Featured Articles from the Glendale News-Press

LA CRESCENTA — For nearly as long as he's been coaching the boys' varsity basketball team at Crescenta Valley High during the winter months, Shawn Zargarian has also run Coach Z's Basketball Camp out of the Falcons gym one week out of the summer. And, while the group of about 75 7-13 year olds that filled the gym this past week for the fifth installment of the camp is younger than Zargarian's Falcon charges, he runs the camp as if to prepare his pupils for what they might find at a CV High practice.

Six Glendale employees received layoff notices last week. They are the first of more than two dozen who are expected to be cut from the city's payroll due to the loss of local redevelopment revenues. The employees are split evenly between management and non-management staff and include two planning assistants, an economic development manager, a redevelopment project manager, a neighborhood services field representative and an administrative analyst, said city spokesman Tom Lorenz in an email.

Glendale school board member Greg Krikorian, who is challenging Mike Gatto for the 43rd Assembly District seat in November, ramped up his campaign at a recent anti-genocide rally by appealing to the Armenian American vote with a fiery speech that has since been posted online. In his address to the crowd, Krikorian spoke in terms that appeared to limit his appeal to Armenian voters - a strategy used many times by candidates before him with limited success - by saying it was time to elect someone who “speaks for us” and that “one of our own represents our community.” In his speech outside Glendale Community College, which was posted on YouTube , Krikorian also pledges “to be the voice of American Armenians and to be the voice of Glendale - to be in touch with you.” Krikorian said he tailored his comments - which at times became excited and touched on the international geo-political trials of Armenia - for his audience at the candlelight vigil commemorating the Armenian genocide of 1915.

ROSSI Gretchen Forward of Montrose and Christopher Rossi of New York City were married at Laguna Cliffs in Dana Point. Pastor Keith Davis officiated. The bride and groom had their dog, Kahlua, walk down the aisle with the wedding bands to the song "Who Let the Dogs Out." The maid of honor was Nicole Forward. Serving as bridesmaids were Kimberly Kehl, Rachel Leonard, Melanie Masterton, Tina Aust, Michele Arnold, Sarah Nelson, Susan Strauss and Erica Kelly.

One of the hottest summer attractions in Glendale hasn't been a nightclub or a Caruso Affiliated-financed development. The Pacific Community Park Pool, which opened on June 4, is attracting as many as 1,000 people a day, including up to 450 recreational swimmers and 550 aquatics-program participants, city officials reported this week. The pool's capacity at any given time is 243 people. “I am absolutely astounded at the number of young kids, adults and seniors that are in the pool all day,” said City Councilman Ara Najarian, who played a critical role in pushing through the development of the pool.

Police arrested three people Saturday morning for allegedly stealing an iPad 2 and other pricey items from a parked car. Nicole Villegas, 26, Bryan Ochoa 18, and Pedro Orozco, 18, of Altadena were charged with burglary and taken to Glendale City Jail, said Sgt. Daniel Suttles, of the Glendale Police Dept. The incident that led to the arrests unfolded at around 4:15 a.m., when a neighbor spotted two men breaking into a two-door Scion parked on the 3600 block of Figueroa Street in Glendale.

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Former Councilman John Drayman was indicted Tuesday on charges that he embezzled at least $304,000 from the weekly farmers market in Montrose. In a 28-count grand jury indictment unsealed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, prosecutors also allege that Drayman committed perjury when he excluded earnings sources on Fair Political Practices forms, submitted a bogus credit application in 2010 to a mortgage lender and falsified tax returns to...

Before I started teaching copy-editing courses, I assumed that one of the nice things about being a teacher would be sharing hard-earned expertise with wide-eyed students awed by my vast knowledge. Little did I know that I'd be the one getting the lesson, or that the lesson would be this: My knowledge isn't as vast as I thought it was. I figured this out recently when my class was learning about commas. In this course, we tell students to place commas between adjectives like the ones in “He was a nice, respectful, polite, pleasant man.” But do not, we tell them, put commas between adjectives like the ones in “He wore a light yellow collared shirt.” Here's how we explain the difference.

Local gays and lesbians on Wednesday applauded President Obama's public support of same-sex marriage, calling the announcement a pivotal moment in their fight for equality. In explaining the “evolution” of his view on gay marriage over the last several years, Obama told ABC's Robin Roberts that “at a certain point, I've just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” His statements in support of same-sex marriage were the first for a sitting U.S. president.

If you love drama, there is no better place than the Glendale City Council meetings or budget study sessions. The shock that some council members expressed about the budget situation which may lead to layoffs (“Glendale faces mass layoffs,” May 2) could well have come from the Claude Rains character, Captain Renault, in the movie “Casablanca,” who said, “I am shocked, shocked, that gambling is going on in here!” Renault proceeds to take the winnings from his own gambling activities.

A local business owner is taking a cue from reality TV personality Kim Kardashian and entering the “mayor's race” in Glendale, hoping to attract some of the attention Kardashian did, but for a different reason. Helen McDonagh, owner of Massage Envy in Glendale, doesn't want to hold public office - at least not right now. Instead, she wants to wage a campaign to support Glendale Healthy Kids, which provides health services to local needy children. All contributions for her “mayoral” bid will go to the local organization.

The ousted manager of the Montrose Harvest Market has started his own weekend event with the help of former City Councilman John Drayman. Despite an ongoing investigation into allegations that Drayman embezzled money from the Montrose Shopping Park Assn., which manages the Harvest Market on Honolulu Avenue, several vendors who plan to join a new craft market Saturday say they aren't worried about the investigation. “I have no idea what he did wrong. I have no say in that, but all I know is the way he treated me,” said collectibles vendor Bob Waldron.

Dining With Duvall by Lynn Duvall My best friend, Judie, used to be a jewelry designer. She no longer makes her own jewelry. These days Judie haunts gem shows for unique artisan pieces and fine gemstones. A few months ago I was tagging along behind Judie as she combed the aisles of a gem show at the Pasadena Convention Center. We usually go to Santa Monica, where it's horribly crowded and steamy hot, inside giant white tents. For once, I was not crammed in with hordes of shoppers, dying of the heat.