La Canada Flintridge Ca

A 32-year-old man killed over the weekend in a car crash was identified on Monday by authorities. Byron Lynch of Lake View Terrace was killed about 12:30 p.m. Sunday in an accident on the eastbound Foothill Freeway near the Glendale Freeway entrance, said David Campbell, spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office. Lynch, who was driving, was not wearing a seat belt. His vehicle went off the freeway, up an embankment and crashed at a nearby construction site, Campbell said.

George Allen said the calls came regularly last month, telling him and other La Cañada Flintridge residents to evacuate as rain soaked the wildfire-scorched hillside above their homes. But early Saturday morning, when intense rains unleashed massive mudslides in his neighborhood, he got no reverse 911 call. By 7 a.m., more than 40 houses had been damaged, cars had been tossed around and thick mud had rendered some streets impassable. Allen's Dodge truck was swept away and crushed.

Police in Glendale and La Canada Flintridge are reporting a drop in most crimes from 1991 to 1992, including fewer burglaries, arsons and thefts. But Jack Altounian, administrative crime analyst for the Glendale Police Department, said personal crimes rose in his jurisdiction, with felony assaults up almost 24%. "The general trend in the state for 1992 is that personal crimes have gone up and property crimes have gone down," Altounian said. "Because of the recession, we'd expect both to go up."

Scorching temperatures continued to stoke wildfires across Southern California on Friday, creating anxious moments in the mountains north and east of Los Angeles where thousands of residents fled flames that skipped through canyons, edging toward one neighborhood after another. More than 2,700 firefighters and a small air force of water-dropping planes and helicopters managed to stop the blazes before they swept into hillside housing tracts. But smoky air from the fires continued to create unhealthful conditions in parts of the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys, disrupting schools, horseback riding programs and day camps near the fire areas.

An 18-year-old football player from La Canada High School remained in critical condition Monday after being shot in the face during a melee between students from rival schools at a late-night, after-prom party, officials said. No one has been arrested in the shooting. The victim's name has not been released by authorities.

School trips: For information about Descanso Gardens School Programs, contact Linda Prosser, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Canada-Flintridge, CA 91011; (818) 949-0120. * Adult courses: For information about botanical drawing courses at the Arboretum of Los Angeles County, contact Jill Berry, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia, CA 91007; (626) 821-4624 or http://www.arboretum.org. The next available course, "Botanical Illustration I: Basic Drawing," starts Jan. 9 and runs for four Wednesdays, 9 a.m.

If you don't know about the CEE LA card, you're missing one of the best deals around for cultural, sports and entertainment highlights in Southern California. Admission to participating museums is free for a family of four with the $40 membership card, and participants can get as much as 50% off tickets to some major sports events.

J. Wesley Hole, an influential lay administrator in the regional and national United Methodist Church for nearly four decades, has died at the age of 101. Hole died Feb. 14 in Arcadia of natural causes. From 1934 until 1972, Hole served as treasurer, and as statistician for many of those years, of the Southern California-Arizona Conference of the church, tracking contributions, expenses, membership growth and demographics.

Tired of carrying a stack of museum membership cards in your wallet? Fed up with shelling out hundreds--if not thousands--of dollars a year to take your family to art shows, concerts, plays and sports events? Cee-LA has an answer for you, and it's a bargain--as well as a possible boon to museums.

Radio broadcaster Roger Barkley, whose basso-voiced dry wit and common sense soothed early morning listeners in Southern California for more than three decades, died Sunday night of pancreatic cancer. Barkley, who was nearly as well-known as a mainstay of local charities, had been diagnosed as having the disease just a month ago. He was 61.