Bird

Outage affects more than 13,000 residents A bird flew into a transformer on Saturday, causing 13,500 customers to lose power in La Crescenta and Montrose from 8:27 a.m. to 9:15 a.m., Saturday, city officials said. Workers cleaned and repaired the area at the Montrose substation within 45 minutes, said Ramon Abueg, Glendale Water and Power's electrical services administrator. A bird that looked like a crow or a raven flew into a small gap on the transformer, which generates 34,000 volts of energy.

A page was turned in the third chapter of the St. Francis High mountain bike team's existence last year as it sent an individual to the state championships for the first time. The Golden Knights are looking to continue progressing in their fourth season in 2012. It'll be the first year St. Francis Coach Lee Bird will have had riders under his wing for four straight years. "I think what's happened is we've really built a program," Bird said. "What we did four years ago was focusing on getting kids on bikes and teaching them the skills to go out and ride for an hour.

Marshall Allen An altercation between a Pasadena Humane Society officer and a peacock left both with cosmetic injuries and led to the city stopping the trapping of the birds until October. La Canada Flintridge is one of several local cities with a peafowl population that is appreciated by some and despised by others, humane society director Steve McNall said. This year, the city has plans to trap and relocate about eight peafowl, McNall said. The birds are located in the approximate region north of Vista Del Valle, east of Vista Miguel and west of Harter Lane, according to resident and peafowl fan Richard Harris.

The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) Region 88 program, based in Glendale and La Crescenta, will be conducting the last day of its 2009-10 fall season early bird registration for children ages 4 through 18 on Saturday, April 25 (9 a.m. - 3 p.m.) at Clark Magnet School, 4747 New York Ave., La Crescenta. Early bird registration fee for all divisions (through April 25) is $90 (includes uniform, pictures, trophy, and yearbook). Region 88?s website at www.ayso88.org has specific registration information, as well as other information regarding the program.

About 3,000 Glendale Water and Power customers lost electrical power Thursday morning for close to an hour. "A bird came in contact with the Rossmoyne-Montrose lines, and this caused an outage to both the Montrose and Glorietta substations," said Vicki Gardner, a city of Glendale spokesperson. Gardner said the substantial outage-which affected residences, businesses and traffic signals-was reported at 7:10 a.m. Crews restored power at 7:59 a.m. She said that power loss on a clear day that has no wind usually can be attributed to a bird or an animal coming in contact with power lines.

Marshall Allen Students in Bob Berger's fourth-grade class at La Canada Elementary did a full-immersion Spanish language exercise Tuesday as a part of the school's continued emphasis on Spanish instruction. Spanish has been a special emphasis at La Canada Elementary in the past three years with the development of its Early Bird/Late Bird program, an innovative enrichment program that has parents lining up at 6:30 a.m. on registration day to get their kids involved.

General volunteer orientation planned GLENDALE -- The Glendale-Crescenta Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross is holding an orientation for residents interested in volunteering for the organization. Information on various chapter services, including disaster and health and safety, will be given at the orientation, as well as information on volunteer and training opportunities available. The orientation is from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the chapter, 1501 S. Brand Blvd.

The students in Carol Tensen’s sixth-grade class still eat chicken. That’s despite gutting a bird and putting up with its decomposing smell the past six weeks, all in the name of ancient Egypt. “We learned what happened when pharaohs got mummified,” Balboa Elementary School student Teni Amadian said. “We thought the chicken could be our pharaoh.” Enter King Kluckhamen, whose rancid stench took 30 minutes to leave the room, at least initially, according to student Connor McGarrah.

A recent headline from the Los Angeles Times, “Teens plotting attacks tend to tip their hand,” highlights a particularly difficult grammar problem. Do plural teens really share a singular hand? No. But would it be better to make “hand” plural, giving us “Teens plotting attacks tend to tip their hands”? Not necessarily. In fact, the consensus seems to be that, no, a plural object in a sentence like this is not an improvement over a singular subject. This issue falls under the umbrella of what are called “agreement problems.” But unlike better-known agreement issues, notably subject-verb agreement, what's sometimes called subject-object agreement isn't as well known - quite possibly because it's futile to even think about.

The Glendale Model Railroad Club held its spring open house this weekend, giving the public a chance to inspect a vast miniaturized landscape of Southern Pacific Railroad operations between Los Angeles and Bakersfield. Represented in the 100-plus mile scene are stations in San Fernando, Saugus, Lancaster, Mojave and Caliente. The club, formed in 1949, provides this description of the scene: As a visitor views the layout, the foreground from right to left is occupied by the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal and supporting coach yards, roundhouse, diesel facilities, Taylor Yard (the massive facility that in real life stretched for more two miles along San Fernando Road)

Attorneys for the man accused of creating a public safety nuisance at Bob Hope Airport by feeding a large flock of pigeons argued Friday in court that there was insufficient evidence in the case, and that the charges should be dropped. Charles Douglas pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of creating a public nuisance and disobeying a court order in September. Donald Ingalls, who with Bruce Kaufman represents the Burbank business owner, said Friday that their client should be facing only an infraction for violating the Burbank municipal code for feeding pigeons and should not face the repercussions of a state nuisance charge, a misdemeanor.

A page was turned in the third chapter of the St. Francis High mountain bike team's existence last year as it sent an individual to the state championships for the first time. The Golden Knights are looking to continue progressing in their fourth season in 2012. It'll be the first year St. Francis Coach Lee Bird will have had riders under his wing for four straight years. "I think what's happened is we've really built a program," Bird said. "What we did four years ago was focusing on getting kids on bikes and teaching them the skills to go out and ride for an hour.

“Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” gallops into theaters almost exactly on schedule - its predecessors came out in 1996, 2000 and 2006 - and (more importantly) just in time to rescue Tom Cruise's flagging box-office numbers. Outside of his funny, if bizarre, guest spot in “Tropic Thunder,” his films since the last entry (“Lions for Lambs,” “Valkyrie” and the underrated “Knight and Day”) have all underperformed. The utterly enjoyable “M:I - GP” should fix all that.

In court for a pre-trial hearing Friday, attorneys for the man accused of creating an aircraft safety hazard at the Bob Hope Airport by feeding a large flock of pigeons called his arrest an overblown media frenzy stoked by authorities. Attorneys for Charles Douglas, owner of Precise Roofing Co. on Hollywood Way, requested more time in Los Angeles County Superior Court to review transcripts they said they only received this week and to discuss the matter with the Burbank city attorney's office.

Eleven mosquito samples in Burbank have tested positive for the West Nile virus, and an infected dead bird was found in Glendale, prompting local officials to renew calls for eliminating standing pools of water where the insects prefer to breed. “It's been such an epidemic year,” said Truc Dever, a spokeswoman for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District. The infected house sparrow was found dead in the 1000 block of Willard Avenue in Glendale. The 11 mosquito samples that tested positive for the virus in Burbank were from sites scattered across the city.

For nearly a year, officials have been trying to figure out what to do with Charles Douglas. The 59-year-old owner of Precise Roofing Company in Burbank has been feeding flocks of pigeons since at least September 2010, officials say, which - beyond violating municipal code - has created a major safety hazard for jet airplanes using the nearby Bob Hope Airport as the birds numbers have grown into the hundreds. On average, airport police Commander Allen Schmitt said planes at Bob Hope Airport strike a bird once every two months.

Charlie, an African grey parrot, became the first bird to receive an identification microchip implant at the Burbank Animal Shelter. Now, if she’s ever lost, a breast scan will reveal her ID number, and through a recovery network she can be reunited with her owner. In dogs and cats, the microchip, the size of a grain of rice, is applied just under the skin at the back of the neck. Connie Donoho of Burbank has had Charlie for 15 years, and even though the parrot’s wings are clipped, Donoho decided to have her microchipped in case she ever wanders away.

DOWNTOWN — A bald eagle, bucolic landscapes and busts of historically significant figures greeted Vachik Gharibyan on Sunday evening on his way into the Armenian Cultural Arts Contest. Vachik’s pieces, inspired by classic, hand-drawn animation and scenes from nature were among the more than 30 pieces of student artwork on display at the Armenian Society of Los Angeles reception, sponsored by the Ark Family Center’s Komitas Cultural Committee. “Some of this I learned from my teacher,” said Vachik, 10, pointing across the room to Edward Manukyan.