El Monte Ca

They were aware of the dangers. Agustin Roberto "Bobby" Salcedo and his wife, Betzy, knew that this town, like much of Mexico, was no longer the tranquil spot it had been. "I've been coming regularly," Salcedo's widow said Saturday of her hometown. "We knew how bad it had become." And yet, the Salcedos ventured out for a few beers the night before New Year's Eve. "We were just going out with a group of friends," Betzy Salcedo said, speaking slowly and casting her eyes downward.

A San Marino man has been arrested on suspicion of cultivating more than 700 marijuana plants in a sophisticated grow house near the El Monte Airport, police said Tuesday. Neighbors had reported their suspicions about a town house on the 10900 block of Basye Street, with blacked-out windows and visitors coming and going at all hours. Detectives staked out the home and pulled over Alexander Moy, 33, of San Marino as he was driving away Monday afternoon, said El Monte Police Det. Ralph Batres.

If not for the letters, the memories might have died last August when former El Monte police Officer Terry Long lost his battle with cancer. Instead, the voices of two men, both now dead, speak from the tattered pages. Thirty-four years ago, Long had been pulled from a bloody shootout by a fellow officer, Manuel "Tony" Arceo. Arceo saved his life, but the violent ambush left Long paralyzed. In the days afterward, Arceo sat down with a steady hand to offer his friend and colleague encouragement.

They were aware of the dangers. Agustin Roberto "Bobby" Salcedo and his wife, Betzy, knew that this town, like much of Mexico, was no longer the tranquil spot it had been. "I've been coming regularly," Salcedo's widow said Saturday of her hometown. "We knew how bad it had become." And yet, the Salcedos ventured out for a few beers the night before New Year's Eve. "We were just going out with a group of friends," Betzy Salcedo said, speaking slowly and casting her eyes downward.

The decision by an El Monte police officer to kick the head of a suspect who was surrendering at the end of a televised pursuit was roundly criticized by use-of-force experts Thursday as an inexcusable and unnecessary tactical lapse. But on the streets of El Monte and nearby communities, the reaction was less unanimous. Though some said the officer should not have kicked 23-year-old Richard Rodriguez, many said they feel no sympathy for the parolee and known gang member.

There are many names for the woman who stands watch along a busy street in El Monte with one arm outstretched toward the sun. To the people of El Monte, she is "Lady Liberty." Or "Mother of Exiles," as poet Emma Lazarus once labeled her more-famous New York cousin. Or something more akin to a plastic lawn flamingo, as one dissenter suggested when the 23-foot, one-ton statue was installed in El Monte in 1987.

Ever since he moved his family into a home on the edge of El Monte, framing their lives against a backdrop of overpasses and a concrete riverbed, Stephen Groce had worried about the drivers that staged illegal car races on the bustling streets out front. One of these nights, he figured, it's not going to end well. "This was a disaster waiting to happen," he said Tuesday. "I just didn't know it was going to happen to me."

Two signs greet motorists crossing the El Monte city line on Peck Road. "Welcome to Friendly El Monte" reads the first, and under that: "Patrolled by Helicopter." The juxtaposition sums up the schizophrenic view of law enforcement in this gritty blue-collar city of 115,000, and if at times it is an unintentionally comic combination, it is also quite effective.

An El Monte man was arrested Tuesday afternoon after police found the body of his girlfriend in a suitcase in his mother's house, authorities said. Orlando Trejo, 21, was being held on suspicion of murder in the death of Kimberly Romo, 21, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Shortly after 1 p.m., El Monte police responded to a call reporting a fight, according to detectives.

Birders have been converging at South El Monte's Legg Lake for a rare sighting -- and possible photographs -- of a tundra swan and a wood stork that have been hanging out with the blue herons and double-crested cormorants that call the area home. Both birds have strayed far beyond their normal ranges, birders say. Judging from the pattern of pinkish warts on its head, the wood stork, which has a long curved beak and stands about 3 feet tall, could be the same bird seen earlier this month in Orange County.

Birders have been converging at South El Monte's Legg Lake for a rare sighting -- and possible photographs -- of a tundra swan and a wood stork that have been hanging out with the blue herons and double-crested cormorants that call the area home. Both birds have strayed far beyond their normal ranges, birders say. Judging from the pattern of pinkish warts on its head, the wood stork, which has a long curved beak and stands about 3 feet tall, could be the same bird seen earlier this month in Orange County.

The decision by an El Monte police officer to kick the head of a suspect who was surrendering at the end of a televised pursuit was roundly criticized by use-of-force experts Thursday as an inexcusable and unnecessary tactical lapse. But on the streets of El Monte and nearby communities, the reaction was less unanimous. Though some said the officer should not have kicked 23-year-old Richard Rodriguez, many said they feel no sympathy for the parolee and known gang member.

An El Monte woman has pleaded not guilty to orchestrating lottery and travel scams in Los Angeles County. The district attorney's office says Delia Tellez faces 31 fraud counts, including 20 new felony charges for which she entered pleas Monday in L.A. County Superior Court. The 52-year-old is charged in two cases involving 23 alleged victims. Prosecutors say one of her scams involved telling people she won the lottery but needed to raise $40,000 to claim her prize.

A 9-year-old boy took his grandmother's pistol to an El Monte elementary school Tuesday and accidentally discharged it as school was letting out in the afternoon, police said. No one was hurt in the incident at Baker Elementary about 2 p.m., when the boy, who has not been identified, took the .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol out of his backpack and fired a shot into the asphalt of a sports court.

As a little boy growing up in then-rural South El Monte, Richard Kruse could do a 360-degree spin outside his family's feed mill and see nothing but open land and hog farms. That was in 1950. In 2008, the 1.5-acre plot that Kruse's father and uncle took over in 1935 is within eyesight of warehouses, tract homes and a Carl's Jr. And today, Kruse Feed & Supply, the 30-year-old retail store that sprang from the family feed mill business, will close its doors on Santa Anita Avenue.

As people waited in line at the El Monte Post Office Saturday morning to mail letters and packages before the Columbus Day holiday, more than 200 others gathered outside the building for a special dedication ceremony. The Valley Boulevard post office was being renamed in honor of U.S. Army Spc. Marisol Heredia, the first female casualty of the Iraq war from the San Gabriel Valley. Under a swaying arch of green and pink balloons -- Heredia's favorite colors -- Rep.

At least four days a week, protesters gather outside a small storefront clinic in El Monte, as they have for 18 years. Carrying placards of aborted fetuses and the Virgin Mary, they videotape, shout at and allegedly block women trying to enter the Family Planning Medical Center, which offers abortions to low-income patients.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will close its El Monte office Friday as the agency consolidates operations at its Los Angeles facility, officials said Wednesday. Starting March 5, all citizenship interviews for L.A., Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties will be conducted at the agency's downtown office, 300 N. Los Angeles St. The El Monte office is shutting because the building where it is housed is no longer available for lease, officials said.

A 21-year-old fugitive wanted by authorities for allegedly taking part in a street race last month that killed a woman and her two children was found in Mexico and arrested, El Monte police said Tuesday. Martin Morones was found in La Presa, a community about 10 miles south of Tijuana where officials said he fled after the Oct. 8 crash. Morones, a U.S. citizen, was turned over to U.S. marshals Monday evening.

A 19-year-old man suspected of street racing and causing a crash that killed a mother and her two children made his first appearance in court Thursday as he was charged with three counts of murder, the district attorney's office said. Robert Canizalez was arraigned Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in El Monte. He is being held on $3-million bail.