Northern California

With the statewide drought as a foundation - and the current storms a punch line to jokes highlighting how dry it still is despite recent rainfall - a trio of local water agencies encouraged Glendale business representatives and residents on Thursday to support a controversial plan to build a new system to deliver water from Northern California to the Southland. -- FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated in the last paragraph that the Bay Delta plan would be considered for a vote by early 2015.

MARY ALICE CAMPBELL HASKELL Mary Alice Campbell Haskell, 91, a former Glendale resident, died Aug. 7, 2002. She was born Sept. 12, 1910, in Bradford, Pa. In 1931 she married Grant E. Haskell and they moved to Glendale, where she owned and operated the Mail-Away. She was a prominent Democrat in the community, and was involved with the Brand Library. She is survived by her sister, Jayne Driscoll of Olean, N.Y.; daughters, Ann Thulin of Sweden and Shelly Parvin of Irvine; seven grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and one great-great-granddaughter, Jessica Thomas of Oakland.

Babe Ruth 13s open tourney with win The La Crescenta Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Star baseball team saw its offense sizzle in the Arizona heat. La Crescenta finished with 13 hits Thursday to earn a 15-1 win against the Tucson Alley Cats in an opening-round game of the Pacific Southwest Regional in Surprise, Ariz. The game was called after 4 1/2 innings because of the 10-run mercy rule. La Crescenta, which captured the Southern California State Tournament on July 18, played Northern California champion Antioch in a winner's-bracket contest Friday night.

Jackson Bell A 6.6-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Northern California Thursday night was the fourth to rattle the West Coast in a week but was too far away to agitate nearby faults, officials said. Residents are encouraged, however, to be prepared at all times for an unpredictable natural disaster. The quake, centered more than 100 miles east of the coastal city of Eureka, struck at about 10:20 p.m. Thursday, two days after a much larger temblor in that area prompted a tsunami warning.

GLENDALE — In a game that La Crescenta Coach Rick Marquis basically characterized as a knockdown, drag out fight, it was the La Crescenta Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Stars that were the last team standing. “It was a battle, it was fantastic pitching for both sides,” said Marquis just after La Crescenta defeated host Eureka, 4-2, in the opening round of the Babe Ruth 13-year-old Pacific Southwest Regional late Thursday night at Babe Ruth Field in Eureka. La Crescenta will now play Tri-Valley, the Northern California champions, at 7:30 p.m. tonight.

GLENDALE ? A year ago, Jim Siepler had the pleasure of being a parent and watching the Crescenta Valley Major Softball All-Star team advance to the Western Regionals in Vancouver, Wash. A year later, Jim Siepler will again be in Vancouver to watch the Western Regionals, but this time, he'll go as the head coach of Crescenta Valley's 11- and 12-year-old squad. Crescenta Valley ? the District 16, Section 2 and Division 3 titlist ? will represent Southern California in today's Western Regionals Opening Ceremonies, which mark the beginning of the nine-day, 10-team tournament.

The Los Angeles Futbol Club (LAFC) brought championships back to the community on Nov. 26 after having played in the elite Nike Harvest Cup Tournament in Irvine and the prestigious Nomads Thanksgiving Invitational Soccer Tournament in San Diego. Coach Barry Ritson's LAFC B10 and LAFC B12 owned these divisions of the Nike Harvest Cup by the end of the holiday weekend. The B10 team racked up 10 goals while conceding seven in its pursuit of the championship, winning 2-1 over Tango, 7-4 over Stampede Red and 3-0 over Arsenal.

GLENDALE — For a second straight night, an opposing pitcher went the distance against the La Crescenta 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars. But this time around, La Crescenta came out on the losing end. Thanks to a one-hit performance by Tri-Valley of Northern California hurler Josh Sprugasci, La Crescenta finished on the wrong end of a 4-1 loss on Friday night in Eureka at Babe Ruth Field in the second round of the winner’s bracket...

GLENDALE — Off on a roundtrip that extends to more than 1,200 miles, the La Crescenta 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars find themselves just south of the Oregon border and shouldered by the Pacific. At stake is a possible excursion to Utah and the Babe Ruth World Series, but for now, it’s all about the Babe Ruth 13-year-old Pacific Southwest Regional, which begins today and runs through Tuesday. “I told them we’re not talking about [the World Series],” La Crescenta Coach Rick Marquis said.

While sleet and snow cannot stop delivery of the mail, apparently not filing the correct paperwork can halt the playing of a high school football game. A paperwork snafu is the reason Bell-Jeff officials said today's 1 p.m. nonleague game at Los Angeles High has been canceled. Bell-Jeff Coach Rolando Aguirre said specific paperwork had to be filed out with the California Interscholastic Federation because Los Angeles is a City Section school and Bell-Jeff is a CIF Southern Section school.

A prolonged period of below-average rainfall has put the entire state of California under some level of drought, ranging in severity from moderate to exceptional, for the first time in 15 years. The latest drought monitor released by the National Climatic Data Center this week shows that  the entire state  is under moderate  drought conditions , but within that map, 76.6% of the state is experiencing extreme drought conditions, and for 24.7% of the state, the level of dryness is "exceptional.

With the statewide drought as a foundation - and the current storms a punch line to jokes highlighting how dry it still is despite recent rainfall - a trio of local water agencies encouraged Glendale business representatives and residents on Thursday to support a controversial plan to build a new system to deliver water from Northern California to the Southland. -- FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated in the last paragraph that the Bay Delta plan would be considered for a vote by early 2015.

On the heels of criminal cases involving California teachers and district employees who failed to report alleged child abuse on campus, Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) has proposed a law that would require public schools to adopt uniform procedures for detecting and reporting such crimes. In one of the cases cited by Gatto, however, prosecutors dropped the charges against the teacher. Assembly Bill 1432 would also require that school employees receive training on an annual basis, either online or in person.

Glendale police and U.S. Marshals arrested a 64-year-old man in a local hotel Thursday night on suspicion of beating his roommate to death in Northern California, officials said. Lawrence Hoffman of Burlingame in San Mateo County was taken into custody as he was leaving his room at the Golden Key Hotel in the 100 block of Colorado Street, Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. Burlingame Police Department officials notified their Glendale counterparts and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force that they had tracked Hoffman to the hotel using his cell phone records, Burlingame Capt.

A Northern California real estate firm has paid $43 million to acquire a 115-unit apartment building on Broadway in Glendale, ending the troubled tenure of the original owner. Palo Alto-based Essex Property Trust Inc. announced Monday it bought 416 E. Broadway out of court-ordered receivership. The building was owned by East Broadway Ventures Inc. Completed in 2008, the building includes ground-floor retail space and 115 residential units that at first were to be sold as condos.

Burbank school officials said they were shocked and saddened to learn that former Supt. Kevin Jolly had fallen to his death from a 255-foot bridge on Friday in Northern California, where he had taken over a troubled school district just a few weeks prior. Jolly reportedly fell off the Confusion Hill Bridge on Friday, falling to his death to the Eel River below from a height of more than a 20-story building. Numerous calls made to Mendocino County sheriff's and coroner's officials went unreturned on Tuesday.

GLENDALE — For a second straight night, an opposing pitcher went the distance against the La Crescenta 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars. But this time around, La Crescenta came out on the losing end. Thanks to a one-hit performance by Tri-Valley of Northern California hurler Josh Sprugasci, La Crescenta finished on the wrong end of a 4-1 loss on Friday night in Eureka at Babe Ruth Field in the second round of the winner’s bracket...

GLENDALE — In a game that La Crescenta Coach Rick Marquis basically characterized as a knockdown, drag out fight, it was the La Crescenta Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Stars that were the last team standing. “It was a battle, it was fantastic pitching for both sides,” said Marquis just after La Crescenta defeated host Eureka, 4-2, in the opening round of the Babe Ruth 13-year-old Pacific Southwest Regional late Thursday night at Babe Ruth Field in Eureka. La Crescenta will now play Tri-Valley, the Northern California champions, at 7:30 p.m. tonight.

GLENDALE — Off on a roundtrip that extends to more than 1,200 miles, the La Crescenta 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars find themselves just south of the Oregon border and shouldered by the Pacific. At stake is a possible excursion to Utah and the Babe Ruth World Series, but for now, it’s all about the Babe Ruth 13-year-old Pacific Southwest Regional, which begins today and runs through Tuesday. “I told them we’re not talking about [the World Series],” La Crescenta Coach Rick Marquis said.

GLENDALE — Watsonville, home of the 2009 Babe Ruth League Pacific Southwest Regional Tournament, is the next stop for the San Gabriel Valley Babe Ruth 16-18 All-Stars. If all goes well in the small Monterey Bay-area town, the Southern California Babe Ruth champion-squad, which is coached by Crescenta Valley High baseball Coach Phil Torres and features five Falcons players, will plot a course further north to the Babe Ruth World Series in Moses Lake, Wash. But first things first.