Chatsworth Ca

Washington Mutual Inc. on Wednesday told 1,000 employees who work at a call center in Chatsworth that it would move their jobs to Texas and Costa Rica to cut costs. The positions will be phased out starting in two months, with some employees offered work at a new Washington Mutual center in San Antonio -- where most of the jobs are being moved -- and others given job-search assistance, the Seattle-based thrift said.

Margaret Cagle doesn't believe it's possible for people to \o7really\f7 hate math -- if only they would give it a chance. Cagle, also known as Peg, has spent 12 years at Chatsworth's Lawrence Middle School exposing algebra and geometry students to "this beautiful, vast world that you can't help but love," once you get to know it.

The little transit line that could is about to get bigger. The Orange Line, the busway between North Hollywood and Woodland Hills that has broken ridership projections since it opened last fall, will be extended six miles to Chatsworth under a plan approved Thursday by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board. The Orange Line carries about 20,000 people a day -- three times more than transit officials expected.

Los Angeles police arrested a 32-year-old man for allegedly beating a Chatsworth mini-mart cashier to death with a baseball bat early Friday, 12 years after he was convicted of stabbing another store clerk 25 times. The suspect's father said Frank E. Kaatz, who has battled depression, alcohol and drugs since his teens, went berserk about 1:45 a.m., smashing windows and furniture at his parents' home before challenging his father, Frank P.

As a wildfire headed toward Mountain View Estates mobile home park near Chatsworth several years ago, the emergency response of the park's manager and assistant manager was simple, Gary Gibson recalls: They left, leaving him and hundreds of other residents to fend for themselves. "They abandoned the park knowing the fire was bearing down on us," said Gibson, 62, who was later evacuated by sheriff's deputies. "It was a terrible thing to do, leaving the elderly and infirm behind to face that risk."

Within weeks of a commuter rail disaster in Chatsworth last fall, Metrolink engineers twice did the same thing that is suspected to have led to the deadly head-on collision with a freight train: They ran through red signal lights warning them to stop, records show. Counting the Sept. 12 crash that killed 25 people and injured 135, the recent red-light violations exceeded the number of stop-signal mishaps reported over the previous two years, a Times review of internal records found.

Metrolink agreed to pay a former spokeswoman who resigned in the aftermath of last year's Chatsworth train crash $135,000 to settle potential claims against the agency, according to a copy of the agreement obtained Tuesday. Denise Tyrrell, who recently was hired to manage the state Public Utilities Commission's Los Angeles office, was the public face of the commuter rail agency in the grim early hours after the disaster that killed 25 and injured 135.

Officials unveiled a commemorative plaque Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles dedicated to those who lost their lives in Metrolink train accidents. Metrolink Board Chairman Keith Millhouse said the plaque also honors those affected by train fatalities, including friends, loved ones and first responders. A large group of law enforcement and Metrolink officials, along with Red Cross workers and commuters, gathered in the east portal of Union Station as Millhouse removed a black cloth to reveal the large bronze plaque depicting a track nearing a tree-lined bend.

Today's anniversary of the Chatsworth Metrolink disaster will yank again at the emotional tear in the tightly woven fabric of the Hefter family. Bright, full of potential and the baby of the house, Jacob Hefter was barely 18 -- and one of the youngest to die that Friday afternoon. Since those frantic first hours after the crash, Alan and Angela Hefter and their two surviving sons have struggled to adapt to life with a vital missing part. "The family you had prior to Sept.

At the base of a rocky hill within earshot of passing trains, they came to remember the fashion student, the music store owner, the police officer -- the 25 people in all who died a year ago Saturday in the devastating Chatsworth train crash. Ray Villalobos and 20 others huddled in pink shirts imprinted with bright pink lips to honor his 18-year-old fashion-student sister, Maria Elena Villalobos. Kim Brower, now a 46-year-old widow, wore a smile and remained upbeat in memory of her husband of 23 years, music store owner Dean Brower, 51. And Sha Moran, the mother of Spree DeSha, a 35-year-old Los Angeles police officer who died in the crash, sobbed quietly on her husband's shoulder.