Liquor Store

DOWNTOWN — Burbank police officers are searching for a masked gunman who they say is contributing to a series of robberies across the city. At least three of the robberies have been linked to the masked gunman, whom witnesses described as white, between 5 feet 6 and 5 feet 8 and roughly 180 pounds, authorities said. While some of the affected businesses’ owners refused to provide their name for fear of retaliation, police said in each of the cases the man entered convenience and liquor stores wearing a ski mask, pointed his gun at the clerks and demanded cash.

A welfare fraud bust in Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank this week netted three arrests, nine guns and almost $300,000 in cash, according to Pasadena police. George Kerio, 38, of Glendale, the owner of Sunshine Liquor on East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena , and two of his employees were arrested Tuesday for conspiracy to commit welfare fraud, said Lt. Phlunte Riddle. The liquor store clerks are Nassib Shankou, 43, and Daniel Bonilla, 29, both of Pasadena.

Bob Hope Airport operated for an hour with just one runway Monday after the landing gear of a twin-engine place collapsed shortly after landing. The two people and dog aboard the Piper Apache were not injured in the 10:10 a.m. incident, airport spokesman Victor Gill said. Emergency response crews immediately responded to remove the plane from the runway, Gill said. The plane was cleared at about 11:10 a.m., and there was no disruption to the airport operation, Gill said.

Police were searching Friday for a man who robbed a liquor store with a 6-inch knife and then escaped on foot. Nelson's Liquor Store, 4420 N. Victory Blvd., was held up Nov. 8 by a man who posed as a customer before sitting on the counter, threatening the clerk and removing cash from the register, Burbank Police Sgt. William Berry said. The suspect -- described as a 6-foot-tall black man with an Afro-style haircut pulled back into a ponytail -- was last seen running south on Clybourn Avenue, Berry said.

The following were taken from daily booking reports from the Burbank Police Department.   AREA 1  500 block of South Victory Boulevard Officers arrested a 50-year-old man on robbery and narcotics charges in connection with the armed robbery of a neighborhood liquor store. Jessie Vallez, described as having “an extensive criminal history” that includes prior arrests for armed robbery, is being held in county jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Ryan Carter BURBANK -- Two brothers were arrested after a freeway pursuit that started with an armed robbery at a local liquor store and ended near a construction site in Pacoima. Charles Albert Jones, 43, of Palmdale, and Rudolph Darryl Jones, 39, of Pacoima, were arrested Wednesday for allegedly robbing a clerk and customer at Max Liquor at 2001 W. Burbank Blvd. Neither the clerk nor the woman inside were hurt by the men who robbed them at gunpoint, Burbank Police Sgt. Bill Taylor said.

I'm writing another grammar book. And my deadline is five days after the deadline for this column. Which means I'd rather talk about almost anything except grammar — like my theory about how the writers of "Lost" will make sense out of all those titillating tidbits that have kept us hooked for so long (they won't), or my proposal to fix congestion on our nation's freeways: Close them to everyone but Corolla-driving columnists (on second thought, maybe the streets aren't big enough for me and Arianna Huffington)

More portable than a PB&J, less messy than pizza, the empanada may be the perfect to-go meal. The savory Argentine pastries pack a taste wallop in a palm-sized package. Now Burbank has a new empanada outlet to supply picnics, trips to the park and I-just-can't-cook-tonight dinners. World Empanadas opened in May on Victory Boulevard, and the kitchen has already worked out any new-business kinks. The take-out-only kitchen is snuggled next to a liquor store and situated on a street of tire shops, car-repair joints and rental-car outlets.

Marketing stunt prompts resignation The general manager of the Cartoon Network, which operates out of Burbank, has resigned after a marketing campaign in Boston sparked a citywide bomb scare. Jim Sample, who served as company president for 13 years, said that he was stepping down in hopes that his decision would allow the network to move beyond the incident. Advertisers had placed light-boards depicting a character from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a cartoon, near transportation points in the city, which authorities mistook for terrorist devices.

The following incidents were taken from police reports. MEDIA DISTRICT WEST 3700 block of Riverside Drive: A man described as Middle Eastern, wearing a black cap and black coat, allegedly pointed a blue-steel semiautomatic handgun at a 41-year-old Burbank man and 62-year-old Santa Monica man Tuesday, police said. The gunman allegedly demanded money from the two men inside a gas station minimarket, then he fled in 1996 Toyota Camry with more than $200, police said.