Featured Articles from the Glendale News-Press

A 28-year-old Van Nuys man has been charged with the kidnapping and murder of a Glendale man who was run over with a vehicle and shot to death in Sun Valley, authorities said. Hachik Maskovian faces four felony murder-related charges in the death of 33-year-old Joshua West, including that the incident was premeditated and that he was kidnapped during the April 24 incident, according to a Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal complaint. West died of multiple gunshot wounds, but was also cut and suffered blunt force trauma, said Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman Ed Winter.

A 19-year-old Los Angeles man was stabbed twice in his arm, possibly by his brother, on Saturday near the Glendale Galleria, police said. The man, whose name wasn't released, told police he was jumped at about 8:32 p.m. and stabbed twice in the left arm by two men, but declined to talk about the incident, according to Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz. A witness, however, reported seeing something different. The witness told police the man was arguing and fighting with his brother inside a van just before officers arrived to the scene.

At least 15 vehicles and motorcycles have been stolen off Glendale streets in the past two weeks, although police say the figure doesn't necessarily represent a trend. Police officials say they haven't established any leads, or made any arrests in connection with the thefts, which have been occurring at rate of about one a day since Aug. 29. Few details about the thefts and the types of vehicles were released because the cases were under investigation. “As for the methods, number of suspects…it really varies,” Glendale Police Sgt. Dave Higgins said in an email.

Before heading off to Brigham Young University in the summer to prepare for college football, Mike Davis will have a few items of business to tackle during the next several months. As the linchpin to the Glendale High boys' track and field team once again, Davis will look to successfully defend his Pacific League championships in the 100- and 200-meter races with the ultimate goal of returning to the CIF-State Meet in June. The standout sprinter posted All-Area best times in the 100- (10.67)

A Hollywood woman was arrested Wednesday after allegedly selling bogus Disneyland tickets on Craigslist in Glendale to at least half a dozen families, some of whom didn't learn of the fakery until being turned away at the theme park's gates. The woman, Alisa Yenokyan, 22, was taken into custody about 6 p.m. after she agreed to meet officers who posed as potential Disneyland ticket purchasers at Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue in Los Angeles, Police Det. Jonathan Owen said. The officers responded to one of her Craigslist ads and offered to buy two adult and two child tickets for $50 each, he said.

A 39-year-old motorist was arrested this week after a Glendale police officer saw him allegedly crash into a parked car, flee the area, and then drive onto a sidewalk when he was ordered to stop. The motorist, Garo Kalindjian, reportedly admitted on Tuesday to taking Suboxone, a pill used to treat opiate addiction, before colliding, according to Glendale police reports. Kalindjian was taken into custody on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs, police said. The officer was driving about 11:29 p.m. on the 1700 block of Broadview Drive when he saw Kalindjian driving toward him and close to the curb, police said.

This post has been corrected. See below for details.  A 13-year-old boy died Thursday after he was struck by, and then trapped underneath, a school bus, police said. Numerous 911 calls about the incident at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Riverdale Drive started coming in shortly after 2 p.m., Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. [Updated 7:05 p.m.: The boy whose identity is still not released attended Roosevelt Middle School. In preliminary interviews, witnesses said the boy was traveling at a high rate of speed, heading westbound in an eastbound lane.

Sean Sauceda moved quickly through dry brush near a Pasadena freeway off ramp before dawn Tuesday morning, looking for the homeless people most at risk of dying on city streets. He stopped to peer inside a cluster of bushes. “People hollow them out by breaking the branches inside,” Sauceda said as he snapped a branch. “It's natural shelter. It's large enough where you can fit a dome tent inside of it. I've done it.” Sauceda, 41, a Fresno-area native, lived on the streets of Los Angeles for 13 years.

A recent revelation that Leslie Combs Brand, the so-called Father of Glendale, probably fathered two children with a secret mistress came as a shock to many, but local history enthusiasts are downright delighted. Longtime Los Angeles Times columnist Cecilia Rasmussen, who concluded her “L.A. Then and Now” history column with the piece on Brand on April 6, backed up her scoop with a DNA test that linked Brand to a descendant of his alleged mistress, Birdie Esther Carpenter Gordon.

The local Armenian community braced against a public rush to judgment after authorities on Wednesday announced a major crackdown on Armenian organized crime that included 74 people arrested on fraud and racketeering charges. The federal indictments, unveiled at Glendale police headquarters Wednesday, alleged that members of the gang Armenian Power engaged in a range of white collar crimes to defraud the public of $20 million. In a city where people of Armenian descent make up roughly 40% of the population, news of the arrests raised fears of what seems to be the inevitable: a rush by a vocal few to reinforce stereotypes.

I n 1974, Judy Weber's son, Tobin, was dealing with autism so severe that it would manifest itself as destructive behavior. "He faced state hospitalization," she said. At the time, Weber was serving on a committee serving autistic children within the Los Angeles Unified School District. Tobin was living at UCLA, where researchers were using him as a subject for early autism research. When UCLA was close to completing their research, Weber became frustrated when she found that no school would take Tobin due to the severity of his autism.

Living on the edges of a recently renovated 18-hole golf course might seem like the pinnacle of home ownership, but errant golf balls in one North Glendale neighborhood are sending some running for cover. Residents in the 3200 block of La Crescenta Avenue, which demarcates the northeast perimeter of the Oakmont County Club golf course, said they have been encountering the occasional golf ball for years. They also maintain that the incidents of wayward balls have increased dramatically since the course underwent a $4.7-million renovation in 2009, resulting in smashed car windows and near misses of students walking to and from nearby Fremont Elementary School.

Billionaire Richard Branson may have been celebrating the next step in his quest to make commercial space flights viable this week, but students at Clark Magnet High School also have been busy at work analyzing their own near-space flight. The students launched a high-altitude balloon that reached 85,000 feet over the Angeles National Forest Sunday to collect photos and video from near-space. "Launching a high-altitude balloon is about 99% the same as going to space, and it's as close as you can get without a very expensive, massive rocket," said Clark teacher David Black, who oversaw the launch.