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Monday edition of the
Monrovia Weekly ArcAdiA Weekly Monday, MARCH 5 - march 11, 2012 Volume xVIi, No. X
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Americanism Parade Honors El Monte’s 100th Anniversary Disposal Companies Play Up Recycling Services in Bid for Hauling Franchise by jim e. winburn
and cheered from their spots by the curb. Proud parents made quite a bit of noise to encourage their kids. Genoveva Suno
Rosemead City Council members listened to presentations and public comments at Tuesday’s packed meeting as disposal companies competed for an exclusive 10-year franchise agreement with Rosemead. Competing to provide the city with collection services beginning August 2013, representatives from five firms argued why their company should be chosen to provide solid waste and recycling services for all residential and commercial properties in Rosemead. Proposals for a new
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Boys from Maxson School were in content waving their American flags in observance of the parade. -Photo by Dena Burroughs
by dena burroughs For the 37th year Parkview Elementary School celebrated its Americanism Parade, this time also honoring the City
of El Monte’s 100th year of incorporation. Along with students and marching bands from the Mountain View School District, some of Parkview’s 900 small chil-
dren had a blast parading down Elliott Street while proudly wearing the colors of the American flag. The street was decorated with pictures of the things that make our country
Former Rosemead Mayor Due Back in Federal Court to Plead Guilty to Bribery Charges
proud - the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, the Bald Eagle, and so forth. Other students, like those of Maxson School, were on a field trip as observers and waved flags
El Monte Stands Up for Women with V-Day Celebration
by jim e. winburn
John Tran, 36 -Photo Courtesy of Rosemead City Hall
Ex-Rosemead Mayor John Tran, who signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors on Feb. 3, was arraigned on federal bribery charges in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles on
Feb. 23. Tran was released on $25,000 bail and ordered to surrender his passport. Because the hearing was a formality for Tran, he was unable to enter a plea of guilty on his first appearance in court. However, last week Judge Dale S. Fischer set the hearing date for Tran to change his plea to guilty for Tuesday, Mar. 20. Sentencing is expected to be nearly four months after Tran’s change of plea hearing. The FBI launched an investigation into Tran, who served as mayor from 2007 to 2009, over a complaint that he was using his public position to obtain money from a local construction contractor.
According to the criminal information filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph N. Akrotirianakis, Tran, on Aug. 3, 2007, “corruptly solicited, demanded, accepted, and agreed to accept from a person things of value, namely, cash payments, intending to be influenced and rewarded in connection” to his position of trust with the city. The criminal file outlines Tran’s bribery scheme beginning as early as 2005, the year he was elected to the City Council. Tran made periodic visits to a construction contractor’s office to request money in return for greenPlease see page 6
The V-Day organization encouraged the audience to do their part and take action. -Photo by Dena Burroughs
V-Day El Monte was celebrated February 25 at Madrid Middle School in a community event that would benefit the YMCA San Gabriel Valley. The V-Day organization was established in 1998 as a
non-profit outfit dedicated to enlightening people about violence against women and girls and to demand its end. From a single event, the movement now holds close to 6,000 celebrations annually.
V-Day El Monte consisted in the reading of a dozen monologues authored by writers of the caliber of Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof and Vanity Fair’s Please see page 9