Pomona Ca

Tucked into a tough Pomona neighborhood behind a bamboo-camouflaged metal gate is an otherworldly garden that once was a magnet for horticulturists and designers experimenting with plants and landscapes. The contained wildness still beckons with a sense of mystery. Hundreds of exotic plants crowd meandering paths leading to a maze of hidden outdoor rooms and patios. Lush vines and plants dangle from branches of dead trees.

When Pomona Mayor Norma Torres returned to Guatemala in October, it was the first time she had been back to her native country since she was a child. But Torres got a hero's welcome. As she toured the country she barely remembered, people everywhere recognized her on the streets. "She's the mayor of Pomona," they said. Some brought magazines with her picture on the cover and asked for an autograph. They called her "the pride of Escuintla," her hometown, and "the hope of all migrants."

Elliott Rothman, Pomona's new mayor, stepped into City Hall on Monday and shook off the dreary night. He had a round face and a comb-over, and his expression was no less dour after he took off his overcoat, revealing a tie decorated with an image of Frosty the Snowman. Pomona, a city of 170,000 or so, was fresh from a messy election. Rothman had finished first among eight candidates. But with so many in the race, he had won with a third of the vote, hardly a resounding victory. At 7:04 p.m.

An 11-month-old baby was critically injured Wednesday in a freeway collision in which the driver of one of the vehicles fled the scene. The infant girl, identified as Alonda Ibanez, was injured when the car she was riding in collided with a pickup on the Chino Valley Freeway. She was airlifted to Loma Linda Medical Center. Julie Smith, a Loma Linda hospital spokeswoman, said the infant had been declared brain dead. According to the California Highway Patrol, the accident occurred about 7:30 a.m.

An 11-month-old Pomona girl who suffered severe head injuries in a hit-and-run collision died Thursday after her family requested that she be taken off life support, hospital officials said. Alondra Kimberly Ibanez was injured when the car she was riding in on the northbound 71 Freeway was struck from behind Wednesday in Pomona by a pickup, authorities said. The driver of the truck remains at large, said California Highway Patrol Officer Edmund Zorrilla.

Mary Laurent-Barela of San Dimas was desperately trying to find anything to solve her son's murder. It had been almost a year since his death when a family friend suggested she contact NASA, which has worked with the FBI to improve video images of crime scenes. She searched the NASA website and came across David H. Hathaway, a NASA astronomer who in his spare time works on high-profile cases for law enforcement. Laurent-Barela called Hathaway immediately. And kept calling.

In a sense, the heavy rains of winter 2004-05 are still falling for Abid Karim and Keith Razza. The blue skies over Pomona this winter mock the ordeal they've endured for more than two years. The fickleness of the climate is evident in the precipitation statistics: During the winter two years ago, an unprecedented 42.

Three construction workers on their way to breakfast during a midmorning break were shot, one of them fatally, after an unidentified gunman opened fire on their sport utility vehicle on a Pomona street, authorities said. The shooting took place on Oak Avenue north of Mission Boulevard shortly after 9:30 a.m., in a largely residential area that residents and police say is known for gang-related violence. One man working nearby reported hearing more than half a dozen shots.

Police on Sunday were searching for a 43-year-old man suspected of converting a 2,200-square-foot home into an indoor marijuana farm, the fifth suburban home-turned-pot farm that authorities have uncovered in the eastern San Gabriel Valley in recent weeks. Police named John Kerkenbush as a suspect after searching the home Saturday evening and removing about 200 mature plants, or about 155 pounds of marijuana.

Los Angeles County's much-touted effort to shift homeless services from downtown Los Angeles to other areas is beginning to take shape, with county leaders zeroing in on three communities where homeless centers could be built. A year ago, the Board of Supervisors approved an ambitious $100-million homeless plan, the centerpiece of which was a proposal to build five "regional centers" in the county.