Rosemead Ca

Sandlewood incense and meditative chanting infused the high-ceiling prayer room Wednesday of the newly opened Rosemead Buddhist Monastery, as practitioners and priests gathered for the final festivities in a four-day inaugural event. Buddhists from as far away as Sri Lanka and Thailand have traveled to Rosemead for the opening of the temple, said Chao Chu, a Buddhist bhante, or master.

An exhibit of Chinese ice sculpture inside a Rosemead store that had been converted into a giant freezer will close Thursday, more than two weeks early, because of slow ticket sales, an exhibit official said Monday. More than 60,000 people have visited the exhibit to see the five dozen ice sculptures carved by Chinese artisans since it opened in May.

Wal-Mart's efforts to build Supercenters in Los Angeles County suffered a setback this week when voters in Rosemead ousted two council members who supported the project in that community and replaced them with two critics. Although the results were unlikely to halt construction of the store, experts said it demonstrated the aggressive efforts of labor unions and community groups to challenge Wal-Mart at every turn as the retail giant attempts to expand across California.

About 60 people gathered in the courtyard of Rosemead City Hall on Saturday to honor six who died in the Vietnam War. The ceremony may have seemed a distant echo to an era that shook the country, but relatives of the dead soldiers say the memories are still fresh. "This is a good gesture. . . . It means my son's memory will live on. But the entire occasion has brought back to me what a trying time my family and this nation went through," said Della Craig, 66, whose 20-year-old son Michael was killed in Cambodia 21 years ago. The city decided to erect the monument in 1986, more than 11 years after U.S. troops left Vietnam.

A 16-year-old Lynwood youth was shot and killed early Tuesday in a Rosemead neighborhood just south of Interstate 10. The Los Angeles County coroner's office identified the youth as Danny Hermosillo. The shooting took place in the 2700 block of Jackson Avenue near Egley Avenue. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Frank LaPiana said that Hermosillo was pronounced dead at the scene and that no arrests had been made in the case. No other details were immediately available.

A 23-acre plot of gravel and grass has caused a political divide in Rosemead, where the campaign for three City Council seats has largely become a referendum on plans to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Three incumbents helped approve the plan in September. Now three challengers opposed to the development hope to win the seats in Tuesday's election. But even if the challengers prevail, it's unclear whether the project could be stopped.

Alarmed that a Rosemead city councilman collected unemployment benefits after he was ousted by voters, state lawmakers are proposing to prevent such payments in the future. John Nunez was paid $11,250 in state unemployment benefits, covered by the city, after he lost a re-election bid in March 2009. The city challenged the claim and sought reimbursement, but the state Employment Development Department sent a letter Feb. 25 saying that the city was on the hook for the money. Nunez stopped collecting payments after his benefits ran out in September.

A controversial proposal to build a $200-million resort hotel in downtown Beverly Hills won solidly in Tuesday's city election. Measure A, which had deeply divided the electorate and provoked a blizzard of mailers and cable TV ads, received slightly more than 4,000 votes. About 3,400 residents voted against it. "We're excited," said Alan J. Fuerstman, founder and owner of Montage Hotels & Resorts. "Beverly Hills is a great luxury hotel community, and we're thrilled to become a part of it.

Wal-Mart on Wednesday won a long-sought foothold in a region fraught with political opposition to its expansion when the city of Rosemead approved the retail giant's plans to build its first Supercenter in Los Angeles County. The vote came after weeks of debate in the city 12 miles east of downtown Los Angeles as labor leaders, local politicians and community groups tried to persuade the City Council that such a store would depress wages and hurt the economy.