Apology

It is terribly unfortunate that the wildfires and resulting devastation in Southern California were occurring at the same time the Americana at Brand held its first spectacular tree lighting and accompanying pyrotechnics display (“Fiery display riles council,” Nov. 19). Admittedly, the timing wasn’t the best. However, in defense of the Caruso Affiliated management team, they went the extra mile to ensure an absolutely safe display that, with the agreement of the Fire Department, posed absolutely no danger to the area and its surroundings.

'Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house, We were shopping online, madly clicking the mouse; More bargains than ever were there to be had, To recover from seasonal sales worse than bad. The dishes were stacked up quite high in the sink, And that half-eaten cheese log was starting to stink; Some cookies were left, but the fudge was all gone, And we’d all had enough of that “White Christmas” song....

Glendale Councilman Zareh Sinanyan apologized for the first time from the dais at a council meeting Tuesday night for posting racist, homophobic and vulgar comments several years ago on YouTube. “It truly does not matter to me if you're Armenian or Latino or Anglo or Korean. It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight. It doesn't matter if you're Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu,” Sinanyan said. “As my life experiences have shown, the only thing that matters to me is that I want to serve Glendale.” Last month, Sinanyan publicly confessed to making the comments , many of which were violent and centered around Armenia's geo-political enemies, to Glendale News-Press columnist Ron Kaye.

CITY HALL — Councilmen Bob Yousefian and Ara Najarian on Tuesday renewed the attack on their colleague Dave Weaver, calling for a public condemnation of remarks he allegedly made about Armenian smokers in a Pasadena Weekly article in June. Najarian also took the added step of calling on his colleagues to join him in an unofficial censure of Weaver for allegedly making a broad statement in the June 26 Pasadena Weekly article that Glendale’s “substantial and influential” Armenian population would likely oppose a coming smoking ordinance because many of them are smokers.

CITY HALL — Councilman Dave Weaver, after facing two weeks of heavy criticism over his alleged references to Armenian smokers in a Pasadena Weekly article, fired back on Tuesday, calling his critics’ “ugly charges of ethnic insensitivity” unfounded and politically motivated. Weaver read from a prepared statement at the beginning of the City Council meeting Tuesday after missing last week’s meeting to tend to what he said was a family medical emergency.

GLENDALE — After about seven months of back-and-forth, delay and miscommunication, Glendale resident Brian Ellis received a public records request for Glendale Unified School District employees earning more than $100,000. District officials cited more pressing requests and a short staff as reasons for the delay. “I apologize, bottom line,” Supt. Michael Escalante said. “Not everybody always understands the priorities and the workloads we have to work under.

PASADENA — Ara Grigoryan pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter and fleeing the scene of an accident Thursday for the 2007 hit-and-run death of Elizabeth Sandoval. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The 23-year-old Glendale resident accepted a plea of 11 years to vehicular manslaughter, which carries a term of six years in prison, and an allegation of fleeing the scene of an accident that caused great bodily injury or death, which added five years to his sentence.

In Glendale, 339 cases of domestic violence were reported to police in 2010. The department's latest figures, as of September of this year, are 238. But many women don't report assaults to the police, and others report them to organizations like the YWCA. With this in mind, the Safe Family Task Force, the YWCA of Glendale and the Glendale Religious Leaders Assn. are holding a workshop on Dec. 15 on family violence for local clergy members to attend. The workshop is designed to help clergy learn about domestic violence, what resources are available, and how to respond.

Though the work of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has been criticized on many grounds, it's doubtful that a lack of subtlety is among them. From "The Killing" (1956) through "Dr. Strangelove" (1964), his work was brilliant, but from "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) on, it was not only brilliant but also complex and ambiguous in ways that almost demand analysis. Rodney Ascher's "Room 237" focuses in on one Kubrick film, "The Shining" (1980), which in recent years has surpassed "2001" as the center of Kubrick analysis.

The front page of the Glendale News-Press on May 2 carried the headline, “Sinanyan issues apology from council dais.” Apologies are good if they are sincere. However, one has to doubt Zareh Sinanyan's sincerity. Why? Because the apology comes only after being “cornered,” with no other alternative. The hate speech was real and genuine and Sinanyan knew it from the beginning. Yet he stood before the city of Glendale and smeared Laura Friedman when she brought up the issue, saying, “She's lying.” He knew she was not lying, but he still proceeded down his path of hate, lies and deceit.