Gorman Ca

The bacteria E. coli has been detected in the water distribution system that serves this tiny mountain community, health officials said Sunday. Restaurants have been forced to close and residents have been warned to boil their water to avoid getting sick. In documents posted around town, the Golden Valley Municipal Water District said the bacteria, which can cause severe gastrointestinal problems, was first detected Thursday.

Firefighters hoping to fully contain a 2,500-acre brush fire south of Gorman on Sunday night had 80% of the blaze under control by the evening. The blaze had forced the evacuation of 3,000 people from a campground and recreation area and a handful of homes, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. No one was injured, and no houses were damaged, fire officials said. The fire started about 2 p.m. Saturday near the Golden State Freeway and Gorman Post Road.

For 50-odd years, the sheriff's deputy chosen to work at the isolated Gorman substation had what many considered to be a plum job. But for the wives of those deputies, the call of the quiet, rural countryside amounted to something short of ideal: living in a house that was slowly deteriorating, and cleaning jail cells, answering telephones and performing other miscellaneous domestic tasks without pay. By the time the Sheriff's Department settled a $1.

The bacteria E. coli has been detected in the water distribution system that serves this tiny mountain community, health officials said Sunday. Restaurants have been forced to close and residents have been warned to boil their water to avoid getting sick. In documents posted around town, the Golden Valley Municipal Water District said the bacteria, which can cause severe gastrointestinal problems, was first detected Thursday.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors directed administrators Tuesday to report on whether the Sheriff's Department still requires deputies' wives to work for free at its Gorman substation. The board's order stems from a recent $1.1-million settlement of a lawsuit by the wife of a deputy who had been assigned to the substation alongside the Golden State Freeway in the remote Tejon Pass.

Sheriff's Deputy Mark Jones thought he had a hot one when a series of henhouses were plundered in the northwest corner of Los Angeles County. But instead of squatters, the culprits turned out to be a pack of brazen coyotes. The mystery of the four missing real estate signs was another baffler--until the owner discovered that her neighbor had stolen them to build a pigpen.

During her tenure at the Los Angeles County sheriff's tiny substation in Gorman, Caryn Suhr answered telephones, staffed the front desk, dispatched radio calls and cleaned jail cells--all for free. That is because of a longstanding department practice that has the wives of deputies who live at the Gorman station perform those duties without pay.

Los Angeles County planners on Wednesday rejected a proposal to build the county's first power-generating wind farm in the hills northeast of Gorman. The five-member Regional Planning Commission said the project would destroy the rustic beauty of the area, promote erosion and harm wildlife, after one protester warned that the spinning blades of giant turbines would slice up passing birds "like they went through a Cuisinart."

More than a century after the Ralphs brothers bought a cattle ranch in wind-swept northern Los Angeles County, descendants of the grocery store clan are as divided as the rest of the tiny mountain community of Gorman on whether to secede from the Southland and become part of Kern County. A branch of the Ralphs family has joined a group of newly arrived Mennonite home builders from Pennsylvania in a full-fledged revolt against what they see as anti-growth Los Angeles County.

Firefighters hoping to fully contain a 2,500-acre brush fire south of Gorman on Sunday night had 80% of the blaze under control by the evening. The blaze had forced the evacuation of 3,000 people from a campground and recreation area and a handful of homes, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. No one was injured, and no houses were damaged, fire officials said. The fire started about 2 p.m. Saturday near the Golden State Freeway and Gorman Post Road.

Over the protests of some property owners, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted this week to oppose a boundary change that would have allowed the tiny mountain community of Gorman to be annexed by neighboring Kern County. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to oppose the boundary change following a public hearing on the issue. Gorman sits at the northern edge of Los Angeles County along Interstate 5.

More than a century after the Ralphs brothers bought a cattle ranch in wind-swept northern Los Angeles County, descendants of the grocery store clan are as divided as the rest of the tiny mountain community of Gorman on whether to secede from the Southland and become part of Kern County. A branch of the Ralphs family has joined a group of newly arrived Mennonite home builders from Pennsylvania in a full-fledged revolt against what they see as anti-growth Los Angeles County.

Cooler temperatures, higher humidity and calmer air gave firefighters the upper hand Wednesday against a 1,500-acre wildfire in the Angeles National Forest near Gorman, about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles. That was good news for Southern California businesses and residents, who were asked by state power managers late Tuesday to cut back their electricity use because two of California's major transmission lines near the fire had automatically shut down.

For 50-odd years, the sheriff's deputy chosen to work at the isolated Gorman substation had what many considered to be a plum job. But for the wives of those deputies, the call of the quiet, rural countryside amounted to something short of ideal: living in a house that was slowly deteriorating, and cleaning jail cells, answering telephones and performing other miscellaneous domestic tasks without pay. By the time the Sheriff's Department settled a $1.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors directed administrators Tuesday to report on whether the Sheriff's Department still requires deputies' wives to work for free at its Gorman substation. The board's order stems from a recent $1.1-million settlement of a lawsuit by the wife of a deputy who had been assigned to the substation alongside the Golden State Freeway in the remote Tejon Pass.

During her tenure at the Los Angeles County sheriff's tiny substation in Gorman, Caryn Suhr answered telephones, staffed the front desk, dispatched radio calls and cleaned jail cells--all for free. That is because of a longstanding department practice that has the wives of deputies who live at the Gorman station perform those duties without pay.

Two developers are hoping that bargain hunters will soon be singing "I Bought It on the Grapevine." A pair of giant factory outlet centers, totaling 580,000 square feet, are being planned for Interstate 5 near the border of Los Angeles and Kern counties, 65 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The factory outlet, an East Coast institution dating to the days when New England manufacturers sold their wares from factory doors, is a relative newcomer to the West Coast, industry experts say.

This little town that travelers and truckers know as a place to grab a bite to eat or let overheated motors cool off while going over the Grapevine on the Golden State Freeway is going on the block. The family that has owned the town--which includes a motel, fast-food restaurant, coffee shop, bar, grocery store and gas station, not to mention a ranch of over 3,000 acres--for six generations wants to give it all up. The price: a mere $13.6 million.

As far as towns go, even some locals admit, Gorman isn't much of one. A block away from a lonely off-ramp of the Golden State Freeway about 65 miles north of Los Angeles, one end of town is anchored by a nondescript sheriff's station and the other--about a quarter of a mile away--is guarded by a Carl's Jr. In between stand a motel, a small restaurant, a convenience store and a few shops.

As towns go, Gorman isn't much of one. Even some of the locals will admit that. A block away from a lonely Golden State Freeway off-ramp in the mountains about 65 miles north of Los Angeles, the town is anchored at one end by a nondescript sheriff's station and at the other--a quarter-mile away--by a Carl's Jr. In between stand a motel, a small restaurant, a convenience store and a few shops.