La Ca Ada Flintridge

One day after a river of mud brought havoc to a La Cañada Flintridge neighborhood, residents faced a massive cleanup Sunday, with chest-high mounds of muck lining the streets, damaged homes rendered uninhabitable and nearby catch basins filled to capacity with debris. Authorities lifted evacuation orders that at one point Saturday had affected 500 homes in the fire-ravaged foothill communities of La Crescenta and La Cañada Flintridge. Forty-three homes in the communities were damaged, and nine were red-tagged, preventing residents from entering until the structures could be stabilized.

Vince Vaughn has bought a house for $3.925 million in an area of Los Angeles one might not normally associate with actors - La Cañada Flintridge. And while it may not have the celebrity cachet of Hollywood Hills, he can count actress Angela Bassett and a host of entertainment industry types among his neighbors. Plus, the schools are good. Still, it's a far cry from the three-level penthouse he had listed atop Chicago's Palmolive Building at $16.8 million until recently. His new Colonial-style home sits on three-quarters of an acre with a swimming pool and a sports court.

After the Station fire, Cory Ryken got a quick education in how to build a sandbag wall. What he didn't learn was how to keep his neighborhood together. "I've been predicting this for months, and it's all coming true," says the 39-year-old deejay, standing on 3 feet of mud and rocks that cover the backyard of his La Cañada Flintridge home. Ryken wanders over to the property line. Debris from the Feb. 6 downpour buried his neighbors' swimming pools, and with more rain in the forecast, he worries.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has canceled its popular annual open house at its La Cañada Flintridge facility because of federal spending cuts. The event, scheduled for June 8-9, typically attracts crowds of more than 15,000 each day. "Everyone here is just horribly disappointed," JPL spokeswoman Veronica McGregor said. "This is an event we look forward to each year and we know the public really looks forward to attending it. " JPL has been reviewing its public outreach efforts amid pressure from NASA to cut costs to cope with federal spending reductions.

An unexpectedly powerful rainstorm unleashed a torrent of mud that inundated more than 40 houses Saturday, leaving La Cañada Flintridge's northernmost neighborhood awash in boulders, dented cars and broken homes. The force of the mudflow appeared to catch residents and officials off guard, as the forecast initially called for a light to moderate rainstorm. No evacuations had been ordered Thursday or Friday, when the rain began to fall. But before dawn on Saturday, an intense band of rain cells formed over the mountains burned in the massive Station fire.

Evacuation orders were lifted Wednesday morning for more than 500 foothill homes in Los Angeles County as the most recent rainstorm to hit Southern California cleared up. As of late Tuesday, there were reports of 0.51 inches of rain in Long Beach, 0.58 inches in Burbank and 0.69 inches in Whittier. At the San Gabriel Dam, the measurement was 1.73 inches. Nine inches of snow had fallen at Wrightwood, and 12 to 14 inches at Mountain High. No major damage was reported from Tuesday's rainstorm, which officials had feared could cause mudslides on already saturated hillsides that lost vegetation cover in last summer's Station fire.

A cold storm belted Southern California with rain and snow Tuesday, flooding streets and leaving residents in foothill neighborhoods wondering whether saturated hillsides would withstand the latest onslaught of wet weather. In Sierra Madre, officials ordered mandatory evacuations Tuesday afternoon for about 300 homes in the city's canyon areas, but allowed residents to return in the evening. The alert followed a similar order issued for more than 500 homes Monday night in burn areas in La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta and Acton.

My town on the edge of the hill is fearful and a little forlorn. For four days, the flames have crept across the mountain. There's been barely a wisp of wind to feed it or hurry it along. So it chews its way slowly through the scrub oak, the manzanita, the buckwheat. I look up at the ridge, lighted like a candelabra, and think: Now it's our turn. Dante's California. Saturday, there was a sense of relief, then more concern as the fire fattened itself on neighboring communities. At this point, it could explode, or it could mostly smolder till cool weather comes.

Standing in front of her mudslide-damaged home in La Cañada Flintridge on a wet Saturday afternoon, Karineh Mangassarian said she hoped the rain would give it a rest. "At least for a month, then it can rain again," she said. "I just want the storms to ease up." Better luck next year. As residents worried once again about sliding foothills and Los Angeles was again bedeviled by the kind of bumper-car accidents that happen whenever it rains, there's good news for water managers and people who generally like stormy weather.

Murder charges were dismissed Friday against a commercial truck driver whose runaway big rig killed a man and his 12-year-old daughter in La Cañada Flintridge in April, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench dismissed the two counts of murder on which a county grand jury had indicted Marcos Barbosa Costa on June 11, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. She said prosecutors haven't decided whether to appeal the ruling.

Among the 23 scientists and innovators President Obama honored during a White House ceremony Friday were La Cañada Flintridge residents Frances Arnold and Solomon Golomb. Arnold, a chemical engineer and biochemist at Caltech, won a National Medal of Technology and Innovation; Golomb, a mathematician and professor of electrical engineering at USC, received a National Medal of Science. Arnold, 56, was recognized for her pioneering research in biofuels and chemicals that could replace fuel known for generating pollution.

William Johnson has been fighting for several years to keep his small farm alive, but the General Plan that the city of La Cañada Flintridge is getting ready to adopt won't do him any favors. It appears likely that Johnson will be forced to close his operation and perhaps tear out a 475-tree persimmon grove. Johnson has owned his 67-acre parcel along Angeles Crest Highway in the hills above La Cañada Flintridge since about 1997. He also makes use of 11 acres owned by Southern California Edison.

Forty years ago a La Cañada Flintridge teen named Tim Taylor climbed a mountain more than 12,000 feet high and more than 20 miles deep in the backcountry of the southern Sierra. Taylor left behind a small legacy that was discovered last month, and now members of an Oakland family are trying to find him. In September, while on an 11-day trek with his son, grandson and others near Milestone Mountain in Sequoia National Park, Oakland resident Larry Wright, 69, stumbled upon a small metal canister nestled against a rock near a high peak.

In the end, a hungry bear simply could not resist a little bacon and honey. Back from the Angeles National Forest for a third round of visiting, the 400-pound black bear who has captivated Angelenos since March was roaming the 5000 block of Ocean View Boulevard in La Cañada Flintridge around 4 a.m. Wednesday when he sniffed the sweet smell of breakfast. Glen Bearian, as he became affectionately known on Twitter, had previously consumed meatballs, oranges and anything else left in trash bins.

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday that joined a chorus of voices opposing plans to extend the 710 Freeway north either above ground or by tunnel. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Thursday narrowed the 12 possible options down to five and decided to cease exploration of any above-ground extension. But a tunnel connecting the 710 Freeway to the 210 Freeway is still on the table. MTA officials have said they do not prefer a single option, but foes believe the tunnel is the favored option because it provides a route for trucks from the Port of Los Angeles to move cargo inland.

This is a short, steep hike that begins on a trail amid the mansions of La Cañada-Flintridge, with massive mountain and city views - a real workout with a real payoff. Drive into the area by taking the 2 or the 210 Freeway, exiting Verdugo or Foothill Boulevard, then take Chevy Chase Drive to Hampstead Road. Park on Hampstead Road, off Chevy Chase Drive. Follow the signs to the trailhead. Take the dirt path marked as Owl Trail. Note the warning: "Check your saddle. " There are some steep, unsteady sections ahead.

A series of storms is heading to Southern California and is expected to dump the heaviest rainfall since last summer's Station fire and send debris and ash rushing into such foothill communities as La Cañada Flintridge and La Crescenta. "This is their worst nightmare," said Bill Patzert, a climatologist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. "It will be unrelenting." Four storms are expected to move through the region between late Sunday and Friday, dropping 4 to 8 inches of rain in the coastal and valley areas, and 8 to 16 inches in the foothills and mountains, according to the National Weather Service.

Ever since the Station fire swept through the Angeles National Forest last summer, many residents of the foothill communities below the burn area have lived with the fear of destructive mudslides that could come with winter's heavy storms. But geologists who have studied this week's downpours now offer a guardedly optimistic forecast. Mudslide danger remains, they said Friday, but their observations indicate that the mountains have held up remarkably well despite the naked landscape left by the largest brush fire in Los Angeles County history.

"CSI" writer and producer Elizabeth Devine has listed her home in La Cañada Flintridge at $2.3 million. The Tudor house, built in 1935, sits on two-thirds of an acre with a rose garden, a guesthouse and a swimming pool. The main house features a mahogany foyer, a sun room and an English pub in the family room. There are five bedrooms, five bathrooms and about 4,360 square feet of living space. Devine has been a writer and producer for "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "CSI: Miami" for more than a decade.

Steve Wicke is "just big into space. " The Westminster man took four months off his warehouse job last year to visit every NASA site in the United States. On Saturday, he joined an estimated 20,000 people who swarmed the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's leafy campus for its annual open house weekend. Buses and SUVs clogged Oak Grove Drive near the La Cañada Flintridge boundary with Pasadena and filled JPL parking lots to disgorge passengers of all ages, who descended on the exhibits and activities as if they were new amusement park rides.