Donald Garcia

A truce between Latino gangs in the San Fernando Valley has been in effect for more than seven months. There have been episodes of violence during that time, but they have resulted in no deaths of gang members, according to truce organizers. The treaty was arranged by two volunteers, William (Blinky) Rodriguez, co-owner of the Jet Center gym in Van Nuys, and Donald Garcia, who spent more than half his life in prison before turning his life around seven years ago.

Anaheim City School District officials said Wednesday that they have sought legal advice to see whether they "have an obligation to take action" on an allegation that board member Donald L. Garcia filed false information about his residency when he sought the seat last fall. A community activist charged at this week's board meeting that Garcia, a physician, and his wife live with their two children on Serra Drive in Corona del Mar, but that Garcia said his address was 410 W. Vermont Ave.

Anaheim City School District officials said Wednesday that they have sought legal advice to see whether they "have an obligation to take action" on an allegation that board member Donald L. Garcia filed false information about his residency when he sought the seat last fall. A community activist charged at this week's board meeting that Garcia, a physician, and his wife live with their two children on Serra Drive in Corona del Mar, but that Garcia said his address was 410 W. Vermont Ave.

A truce between Latino gangs in the San Fernando Valley has been in effect for more than seven months. There have been episodes of violence during that time, but they have resulted in no deaths of gang members, according to truce organizers. The treaty was arranged by two volunteers, William (Blinky) Rodriguez, co-owner of the Jet Center gym in Van Nuys, and Donald Garcia, who spent more than half his life in prison before turning his life around seven years ago.

A Los Angeles man was shot by gang members early Sunday morning while visiting friends in the Antelope Valley, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said. Following an argument with at least two men, Donald Garcia, 19, was shot once in the chest at about 2 a.m. while standing in the front yard of a house near 22nd Street East and Avenue Q-6 in Palmdale, Sgt. Joe Dymerski said. Garcia was in critical condition Sunday evening at Palmdale Hospital Medical Center.

A Glendale high school student was in good condition Wednesday after being stabbed by a classmate in a dispute over a pay phone, officials said. Vahe Bedrosian, 17, was recovering at Glendale Adventist Medical Center from a stab wound in the stomach, a hospital spokeswoman said. Haber Garcia, 18, was held in Glendale City Jail on $5,000 bail on a charge of felony assault, Officer Mario Yagoda said. Garcia was using a pay phone at 1:40 p.m.

Donald Garcia watched as a swirling funnel cloud tore off his mobile home's awning then hopped across the street, uprooting an old oak and slamming it into a neighbor's home. He screamed to his wife and ran with her into a bathroom, waiting out the tornado as it picked up dozens of nearby mobile homes, demolishing them and their contents. His home was spared. "It's lucky that everyone got out alive. That's the miracle of this," Garcia said Friday.

They have spent their nights and weekends on darkened Valley streets, talking to warriors about peace. They have stared down gun barrels and stood between angry combatants. They have read Scriptures and fasted and prayed. After nearly a year of struggling to keep the peace, organizers of a truce among Latino gangs in the San Fernando valley say their work has drastically reduced the number of young men gunned down in gang violence.

Mike Nakauchi felt left out when his little sisters began taking dance classes. So his mother enrolled him in the only other class available at the same time--baton twirling. Now Nakauchi, 22, is the male baton-twirling champion of the world. "It was his idea, not mine," said Linda Nakauchi, Mike's mother. "I didn't even know what (twirlers) were. He saw it as a program and picked it. We just wanted him to be busy." For the last 14 years Mike Nakauchi has been very busy.

Gang-related crime and feuding persist throughout Los Angeles. But since truces were initiated in three areas there has been a drop in gang-attributed deaths and shootings. Whether the stand-downs will last or merely mark a temporary decline in the bloodletting is uncertain. Here's a look at the efforts to make and keep peace: Valley Initiated: Oct. 31, 1993 Participants: 75 Latino gangs.

The gang rivals who lined up warily along the walls of the shabby gymnasium in Pacoima had agreed on Halloween to stop killing one another. But living in peace was proving as uncomfortable as a too-tight Raiders jacket. Although drive-by shootings had just about stopped among the Latino gangs in the San Fernando Valley, disrespect had not. Disrespect in the form of hats with gang insignia worn into rival neighborhoods. Or crossing out others' graffiti. Or throwing gang signs from passing cars.

The city of Los Angeles, which has often been accused of exporting gang violence, is now exporting peace. Mayor Gary Loster and seven other civic leaders from crime-plagued Saginaw, Mich., came to the San Fernando Valley on Thursday to see how a group of volunteer activists organized a groundbreaking truce among Latino gangs. The cease-fire just passed its 10-month anniversary.