease see page 4
least 18 deputies under his command, particularly with regard to the jails. Baca allegedly told told top officials in county government late Monday that he believed stepping down would help the department. Baca made a brief statement Tuesday morning then followed with a
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brief question and answer period. Baca, LA county’s only Latino sheriff in the past century has faced huge political scandals, especially recently. In October 2011, the ACLU and area activists, including former California Attorney General Please see page 5
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide detectives were en route to the 1700 block of East Hellman Avenue, Monterey Park Thursday morning, to assist Monterey Park Police Department personnel investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of a male adult. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. There is no additional information available at this time. Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you may call “Crime Stoppers” by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), or texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or by using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org.
Rep. Schiff joins with Pres. Obama at White House to help announce Los Angeles Promise Zone Thursday Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) joined President Barack Obama to help announce the first five “Promise Zones,” which will include one located in the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Hollywood, East Hollywood, Koreatown, Westlake and Pico Union – the other zones will be located in San Antonio, Philadelphia, Southeastern Kentucky, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. First announced by the President during last year’s State of the Union Address, the Promise Zone Initiative is a way to partner with local communities and businesses
-Courtesy Photo
to create jobs, increase economic security, expand access to educational opportunities and quality, affordable housing and improve public safety. A map of the new
Promise Zone can be found here: The Hollywood Central Park project, which Schiff has Please see page 2