• Sometimes there’s a fine line between news and advertising. Sometimes that line gets trampled.
• The death of SPHS student Aydin Salek prompts a bill proposal from Assemblyman Anthony Portantino that would “grant immunity from criminal prosecution to teenagers who seek emergency medical attention for someone possibly suffering from alcohol poisoning.”
• State Assemblyman Mike Eng pushes Caltrans to sell all the homes along the aboveground 710 route. It’s an odd about-face from the guy who opposed Portantino’s bill last year, which kinda would of done the same thing.
• iamnotastalker.com, well, stalks Kaldi’s.
• Via The Source: “Full-time students attending Pasadena City College (PCC) will soon be eligible to receive heavily discounted Metro passes – $30 for unlimited travel on all Metro bus and rail lines for an entire semester. Part of Metro’s I-Pass program, this new partnership will bring affordable transit to 8,800 community college students.”

West Coast Aerial Photography, Inc., today announced that it’s image of the B-2 bomber flying over the 2009 Rose Bowl game has placed second in World Press Photo’s annual contest in the Sports Features category.

The annual World Press Photo Contest “offers an overview of how press photographers tackle their work worldwide and how the press gives us the news, bringing together pictures from all parts of the globe to reflect trends and developments in photojournalism,” explains the World Press Photo Contest website. The two-week judging included 101,960 images by 5,847 photographers, representing 128 different nationalities.

“This is absolutely amazing,” exclaims Mark Holtzman, West Coast Aerial Photography President. “I am honored to have my picture placed with so many other fantastic images. I’m looking forward to attending the awards ceremony in Amsterdam this spring.”

The B-2 Rose Bowl flyover image first debuted in a two-page spread in Sports Illustrated. It was taken at the conclusion of the National Anthem on January 1, 2009, showing the United States Air Force B-2 Stealth Bomber, “The Spirit of Missouri,” based at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, flying over the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, where the University of Southern California Trojans played the Penn State Nittany Lions.

The members of the 2010 Tournament of Roses Royal Court have been announced, and included is PCC student and South Pasadena resident Kinsey Stuart (second from left). From the release:

Kinsey Elizabeth Stuart, 18, resides in South Pasadena and is studying psychology in her first year at Pasadena City College (PCC). In high school she was the captain of the varsity cheerleading team, a youth swim coach and the vice president of Be the Change Club. At PCC, she is a member of the Student Activities Committee where she assists in planning school events. Kinsey enjoys volunteering with her cheer squad for diabetes walks and races to raise money for breast cancer. After college, she’d like to become a psychologist. Her parents are Robert and Elizabeth Stuart; she has two siblings Andrew, 16 and Kalyn, 8.

• Inside Private Lives extends its run at the Fremont Centre Theatre, which pushes the production past the one-year mark in South Pas.
• Pasadena Unified School District might try and follow South Pasadena’s lead and push for a parcel tax. The district is facing a $14 million deficit. The question is whether a city as large and diverse as Pasadena can garner the two-thirds votes necessary to pass the tax in a special election.
• Speaking of the parcel tax, and not to belabor the point, but the South Pasadena Review has yet to post the results of Measure S on its site.
• The South Pasadena Educational Foundation’s Summer School program is bucking the state trend and offering some classes.

South Pasadena resident Jenkins Shannon has been named the new director for the Pasadena Museum of California Art. She takes the place of Christopher Mount, who was ousted after only seven months at the helm.

• City Water Manager Marcelino Aguilar says of the Wilson Reservoir: “It’s about 100 years old. The life expectancy is supposed to be about 50 years.”
• Trader Joe’s is suing a New York store that’s decided to reopen as Trader John’s.
• Drilling began, in a testing phase, for the 710 tunnel. Right now it’s in Alhambra, where the freeway ends, and at Westmont Drive and Sherwood Avenue (just south of Main Street).
• Athens Services is making a move for exclusive trash rights in Montebello, and some residents are unhappy to the point of threatening a recall campaign.
• Jonathan Gold drinks our milkshakes.
• The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services fined South Pasadena-based RJJ Pasadena Securities Inc. $4,000 after discovering the company had at least four Oregon clients but wasn’t licensed in Oregon.
• Alhambra has some great Chinese restaurants, but you might want to stay away from the turtle soup.
• Forbes Traveler names The Dinosaur Farm one of 10 Amazing Toy Stores in America.
• Charles Phoenix is the Doo Dah parade grand marshal.

If you noticed that Stealth Bomber flying over Pasadena yesterday, and started imagining all kinds of “Red Dawn” scenarios, you can rest easy. Yesterday was the memorial service for Verne Orr.

• Two weeks after an architect unsuccessfully lobbied Alhambra’s Planning Commission for more bedrooms in a condo project, the place burned to the ground.
• A week or so after Maureen Dowd reminded us that Pasadena Now reports from India, the L.A. Times’ James Rainey talks with the site’s owner.
• The headline would make you think this wasn’t South Pas: “Pasadena Councilman Sifuentes takes over as mayor.”
• Anonymous blog The Foothill Cities is back up and running.