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The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Crescenta Valley station on Wednesday launched its own Facebook and Twitter profiles to broadcast area-specific news. The social media profiles add to the public notifications already available via the station's website and Nixle profile, and will allow deputies to “broadcast information directly to the news media and the residents we serve,” according to the announcement. The Twitter handle for the station is http://www.twitter.com/CVLASD while its Facebook profile can be found here . --Jason Wells, Times Community News Follow Jason Wells on Facebook , Google+ and on Twitter: @JasonBretWells.

A Facebook application that allows smart meter customers to gauge how much energy they're using compared to others went live Tuesday, Glendale officials announced. Glendale Water & Power customers can connect their utility accounts to the “Opower” app via Facebook to monitor how they stack up to others in terms of energy consumption. Officials have described the app as sort of a “Farmville” type social networking experience. The app plays into what city officials have said is a key element of the smart meters - the ability of customers to track their consumption in near real-time to better control costs.

A 22-year-old parolee was arrested Sunday when he allegedly made threats via Facebook to “put a hit” on his 15-year-old girlfriend's family after they forbid him from seeing her, police said. Raul Reinoso of Glendale was arrested at his home in the 300 block of East Chestnut Street on suspicion of making a criminal threat, unlawful sex with a minor and oral copulation with a minor, according to Glendale police. The girl's parents told police that Reinoso threatened them on Facebook after they logged into their daughter's social network account and sent him a message saying that he was not allowed to see her again, Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

For Crescenta Valley Insurance President Rick Dinger, having his company?s profile on Facebook is akin to a chamber of commerce mixer on steroids. ?It?s all the time. It?s really from the comfort of your home or office,? Dinger said. ?You?re not leaving to go anywhere, and yet you?re connected with people.? Crescenta Valley Insurance, founded by Dinger?s father, Virgil, in 1969, had 459 fans on its business page as of last week. Dinger?s personal Facebook page has more than 900. Using his personal and business pages in tandem has given the younger Dinger the opportunity to communicate news about his business to existing and potential clients, he said.

Crescenta Valley High School Class of 1991 will have its 20th reunion on July 23 at Angeles National Golf Course, 9401 Foothill Blvd., San Fernando Valley. The early-bird cost is $65 per person until April 1. For more information, contact Sosi at (818) 621-1980 after 5 p.m. or e-mail cvhs1991reunion@yahoo.com. The class is also on Facebook at CV Falcons — Class of 1991. GLENDALE HIGH SCHOOL Glendale High School Class of 1981 will have its 30th reunion on July 23 at the Hilton Hotel, 100 W. Glenoaks Blvd.

Some teachers take precautions to avoid their students on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. But not Jean-Marie Pascale-Parra. For homework recently, she required her charges to “friend” her. The unusual assignment was part of the Roosevelt Middle School teacher's technology-focused industrial tech class, designed to teach students how to make the most of technology and the Internet while also staying safe. “My goal is that they are going to be able to grow their technology understanding, that they will be able to work collaborative with other students [and]

The first one came at 5 p.m. the day before: "Happy Birthday, mate! Go the Leos!" David's an Australian in Germany, which justifies his use of the word "mate," and the fact that his birthday greeting hit me on Facebook before the actual day. It's nice to know that someone across the pond was raising a pint toward a friend in the West. There's a notice on Facebook that lets everyone you are "friends" with know when it's your birthday. And all day long you receive both simple and inventive birthday greetings from them.

Pope Benedict XVI recently launched the first ever Vatican YouTube channel. The channel will carry liturgical events, audiences with the pope and other papal activities. Benedict said that “wise” use of such technologies helps promote the search for “the true, the good and the beautiful” across borders and ethnic divisions. How important do you believe technology is to the evangelist of the 21st century? How do you use technology in your own church? The pope is right, though he is playing catch-up.

Being my parish?s webmaster, I have the responsibility of maintaining an online presence for our church. Like any good webmaster, my job is to make sure the site is constantly updated with events, photographs and information about services, ministries and the sacraments we offer. In the era of on-demand content, my other responsibilities are to provide audio recordings and podcasts of the weekly Sunday readings and sermons, and post them on Twitter and Facebook. Photographs of church events go on our Facebook and Flickr pages so parents can see their kids participating (they love that sort of stuff)

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Crescenta Valley station on Wednesday launched its own Facebook and Twitter profiles to broadcast area-specific news. The social media profiles add to the public notifications already available via the station's website and Nixle profile, and will allow deputies to “broadcast information directly to the news media and the residents we serve,” according to the announcement. The Twitter handle for the station is http://www.twitter.com/CVLASD while its Facebook profile can be found here . --Jason Wells, Times Community News Follow Jason Wells on Facebook , Google+ and on Twitter: @JasonBretWells.

It all comes down to Tuesday. The year-long tour de force of stump speeches, primaries, promises, debates and conventions. All the mudslinging, invectives, media circuses, accusations, half-truths, almost-facts and outright lies. All the straight questions, crooked answers, distortions and illusive five-point plans with only a veneer of substance. Every election cycle it happens. And we the people fall for it hook, line and stinker. We get swept up in swift-boating, voter fraud, fact-checking and factual amnesia; statistical manipulation and misrepresentation, emotional appeals and exploitation.

Something terrible happened a few days ago. I received an invitation to my 10-year high school reunion. To make things worse, thanks to our wholly digital existence these days, it arrived via a Facebook event invite, where I could see in plain, virtual view, every other invitee - their profile photos neatly juxtaposed next to the names that had slowly ventured into the dim corners of my brain over the years. There was no letter I could fold back into its envelope and toss on my desk, no sense of wonder about who would be there or who couldn't (or didn't want to)

A Facebook application that allows smart meter customers to gauge how much energy they're using compared to others went live Tuesday, Glendale officials announced. Glendale Water & Power customers can connect their utility accounts to the “Opower” app via Facebook to monitor how they stack up to others in terms of energy consumption. Officials have described the app as sort of a “Farmville” type social networking experience. The app plays into what city officials have said is a key element of the smart meters - the ability of customers to track their consumption in near real-time to better control costs.

A 22-year-old parolee pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he allegedly threatened his teen girlfriend's parents via Facebook after they tried stop him from seeing her. Raul Reinoso faces two felony counts of making criminal threats against the parents of his alleged 15-year-old girlfriend, three felony counts of unlawful sex with a minor and one count of oral copulation with a minor, according to a Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal...

The Glendale chapter of the Armenian National Committee saw its holiday food drive donations more than double this year, going from helping 150 families in 2010 to providing help to about 350 families this year, organizers said. They attributed a big part of the success to social media. “Facebook helps,” Executive Director Elen Asatryan said Thursday night as the organization dispersed the donations. The Armenian National Committee has led the food drive campaign the past five years in conjunction with other local organizations.

Glendale Water & Power will be one of the first utility companies to join a pilot program featuring a first-of-its-kind Facebook application that will allow roughly 4 million energy users from California to Chicago to create competitions and share insight about their energy consumption on the social networking site. The idea is that by tapping the same social gusto that users apply to other Facebook tools, the utilities will get their customers fully connected to the potential of energy conservation.

Some teachers take precautions to avoid their students on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. But not Jean-Marie Pascale-Parra. For homework recently, she required her charges to “friend” her. The unusual assignment was part of the Roosevelt Middle School teacher's technology-focused industrial tech class, designed to teach students how to make the most of technology and the Internet while also staying safe. “My goal is that they are going to be able to grow their technology understanding, that they will be able to work collaborative with other students [and]

Crescenta Valley High School Class of 1991 will have its 20th reunion on July 23 at Angeles National Golf Course, 9401 Foothill Blvd., San Fernando Valley. The early-bird cost is $65 per person until April 1. For more information, contact Sosi at (818) 621-1980 after 5 p.m. or e-mail cvhs1991reunion@yahoo.com. The class is also on Facebook at CV Falcons — Class of 1991. GLENDALE HIGH SCHOOL Glendale High School Class of 1981 will have its 30th reunion on July 23 at the Hilton Hotel, 100 W. Glenoaks Blvd.