Generation

It is interesting that we speak of "dynasty" in sports, especially as regards youth sports. Yet, part of the term "dynasty" implies a sense of family, a passing of the torch from one generation to the next. The players themselves should make an effort to pass their talent on to younger players, not just relying on the coaches and/or adults involved to do so. Organized sports should not be just about learning the mechanics of the sport for the individual player.

Maybe it was the images of devastated Haitians this past week that filled our TV sets, or the sense of impending disaster that permeated the county with one rough storm after another, but the way our local schools mobilized to join the Haiti relief effort was a welcome reminder that we are grooming capable leaders for the next generation. Yes, businesses have set up donation drives, and nonprofits have banded together. And we?ve sent medical professionals and emergency crews. But those are, by definition, professionals, trained and bred to answer the call of duty wherever it may be. But when it would be just as easy to tune it all out and focus on Facebook and how to keep hairdos maintained in the pouring rain, it was our local students who?

Rima Shah A new knitting and crochet store has managed to wind up its customers in the allure of the yarn that it sells. Started in May 2004, Stephanie Steinhaus' store, Unwind, managed to generate $167,000 -- 60% ahead of its projected sales, said Ron Shinkman, Steinhaus' husband and co-owner of the store on North Hollywood Way. The store is on its way to exceeding its projected sales of $325,000 for this year,...

Edward Headington Last winter, a copy of the leadership plan I developed for my Leadership & Politics course at The George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management was sent to one of my mentors, author and USC Professor Dr. Warren Bennis. While I like to think of myself as a young Alexander and he my instructive Aristotle, I was flattered when, after readying the plan, he asked me to speak at his o7 Festschriftf7 in the spring.

A sense of entitlement — it seems to grow more rampant with each generation. When I think about my maternal grandfather and how he raised my mother and uncle, I witnessed respect. They obeyed him and were grateful for everything — and anything — they received. I asked my mom once why she never gave her parents trouble. She said she just knew they were the boss and never had reason to disobey. Today, I see a generation that sometimes expects more, complains more, talks back to their parents more and has a tendency to be egocentric.

The class of 2006 is a new generation with a whole new genre of knowledge. Sure they come away from their 13 years of schooling with an education in math, literature, science and history. But they also have a technical vocabulary and computer literacy that didn't even exist when their parents graduated. They have come through the same teenage struggles as every class before them ? perhaps enough tougher ones than generations before them. And while technological advances have helped make many things easier for them, it was also a whole vast knowledge they had to soak up to survive ?

The percentage of new clergy younger than 35, across mainline denominations, including Protestant and Roman Catholic, is reportedly dropping, according to a recent study by the Lewis Center for Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary. Are you seeing a drop in your faith? If so, what do you think is driving it? Are you concerned? The dilemma of an aging clergy is symptomatic of a general aging of church and synagogue members. Seats vacated by the older generation are now left empty instead of being filled by youth.

In an attempt to generate extra revenue for Burbank's cash-strapped transit programs, the City Council has signed off on a plan to plaster buses with advertisements. The City Council last week directed officials to draft a two-year contract with mobile advertising services firm Titan Outdoors, just weeks after voting to pursue a ban on mobile advertising vehicles, which in recent months came in the form of brightly colored roving vans that were advertising topless maid and massage services.

It's 8 a.m. Sunday and John Palyok, general manager of a Best Buy store in Burbank, is brandishing a $19.99 Dynex HDMI cable like a battle standard. A group of 50 employees, mostly in their 20s, gather around him, gulping coffee and nodding slowly. "It's about speed, velocity and execution," bellowed Palyok, his voice echoing through the store's cavernous, 45,000-square-foot interior. "They, need, need this HDMI cable," Palyok said, slicing the thin blue box through the air like a battle-ax.

About 30 people attended a California Department of Transportation meeting Wednesday night looking for answers about a scheduled freeway expansion on the Golden State (5) Freeway. They got their answers, but some weren't necessarily what they wanted to hear. Caltrans representatives said the project to add carpool lanes to Interstate 5 through Burbank and portions of Glendale had been scheduled to begin last year, but was delayed. At the community meeting at Glendale's Environmental Management Center on Flower Street Wednesday night, they said construction should begin this month.

Parking rates will rise by $1 at Bob Hope Airport next year as officials beef up for what is expected to be a long and costly legal battle with Lockheed Martin over who should pay for cleaning polluted groundwater beneath the airfield. In pitching the fee increase to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday, executive director Dan Feger criticized Lockheed Martin Corp. and the Environmental Protection Agency for trying peg some of the clean up to the airport, arguing the underground contamination was left behind by decades of military aircraft manufacturing.

Demand for health services is rising at area hospitals, a trend that is likely to continue and increase the need for workers in the industry, according to a report from the Verdugo Workforce Investment Board. Health care is the second-largest industry in Burbank and Glendale, employing about 24,000 workers at area hospitals and clinics, according to the report. The entertainment industry, which accounts for the employment of about 50,000 area workers, generates the majority of the region’s economic activity, according to the board.

Maybe it was the images of devastated Haitians this past week that filled our TV sets, or the sense of impending disaster that permeated the county with one rough storm after another, but the way our local schools mobilized to join the Haiti relief effort was a welcome reminder that we are grooming capable leaders for the next generation. Yes, businesses have set up donation drives, and nonprofits have banded together. And we?ve sent medical professionals and emergency crews. But those are, by definition, professionals, trained and bred to answer the call of duty wherever it may be. But when it would be just as easy to tune it all out and focus on Facebook and how to keep hairdos maintained in the pouring rain, it was our local students who?

The Peking Acrobats will flavor Friday’s show with some new feats, but some of the old favorites will be back onstage at the Alex Theatre. They bring with them the Chinese tradition of juggling, tumbling and gymnastics that has been around for centuries, said Cynthia Dike-Hughes, who with husband Don Hughes, has co-produced the show for 20 years. Directing the talent is artistic director Ken Hai, a third-generation member of a famous acrobatic family from China, Dike-Hughes said.

Director David Rose is pulling from his own family relationships to fill in the generation gap between two characters in the play “Visiting Mr. Green,” which begins preview performances tonight at the Colony Theatre. The story by playwright Jeff Baron is about two men, one 86 years old and the other 29, who are thrown together by fate and, over the course of the play, develop a bond, Rose said. Jack Axelrod plays Mr. Green, a recent widower living alone in an apartment in New York City.

BURBANK ? Protracted negotiations between Bob Hope Airport and air quality officials over the use of a 25-year-old diesel exhaust generator continue to drag on, nine months after the airfield was slapped with a violation. Negotiations between the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority and the South Coast Air Quality Management District have centered on a July 16, 2007, violation ? served more than a year later ? that alleges the airport overused its airfield lighting vault generator, spewing smog-causing diesel fumes into the air at a rate that exceeded its 30-hour allowance.