Utah

Amber Willard TOOELE, UTAH -- While most people gather around Christmas trees at home today, some Glendale-based soldiers will be patrolling the snowy mountains of Utah. These 100 soldiers have traded their civilian jobs as teachers, mechanics, police officers and the like for the lives of military men in the state's Army National Guard 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized.) The men -- as a combat unit, there are no women allowed -- were federalized weeks after the Sept.

Former Edison High football standout Tommy Grady has transferred from the University of Oklahoma and enrolled at the University of Utah, said Liz Abel, associate athletics director of sports information at Utah. Grady has joined the Utes football squad and can join in on practices immediately, but has to sit out the 2005 season due to his transfer. He'll be eligible to play for the Utes in the 2006 and 2007 seasons, Abel said. Classes got underway Wednesday.

Amber Willard TOOELE, UTAH -- Tooele, Utah, is an unlikely place for most Glendalians to visit. About 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, the town is nestled in a flat valley with snow-capped mountains all around. The winter wind, often accompanied by blowing snow, howls through the town of a few thousand residents. State Highway 36, where it runs through Tooele, is called Main Street. Along it are most of the town's businesses -- a Super Wal-Mart, an Applebee's, even a Hollywood Video with a Christmas tree lot out front.

Crescenta Valley High School sophomore Rebeca Poore finished second all-around at the USA Gymnastics Level 9 State Championships earlier in April. With a combined score of 36.80, 15-year-old Poore qualified for the Regional Championships to be held this weekend in Orem, Utah. She will compete against the top 49 girls in her age group from the western division including California, Utah, Arizona and Nevada states. At the State Championships, Poore scored a 9.000 on vault, 9.100 on bars, 9.175 on beam and an impressive 9.525 for the floor routine.

Gretchen Hoffman GLENDALE -- The 130 Glendale National Guardsmen mobilized to active duty in October are about halfway through their assignment -- and beginning to get their first weekend leaves. The soldiers traded their civilian jobs as teachers, barbers, Glendale city employees and more to patrol the snowy mountains of Utah. The men were federalized weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and sent to guard Tooele Army Depot. With the end of the Olympics in nearby Salt Lake City, the men are being granted their first weekend leaves in six months, 1st Sgt. Terrance Herdliska said.

Edgar Melik-Stepanyan A couple of days ago, the La Crescenta Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Star baseball team made travel plans for West Jordan, Utah, the site of the Pacific Southwest Regional Tournament. On Friday, Coach Brian Brady's squad arranged for plans to come back home after it was eliminated from the eight-team, double-elimination tourney. La Crescenta was sent packing after Murray, Utah rallied for a 6-4 victory in a second-chance bracket game.

Gary Moskowitz SOUTHEAST GLENDALE -- Diane Vasquez is 27 years old, four months pregnant and living on her own for the first time in her life. And she has not seen her husband, Gerardo -- an Army National Guardsman stationed in Utah -- since February. But at 6:30 a.m. Saturday, Vasquez boarded a charter bus with 42 other people headed for Tooele, Utah, to reunite with husbands and relatives for a four-day visit. Their loved ones, all National Guardsman from Glendale and surrounding areas, were called to duty for homeland defense in October.

St. George, Utah - Dorothy Jane (Janie) Bateman Blair was born December 17, 1916 in Decatur, Illinois to Bertha Beatrice (Betsy) Bateman Coombes and Lester Bateman. Janie, her sister Mimi, and brother Billy moved to Los Angeles, CA with their mother in the early 1920's. She graduated from LA High School in 1935 and immediately went to work at the Hal Roach Movie Studios in LA. Jane's span of over 65 years in the entertainment industry started with Columbia Pictures in 1938 as an accountant, then continuing on at the Burbank Studios, and Warner Brothers Studios.

Our beloved husband, father, and friend, Kenneth John LeCheminant, Sr., has passed from our sight. He died peacefully in Lindon, Utah on Saturday, February 4, 2012 at age 89 after battling Alzheimer's disease for some time. One of four brothers, he was born in Ocean Park, California, on August 26 th , 1922. He was married to Ida Mary Boreham in 1942, and they had four children. After a divorce, he married Gertrude Overson in 1966, and they had one daughter. Long-time residents of Glendale, California, they lived there until retirement in 1991, when they moved to Orem, Utah.

Doris Elaine Jensen Woodall passed away in her sleep Dec. 12, 2012, after a battle with carcinoid cancer. Although she spent most of her adult years in the greater Los Angeles area, Doris always claimed herself a Utahn. Born December 21, 1928, in Brigham City, most of her childhood was spent on a farm in Corinne, Utah. She graduated from Tooele High's Class of 1947 and attended the University of Utah and the LDS Hospital School of Nursing, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1951.

Doris Elaine Jensen Woodall passed away in her sleep Dec. 12, 2012, after a battle with carcinoid cancer. Although she spent most of her adult years in the greater Los Angeles area, Doris always claimed herself a Utahn. Born December 21, 1928, in Brigham City, most of her childhood was spent on a farm in Corinne, Utah. She graduated from Tooele High's Class of 1947 and attended the University of Utah and the LDS Hospital School of Nursing, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1951.

Our beloved husband, father, and friend, Kenneth John LeCheminant, Sr., has passed from our sight. He died peacefully in Lindon, Utah on Saturday, February 4, 2012 at age 89 after battling Alzheimer's disease for some time. One of four brothers, he was born in Ocean Park, California, on August 26 th , 1922. He was married to Ida Mary Boreham in 1942, and they had four children. After a divorce, he married Gertrude Overson in 1966, and they had one daughter. Long-time residents of Glendale, California, they lived there until retirement in 1991, when they moved to Orem, Utah.

Burbank's chief spokesman, Keith Sterling, has announced that he will leave his post in January to become communications director at the University of Utah. Sterling, whose last day is scheduled for Jan. 17, has overseen a major revamp of Burbank's website and other public relations tools while also guiding the city through a maze of major news events, including revelations that the FBI had launched a probe into misconduct at the Police Department. His wife, a freelance television journalist, has also accepted a position at the ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City.

Editor's note: While Patrick Caneday takes some time off, we're running some of his choices for re-publication. This column was first published Aug. 29, 2009. I was feeling rather morose the other day. Kind of pathetic, lowly, defeated and self-loathing. There was a dull pain in my chest that I attribute to being unsatisfied with my job, having not left a significant mark upon this world by the age of 42, having neither made the best-seller list - which would actually require writing a book - nor being a millionaire and owning a vacation home in either Cambria or Palm Springs.

The parents of an autistic teen who left Bob Hope Airport on Wednesday and was found hours later in West Hollywood did not pay the airline for an attending escort, an aviation source said - allowing the boy to escape the notice of officials until he was long gone. Cameron James Smith was scheduled to fly to a specialized school in Salt Lake City. When he was found seven hours later, he told police he was running away because he did not want to return to the school. Cameron was spotted a little after 5:30 p.m. by two people in the heart of West Hollywood.

St. George, Utah - Dorothy Jane (Janie) Bateman Blair was born December 17, 1916 in Decatur, Illinois to Bertha Beatrice (Betsy) Bateman Coombes and Lester Bateman. Janie, her sister Mimi, and brother Billy moved to Los Angeles, CA with their mother in the early 1920's. She graduated from LA High School in 1935 and immediately went to work at the Hal Roach Movie Studios in LA. Jane's span of over 65 years in the entertainment industry started with Columbia Pictures in 1938 as an accountant, then continuing on at the Burbank Studios, and Warner Brothers Studios.

GLENDALE — The following are updates on local athletes at the collegiate level. Kassy Uchida (Burbank High, 2010) Utah State softball, freshman: Uchida was on a tear coming into the month of May, then she suffered a concussion in practice. She sat out a three-game series against the University of Nevada to open the month, but didn't miss a beat once she got back out on the field. The freshman's batting average kept increasing all season and stopped at .346 (53 for 153)

The need for speed has propelled Rachel Keown to leave the cool confines of Harley-Davidson of Glendale and head for a dry lakebed in Utah in an effort to break a motorcycle speed record. Keown, 25, only learned to work a clutch and start riding in December, but has impressed her coworkers and other riders enough to earn a spot at the BUB Racing Inc. Motorcycle Speed Trials at Bonneville Salt Flats, which run through this weekend. Keown's effort is sponsored by Oliver Shokouh, owner of the San Fernando Road dealership and a man who has seen two of his other workers break records.

GLENDALE — The following are updates on area athletes at the collegiate level.   Kali Cancelosi (Crescenta Valley High, 2009) Utah State softball freshman : Cancelosi had three runs batted in on two hits to propel the Aggies to perhaps the biggest win in program history, as they defeated No. 1 Washington, the reigning NCAA champion, 7-4, on Friday in the Campbell-Cartier Classic in San Diego. Cancelosi was part of a five-run fifth, as she hit a bases-loaded, two-out single that cleared the bases.

I was feeling rather morose the other day. Kind of pathetic, lowly, defeated and self loathing. There was a dull pain in my chest that I attribute to being unsatisfied with my job, having not left a significant mark upon this world by the age of 42, having neither made the best seller list — which would actually require writing a book — nor being a millionaire and owning a vacation home in either Cambria or Palm Springs. Or it could be the high cholesterol. I needed to get myself out of this funk.