Train Wreck

Ryan Carter Plans to raise the railroad tracks at the intersection of Buena Vista Street and San Fernando Boulevard won't become reality soon enough for Jacek W. Wysocki. Wysocki, 63, was killed Monday morning when a MetroLink train headed south to the Burbank station broadsided his flatbed truck. The train was traveling between 50 and 70 mph when it hit the truck at the intersection of San Fernando Boulevard and Buena Vista Street, officials said.

Tragedy should not be politicized As tragic as the train wreck was Wednesday, especially for those who lost loved ones, the biggest tragedy was having to listen to elected officials from the mayor of Glendale calling for more federal aid, Mayor Hahn of Los Angeles talking about nothing and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who doesn't even represent the district, choose this horrible event to grandstand for the sole...

"To boil it down, my dollars-and-cents feeling says no, but my gut feeling is yes ... You have the funding source now. You can put [the turf] in now. You can use it now. I'm saying, 'Get what you can get now and make use of it.'" Lina Harper, Glendale Unified School District's board of education clerk. "It clearly indicated that the man was deeply touched by what he participated in and witnessed, and maybe this was the way he could show his respect, appreciation and sympathy."

The bullet train boondoggle is looking more like a bullet bull's-eye. But one big question lingers: Where are the bucks? And even if the state can find the bucks, should it spend them on building a high-speed rail line, a cool choo-choo? Especially when higher education in California is such a train wreck? Education - kindergarten through college - should be our No. 1 priority, for both moral and economic reasons. Producing an educated, skilled workforce for the increasingly competitive global economy is even more important than creating temporary track-laying jobs.

Everyone has his own guilty pleasures when it comes to TV shows.  I'm almost embarrassed to admit my latest: “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” on TLC. If ever a show exemplified the clichéd saying of “watching a train wreck” it would be this one. It is difficult to explain what this reality show is about without sounding condescending since the family depicted in it fit negative stereotypes of poor white people in the south (in other words, rednecks,...

When Glendale Police Officer Robert Montenegro walked into a Metrolink passenger car "torn open like a can" on Jan. 26, at the site of the tragic three-train derailment, and saw Patti Hudson conscious but not moving, he knew he could not leave her. "I needed to stay with her to make sure she didn't go into some kind of distress," he said. "Once I was there, I couldn't leave her." Hudson, 51, of Northridge, was traveling to Los Angeles that Wednesday morning, when Juan Manuel Alvarez allegedly parked his 1993 Jeep Cherokee on the train tracks near Chevy Chase Drive, causing the three-train wreck that killed 11 people and injured nearly 200 others.

Glendale Unified officials said this week that 99% of students in grades seven through 12 have been vaccinated for pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough. The announcement followed a months-long campaign to bring the district into compliance with a new state law that requires all secondary students to get the so-called Tdap shot, a three-in-one vaccine that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. “We are comfortable with where we are,” said Assistant Supt.

What do you get if you mix romance and action? Answer: a "romaction" movie. I'm not sure if that's a word but I'll take the credit. Romaction is the best way to describe "The Legend of Zorro," a fun little film that I enjoyed. "The Legend of Zorro" is a sequel to the 1998 "The Mask of Zorro" and stars the same cast. It's now 10 years later and Zorro (Antonio Banderas) and Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) are married with a young son. Like many married couples, they're having serious problems.

Jacqui Brown The life-saving efforts by firefighters after Wednesday's deadly train crash is all in a day's work. Sorting through the wreckage, aiding victims and staying focused is what gets firefighters through, said Capt. Bill Bailey of Fire Station 22 in Glendale, the first unit to respond to the scene. "The call came over the radio as a train derailment with possible injuries," Bailey said. "We had no idea what we were going to see and we didn't know that there were three trains involved."

Everyone has his own guilty pleasures when it comes to TV shows.  I'm almost embarrassed to admit my latest: “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” on TLC. If ever a show exemplified the clichéd saying of “watching a train wreck” it would be this one. It is difficult to explain what this reality show is about without sounding condescending since the family depicted in it fit negative stereotypes of poor white people in the south (in other words, rednecks,...

The bullet train boondoggle is looking more like a bullet bull's-eye. But one big question lingers: Where are the bucks? And even if the state can find the bucks, should it spend them on building a high-speed rail line, a cool choo-choo? Especially when higher education in California is such a train wreck? Education - kindergarten through college - should be our No. 1 priority, for both moral and economic reasons. Producing an educated, skilled workforce for the increasingly competitive global economy is even more important than creating temporary track-laying jobs.

Here's a sentence from an article I was editing recently: “What's more - aside from a specialized curriculum - private schools are notoriously known for their smaller classrooms.” It's the kind of sentence that might not command much attention from the reader. It gets the job done, sort of. So this sentence could slip by without much notice. But upon closer inspection, it's a train wreck. And by looking at all that's wrong with it, we find some excellent lessons in how anyone can improve his or her writing.

A state appellate court will hear arguments next month in the case of Juan Manuel Alvarez, who is appealing the 11 life sentences he received for causing the deadly Metrolink train derailment in 2005. Alvarez, a former Compton construction worker, will appeal a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury's decision in 2008 to convict him of 11 counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson. On Jan. 26, 2005, Alvarez parked his Jeep Cherokee on the train tracks that bisect Glendale and Los Angeles.

Glendale Unified officials said this week that 99% of students in grades seven through 12 have been vaccinated for pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough. The announcement followed a months-long campaign to bring the district into compliance with a new state law that requires all secondary students to get the so-called Tdap shot, a three-in-one vaccine that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. “We are comfortable with where we are,” said Assistant Supt.

LOS ANGELES — Defense attorneys told jurors on Thursday they should not sentence Juan Manuel Alvarez to death, owing mostly to the rabid abuse he experienced as a child and remorse he showed after the incident, exemplified by a phone message that he left for his cousin shortly after the 2005 train wreck. In a brief message played during the penalty phase in the Los Angeles Superior Court room, a sobbing Alvarez, now 29, told Beto Alvarez: “I didn’t mean to do this, Beto.

LOS ANGELES — Closing arguments continued for a third day Monday as the prosecution and defense drew one step closer to handing the case over to jurors who will soon be asked to decide the fate of Juan Manuel Alvarez. Alvarez is charged with 11 counts of murder and one count each of felony murder arson and train-wrecking for causing the Jan. 26, 2005, Metrolink train derailment that killed 11 people and left more than 180 injured when he parked his Jeep Cherokee on the tracks in front of an oncoming train.

  LOS ANGELES -- Prosecutors continued their closing Thursday in the case against Juan Manuel Alvarez, telling jurors that he had confessed to second-degree murder before the nearly 8-month trial began. Alvarez is charged with 11counts of murder with special circumstances and one count each of felony murder train-wrecking and arson for his role in the Jan. 26, 2005, Metrolink crash that left 11 dead and 184 others injured. During an interview in jail with mental health expert Mace Beckson, Alvarez said he knew he was doomed when his jeep would not budge from the train tracks, District Attorney John Monaghan said.