LM councilman turned Author' has big showing at book signing

LA MIRADA-

A standing only room crowd turned out this past weekend at the La Mirada Library for a book signing by and to hear former two-time mayor and current city council member Dr. Ed Eng talk about his recently released 'The Accidental Mayor', a collection of stories from throughout his life.

Family and friends of Dr Eng's dating as far back childhood were also on hand for the signing which also served as a fundraiser for the Friends of the La Mirada Library with Mr.Eng generously donating 100% of the days proceeds to the group.

In his book, Dr. Eng shares with readers his personal story of overcoming the many obstacles he encountered as an Asian immigrating here from Hong Kong as a child including gang violence in L.A.'s  Chinatown,  racism, and more, pushing himself to become educated, how he built a remarkable career, the joy of marrying Cathy, the love of his life and becoming a dad and the unlikely events that led to Eng becoming 'The Accidental Mayor'.

Dr. Eng will be on hand for another book signing on Saturday Feb 4 in Downey and as a presenter at the Museum of Tolerance on Sunday Feb. 12. More details on both events will be posted as they become available.

The Downey signing will be held at the city library at 11121 Brookshire Ave. one block north of Firestone Blvd., Saturday Feb 4th from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

'The Accidental Mayor' is available at Amazon com or by clicking on this link

Options for free delivery or next day delivery are offered.

Grease is the word and it's back

The forever popular Broadway performance Grease, a musical love story returned for a four-week run Friday night at the La Mirada Theatre of the Performing Arts.

The story is set in the 1950's at the beginning of a school year at Rydell High where 'Greaser' Danny is surprised to be reunited with the girl he had a summer romance with when she transfers to Rydell.

Theater management says Grease has been the most requested show by patrons and at the time of its initial 1972 run in New York set a record for the longest-appearing show at the time on Broadway. 

That record has now fallen and Grease now sits at #16.

The musical features all the hits that appeared on Top 40 radio charts after Grease the movie was released in 1978 including  “Summer Nights,” “Greased Lightnin’,” “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” and “You’re the One That I Want,”. 

Grease, the big screen production starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John was a smash hit clearing $366 million from the $6 million spent to produce it. 

Seats for the McCoy-Rigby production are selling fast, however good seats are still available if you act now with prices starting from $14 and up for Students with I.D. and children under age 12, Veterans and Military with I.D. are $20.25 and up while regular seats range from $27 to $95. 

Grease runs through February 12 with evening shows Thursday through Sunday and an afternoon matinee each Saturday and Sunday. 

For tickets or more information call the box office (714) 994-6310 or (562) 994-9801 or in person at 14900 La Mirada Blvd and online 

lamiradatheatre.com

La Mirada News Briefs Nov. 17, 2022

Veterans Day Ceremony Notes later in post

Local elections

With more than 332,000 ballots remaining to be counted in Los Angeles County late Thursday afternoon , it's looking increasing more likely that challenger Lorena Vidaurre will pull an upset by ousting incumbent Jorge Tirado for a seat on the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District board.

Trailing Rob Cancio by just two votes for the top spot yesterday, Vidaurre took the lead for the first time today and now leads by four votes. 

Tirado remains in 6th place where he has been stuck for about a week, trailing Norma Amezcua by 547 votes for the 4th and final open seat on the board.  Amezcua picked up some more breathing room today over Casey Chattle  who is 514 votes behind in 5th.

Narcis Brasov continues to be in the number three spot. Just 53 votes separate the top three candidates. 

The top four vote getters will likely make up the last board members elected at large with representation expected to transition over to district elections by 2024.

A new update is expected on Friday afternoon 

In the other local elections, Dr. Zurich Lewis wins a third term on the Board of Trustees of Cerritos Community College, edging out Angelo Gandalf Maldonado by a 2 to 1 margin with 66.56% of the votes.

Measure CC, a Cerritos Community College $425 million bond measure appears headed towards a narrow victory with 56.79% of the votes tallied so far giving the nod. The measure requires voter approval of 55% to gain passage.

Some eyebrows were raised in what was thought to be a guaranteed blowout in the 38th District to the House of Representatives when Republican candidate Eric Ching of Walnut got off to a fast start in early returns trailing Linda Sanchez  55-45% in a solid blue district with only 21% of registered voters identifying as Republicans.

The Associated Press waited until late Friday evening until it felt enough ballots had been processed before sending out an alert to subscribers declaring Sanchez the winner of an 11th term in D.C. 

The lead held by Sanchez has widened since last Friday to 57.77%, and 42.23% for Ching as more vote by mail ballots continue to be counted.

Veterans Day 

About 150 turned out to observe the annual Veterans Day ceremony in the City Hall Plaza Friday morning.

Attendees heard La Mirada Mayor Dr. Anthony Otero speak about the sacrifices war veterans and enlisted service members make for the country that sometimes includes giving their lives for the safety, and security we enjoy as Americans  Otero served the country as a Marine before becoming a police officer.

Dr. Otero is one of the leaders of Boys Scout Troop 438 which played a big part of the ceremony including the posting of the Nation's colors and a rendition of 'Taps'. Troop 438 members are active in La Mirada with scouts volunteering service to the community in a number of ways including placing flags at the gravesites of local veterans at Olive Lawn Memorial Park on Memorial Day.

Mayor Anthony Otero addresses the crowd

Members of Boy Scouts Troop 438 prepare to present colors 

NLMUSD approves change electing school board by districts

In an attempt to avoid costly litigation, the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District board has elected to change to a system of electing its members by district.

The move was triggered by a demand letter from an attorney stating that the district's method of electing its board members from votes submitted from across the entire district may violate the California Voters Rights Act 

Enacted in 2002, the CVRA bans any election system that impairs a minority group or protected class from influencing the outcome of an election by diluting their votes.

The placed the board into the position of either paying out millions to defend an at-large system with little hope of prevailing and paying the plaintiff's legal costs or change to a system of district voting.

By switching to electing a board by district, legal fees are capped at no more than $30,000.  Cities and districts that have chosen to fight almost always lose and find themselves paying the other plaintiff's legal bills that can run into the millions of dollars fast.

Dozens of demand letters are sent to cities and districts each month, mostly by the same attorney, and are widely seen as a shakedown. No proof supporting the allegation is required to submit such a letter.

Instead of bowing to a demand letter, the City of Santa Monica chose to fight all the way to the state Supreme Court where it awaits a decision after spending $7-10 million defending at-large elections there.  A request for $22 million in legal fees by the plaintiffs attorney's is on hold pending a decision in the matter. 

The City of Palmdale spent $4.7 million and Whittier $1 million before each reached an agreement to end at-large elections.

The next action by the school board will be to conduct two public hearings to allow community members to make suggestions and voice concerns on the criteria that the board adopts to be used to establish the boundaries of the new districts. A demographer will use those criteria in drawing up two or more maps of proposed districts, followed by two more public hearings on the proposed maps and then another hearing to adopt the final district map.

Simply stated, the public will have plenty of opportunities to voice their opinion of what constitutes a fair district and what a map for the school district should look like.

The school district has not announced when the board will hold the initial public hearing.