Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration is not your average concert. The six-hour musical spectacular will feature 45 musical groups representing a wide range of ethnic groups that make up Los Angeles County. Burbank and La Crescenta-based groups are among those that will represent the county, said Laura Zucker, executive director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission who is also executive producer. Others will come from all over, from the Antelope Valley to Long Beach and from Santa Monica to Riverside to join the performance on the stage of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center.

BURBANK — Burbank police officers on Wednesday arrested a 19-year-old man in connection with the Nov. 29 death of his father, Timothy Loock, assistant football coach at Burbank High School. Noah Loock faces one felony count of involuntary manslaughter and was released from custody on $25,000 bond. He is due back in Pasadena Superior Court on July 16, authorities said. The incident occurred shortly before 2 p.m. Nov. 29, when police responded to a fight at the family home on the 1800 block of North Avon Street.

Robert Blechl LOS ANGELES -- Applications are being accepted for summer internships with the L.A. County Arts Commission. The 155 full-time, paid internships are for undergraduate college students. Internships run from May 30 to Sept. 1. The internships are designed to foster an appreciation of the arts and to strengthen students' administrative and managerial skills. Numerous nonprofit performing and literary arts organizations participate in the program.

Karen S. Kim BURBANK -- Local unemployment rates followed a regional trend of stability for April, neither rising nor falling from numbers estimated in March. Los Angeles County's unemployment rate sustained at 6.5%, with Burbank at 4.5% and Glendale at 6.1%. "Normally, employment tends to start expanding after the beginning of the year if we're in a better economic time," said Bill Freed, labor market specialist for California's Employment Development Department.

Gary Moskowitz LOS ANGELES -- Today's future scientists and problem solvers from local middle and high schools will meet Thursday at the Los Angeles County Science Fair to demonstrate their brave new concepts for simple things like green beans, parachutes, diapers and milk. The theme of the science fair, "Today's Young Scientists, Tomorrow's Heroes," will be discussed in the keynote address at the awards ceremony for the 51st Annual Los Angeles County Science Fair at the downtown Los Angeles Convention Center.

LOS ANGELES ? Religious hate crimes, including a tagging incident at Glendale?s St. Peter Armenian Church, increased last year throughout Los Angeles County, according to a county report released Thursday. Religion was the basis for the third-largest group of hate crimes reported in Los Angeles County in 2008, according to the county?s Commission on Human Relations annual report. Hate crimes based on a person?s race or sexual orientation made up the largest and second-largest groups, respectively.

Summer Grindle of La Crescenta is a sophomore at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Get on board for "Thomas and the Magic Railroad." It's great fun for children, and the talking train models, with their stop-action reaction shots, make the movie artistically interesting. Although set in an alternate universe, full of anthropomorphic trains, and magic gold dust used for transportation, some of the human-to-human relationships are hard to believe.

Irma Lemus HILLSIDE DISTRICT -- Volunteerism and community spirit has paid off for two St. Francis Xavier Catholic School students. Eighth-graders Jennifer Lorraine Farah and Christopher George Khoury were named California Junior Scholarship Federation Outstanding Students in April. Both students received plaques nad $500 savings bonds. "It's rare to have both recipients from the same school. This shows the school's excellence," said Linda Raabe of the federation.

MEETING AT 6:30 P.M. TUESDAY CITY COUNCIL CHAMBER -- 275 E. OLIVE AVE. Major items: Public hearing: Ventura (134) Freeway ramp co-op agreement. Public hearing: child-care demonstration project. Economic growth and tax relief and reconciliation act. Tournament of Roses float rendering. Adopting general services agreement with Los Angeles County. Authorization to apply for safe routes to school grant. Vacate 1036 E. Providencia.

Dr. Richard Merkin, president and chief executive of Marina Del Rey-based Heritage Provider Network, has been honored by the Burbank Chamber of Commerce for his contribution to health care in Los Angeles County. Gary Olson, president and chief executive of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, honored Merkin in recognition of his "outstanding contributions to the healthcare of the residents of Burbank and Los Angeles County." In 2009, Burbank-based Lakeside HealthCare was purchased by Heritage Provider Network, creating a medical group that will serve more than 600,000 patients, according to the company.

A new carpool lane on the Golden State (5) Freeway could be one of about $200-million worth of local transportation projects that could be fast-tracked after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Thursday supported a plan to speed up a slate of developments in Los Angeles County. The authority?s board of directors voted unanimously to support Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa?s 30/10 Initiative, which seeks federal assistance to accelerate 12 transit projects, including the so-called Subway to the Sea on the Westside and the Gold Line Foothill extension from Pasadena.

UNIVERSAL CITY — Authorities on Tuesday opened multiple investigations to determine what prompted two Burbank police officers to open fire on a fleeing suspect wanted on attempted-murder charges in Indiana. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and Burbank police officials are investigating the officer-involved shootings that occurred Monday after 30-year-old Steven Satterly led police on a multi-county pursuit, ending near an entrance to Universal Studios.

If you ask 13-year-old Lukas Bartke or 14-year-old Clayton Bonura, “Star Wars” is the best song to play at the Verdugo Youth Musicians Assn. As the orchestra inches to the intro, and the conductor announces the song, all the kids let out a sigh of relief. In 2001, the association began providing classical music training from professional musicians to children of all ages who live in Glendale, Burbank, La Cañada, Pasadena and the San Fernando Valley. As part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Partnership Program, the collaboration gives children their first seat next to a monstrous cello or drum.

DOWNTOWN — Police Chief Scott LaChasse this week announced that he has brought on a veteran Los Angeles County sheriff’s chief to serve as his deputy should the City Council approve a policy allowing outside recruits. Thomas P. Angel, a 34-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, served as a chief under Sheriff Lee Baca before his retirement in January. Angel started reporting to LaChasse on Monday under a consulting contract that expires April 3. He was to perform the duties of captain, and may be given the assignment of deputy chief, according to the contract.

The former Jordan Middle School teacher who turned herself in for having sex with a 14-year-old student was transferred Thursday to a Los Angeles County jail in Lynwood, authorities said. Amy Beck, the 33-year-old Burbank Unified English and social science teacher, does not intend to post $175,000 bail as she continues to work with investigators, said her attorney, Michael Williamson. “My client is not making any admissions,” he said. “She’s voluntarily assisting and cooperating with the Burbank Police Department.

On-location film productions in Los Angeles County plummeted 19% in 2009 — the largest drop since the figure was first recorded in 1993 — contributing to the decline in working opportunities for the regional entertainment workforce, experts and observers said. Entertainment industry spending generates the majority of economic activity in Glendale and Burbank, where major motion picture and television studios — as well as related businesses ranging from prop shops to rental houses — are, experts said.

DOWNTOWN — A former Burbank police detective has been ordered to pay the city $22,500 to cover a portion of the legal fees it incurred in defending itself against his privacy and defamation lawsuit. Attorneys for Christopher Lee Dunn filed the lawsuit in July, claiming City Atty. Dennis Barlow illegally released his personnel records to the media the same day the former detective filed a wrongful termination and racial discrimination lawsuit. But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Irving Shimer struck down the complaint on the grounds that it constituted a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or SLAPP.