Panorama City

Panorama City A Novel Antoine Wilson Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 292 pp., $24 In fiction, when country naifs ship off to the big city to reinvent themselves, they go to New York or Paris. On the off chance they end up in Los Angeles, they usually skulk around muggy corners in Hollywood hawking scripts. They do not often go to the outer San Fernando Valley, unless they are perhaps looking for employment in the field of cinematic sexual stamina. That's where Oppen Porter, the 28-year-old narrator of Antoine Wilson's second novel, "Panorama City," winds up on a quest to become a "man of the world.

Los Angeles police are searching for the assailant who killed a security guard outside a strip mall in Panorama City Thursday night. Police said the guard was shot about 10 p.m. in the 15000 block of Roscoe Boulevard. The victim was described as a 48-year-old male who had patrolled the mini mall for 12 years, KTLA reported. The man was found on the pavement and pronounced dead at the scene. The guard was armed but still had his gun in his holster when he was discovered, a relative told KTLA.

A security guard was shot and killed near a liquor store in a Panorama City strip mall, Los Angeles police said Thursday night. The guard was gunned down shortly before 10 p.m. in the 15000 block of Roscoe Boulevard, Lt. Paul Vernon of the Los Angeles Police Department told The Times. It was not immediately known what sparked the violence. Homicide detectives were en route to the crime scene late Thursday. Since January 2007, at least 15 homicides have been reported in Panorama City, according to a Times Homicide Report database . Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call (877)

The next two Saturdays will determine who will become the newest headliner at the Riviera Comedy Club . In recent weeks, the hotel has been auditioning comics from around the country in a contest with a prize worthy of a TV talent show: a gig on the Las Vegas Strip. A total of 226 people from across the country submitted videos of their funniest material, from which 16 people were chosen to compete live on stage. The last of four finalists will be selected during a show that begins at  10 p.m. Saturday.

It wasn't long ago that Liz Lopez watched in dismay as the Vannord Shopping Center in her Panorama City neighborhood went downhill, losing its anchor, Valley Foods Warehouse, among a number of other tenants. So Lopez, 33, and her mother, Delmy Lopez, 65, made it a point to attend Friday's grand opening of the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. They stood patiently with about 200 other soon-to-be shoppers, waiting for the speeches to end so they could push their carts through the store's sliding doors.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend for another year land-use controls designed to stop overdevelopment of the commercial core of Panorama City. The controls prohibit the floor space of any development from exceeding by 1 1/2 times the size of the lot. The measure introduced by Councilman Ernani Bernardi and in effect since 1988 puts a freeze on commercial development projects in the area until a specific plan can be drafted, said David Mays, Bernardi's chief deputy.

Nicole Cabell, a 27-year-old soprano from Panorama City, has won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in Wales. On Sunday, Cabell -- a recent graduate of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, the Lyric Opera of Chicago's training program -- was presented with a trophy and a check for 10,000 pounds (about $18,000) by opera veteran Joan Sutherland, the competition's patron. Previous winners have included soprano Karita Mattila and baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

A Granada Hills youth died Wednesday after his motorcycle collided with a car in a Panorama City intersection, Los Angeles police said. Nirmal Sukhija, 16, was pronounced dead at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills after the 7:30 a.m. accident, Officer Bill Mulvihill said.

A man who was killed when he fell from a rocky hill in Chatsworth known as Stoney Point has been identified as William Shadley, 23, of Panorama City, a county coroner's official said Saturday. Shadley had climbed to the top of a massive boulder about 5:45 p.m. Friday alone and without ropes before he fell 150 feet to his death, Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Terry Jacobsen said.

A 38-year-old Panorama City man was killed Thursday morning when his car crashed into a traffic light pole on Burbank Boulevard, police said. The motorist, whose name was not released, was driving west on Burbank near the Hollywood Freeway off-ramp about 5:50 a.m. when his car drifted into the pole, Los Angeles Police Officer Frank Zedroy said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. "He could have fallen asleep at the wheel," said Zedroy, adding that there were no signs of alcohol use.

A security guard was shot and killed near a liquor store in a Panorama City strip mall, Los Angeles police said Thursday night. The guard was gunned down shortly before 10 p.m. in the 15000 block of Roscoe Boulevard, Lt. Paul Vernon of the Los Angeles Police Department told The Times. It was not immediately known what sparked the violence. Homicide detectives were en route to the crime scene late Thursday. Since January 2007, at least 15 homicides have been reported in Panorama City, according to a Times Homicide Report database . Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call (877)

Panorama City A Novel Antoine Wilson Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 292 pp., $24 In fiction, when country naifs ship off to the big city to reinvent themselves, they go to New York or Paris. On the off chance they end up in Los Angeles, they usually skulk around muggy corners in Hollywood hawking scripts. They do not often go to the outer San Fernando Valley, unless they are perhaps looking for employment in the field of cinematic sexual stamina. That's where Oppen Porter, the 28-year-old narrator of Antoine Wilson's second novel, "Panorama City," winds up on a quest to become a "man of the world.

It wasn't long ago that Liz Lopez watched in dismay as the Vannord Shopping Center in her Panorama City neighborhood went downhill, losing its anchor, Valley Foods Warehouse, among a number of other tenants. So Lopez, 33, and her mother, Delmy Lopez, 65, made it a point to attend Friday's grand opening of the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. They stood patiently with about 200 other soon-to-be shoppers, waiting for the speeches to end so they could push their carts through the store's sliding doors.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon's defense in his voter fraud and perjury case got underway Friday with a witness testifying that, despite prosecution claims to the contrary, Alarcon was living in the Panorama City house listed as his official residence. John De La Rosa told the court that the veteran San Fernando politician moved into the rust-colored home at 14451 Nordhoff St. within 30 days of his election to the state Assembly in November 2006. Shortly after, Alarcon announced his intention to run for the 7th District City Council seat.

For nearly nine months in 2009, Los Angeles County district attorney's investigator David Babcock showed up regularly at the Panorama City home that Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon claimed as his official residence and, except for one occasion, he never saw anyone there. Based on his surveillance, Babcock told a courtroom Friday at the start of the councilman's preliminary hearing, he concluded that Alarcon and his wife, Flora Montes de Oca Alarcon, were not living at 14451 Nordhoff St. The house "was not occupied," Babcock said, adding that he also reviewed utility records and interviewed neighbors and postal employees.

Word that Wal-Mart is opening a Neighborhood Market in Panorama City is getting a markedly different reception than the criticism heaped on a similar grocery-only store that the retailing giant plans to open in downtown Los Angeles. Residents of the northeast San Fernando Valley have watched as the recession turned once-thriving commercial hubs into vacant storefronts. The Vannord Center, a 90,000-square-foot-center at the corner of busy Van Nuys Boulevard and Nordhoff Street, has been hit particularly hard with more than half of its 30 tenants closing their doors.

A speeding motorist whose car was being chased by police was killed when his car crashed into three parked vehicles in a Panorama City neighborhood early this morning, Los Angeles police said. The pursuit began about 3:30 a.m. near Kester Avenue and Roscoe Boulevard when police spotted the speeding car. The chase, which lasted about three minutes, ended when the motorist's car slammed into three parked cars and the driver was ejected. Police estimate that the driver was traveling at about 80 m.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced plans to open a grocery store in Panorama City, part of a big push by the nation's largest retailer into the highly competitive Southland grocery business. The 31,000-square-foot store will be located in the Vannord Center at 14530 Nordhoff St. in the vacant space once occupied by Valley Foods Warehouse, the company said Monday. "There is no doubt that Panorama City residents need more affordable grocery options," said Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo.

The perjury and voter fraud case against Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon rests in part on the modest amount of water and electricity used at a Panorama City house that he claims as his residence, according to a grand jury transcript obtained Monday. Alarcon and his wife pleaded not guilty to 24 felony charges that accuse them of making false statements about where they live on voting forms, drivers' licenses and other documents. The 1950 tract house in Panorama City allowed Alarcon to meet a requirement that council members live in the district they seek to represent.