monroviaweekly.com
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24 - JANUARY 6, 2009-2010 VOLUME 14, NO. 105
It’s Showtime for California Girls
Sierra Madre’s California Girls entry in this year’s Rose Parade is one of less than a handful of independently built floats. The majority of the parade’s floats are built by professional design companies. Despite this, Sierra Madre has managed to win trophies four years in a row for their volunteer efforts. - Photos by Terry Miller BY TERRY MILLER
On Tuesday afternoon
volunteers were busy working on the fine details of the 2010Sierra Madre Rose
Float, “California Girls”. Each year this work takes place in the Sierra Madre
MAKING THE WORLD A LITTLE LESS SHABBY, ONE DOG AT A TIME BY JOHN STEPHENS
Ask Sierra Madre entrepreneur Sandy Lewis-Duvall why on earth she would chose to start another new business in the middle of a recession, and she just smiles. “I’m crazy,” she says while standing at the entrance to The Shabby Dog, her newest venture tucked away in a quaint shop along Montecito Avenue. “I knew it was risky at the time,” said Lewis-Duvall of her decision to branch out
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Sandy Lewis-Duval, owner of The Shabby Dog, holds on to one of her beloved dogs with her new hands free dog leash - Photo by Terry Miller
float barn near Dapper Field where a team comprised entirely of volunteers put
the final touches on the noncommercially sponsored,
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Diamond Day at Santa Anita Track Celebrates 75 Years with Largest Opening Day Crowd of Decade
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-Photo by Terry Miller
FREE
OneWest Buys First Federal as 7 U.S. Banks Fail There has been a plethora of bad news in past weeks as we try desperately to put an end to this turbulent decade. So it might be forgiven if you missed the news that yet another seven banks failed and were seized by the FDIC just last Friday. Failure for one however, always means opportunity for another. OneWest Bank, formerly failed Pasadena mortgage lender IndyMac, bought the assets of First Federal Bank after it was closed by U.S. regulators, in a deal that may bolster the case for private investment in banks. California’s First Federal was one of seven U.S. lenders closed on Friday by regulators, bringing the total number of U.S. bank failures this year to 140. T he 3 9 bra nches of First Federal -- formerly controlled by FirstFed Financial (FFED.PK) -- reopened recently as OneWest Bank FSB. In addition to assuming $4.5 billion in total deposits, OneWest, of Pasadena, agreed to buy essentially all of First Federal’s assets of $6.1 billion, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said. The deal is OneWest’s first since it was formed to t a ke over I ndyMac’s assets earlier this year by a group of private equity and hedge fund investors, i nclud i ng f u nds r u n by billionaire investors J.C. Flowers, John Paulson and George Soros. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, worried about the stability of the banking sector over the long term, has made failed bank acquisitions by private investors harder than they are for banks looking to buy one another. According to a recent Reuters report, smaller institutions have been collaps-
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