Santa Fe Springs

The Santa Fe Springs City Council has introduced an ordinance to assess responsible parties for costs associated with hazardous material cleanup. The proposed ordinance would allow the city to be reimbursed--in cases where negligence is established--for costs incurred when city resources, such as the Fire, Police and Public Works departments, are used to respond to and clean up incidents involving flammable, explosive or toxic materials.

Here's a great spring deal that would work for Memorial Day too: Kick back in a two-bedroom villa at Bishop's Lodge Ranch Resort & Spa in Santa Fe. The resort in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains offers spring sale prices on villas starting at $339 a night -- more than half off the usual rates. Split the room with three friends and stay in style without breaking the bank. The deal: There's a lot to do -- mountain biking, yoga, hiking, tours -- at this series of lodges and villas that date to the early 20th century.

For 85 years, Trojan Battery Co., now the top U.S. provider of batteries for electric golf carts, has had a quiet existence as a family-owned and operated company. But from the calm of manicured fairways, the Santa Fe Spings firm has been thrust into the international green movement. The company's specialty is deep-cycle batteries that dole out energy in a steady stream over relatively long periods of time — just what's needed for solar power systems in remote parts of the world.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which together make up the nation's busiest shipping container complex, showed gains in cargo traffic for the fourth straight month in March, boosting trade-related employment in Southern California. In Los Angeles, the largest U.S. port, exports jumped 15.8% compared with March 2009, driven by such items as scrap paper, scrap metal, agricultural products and finished manufactured goods. Long Beach's exports also rose strongly, 10.9%, as both ports benefited from the weakness of the U.S. dollar against other major world currencies.

Authorities have identified the burned body of a woman found in a trash bin near Interstate 5 in Santa Fe Springs. Stephanie Almanzan, 21, of Whittier was discovered about 12:30 a.m. Oct. 6 after firefighters extinguished a blaze inside a trash bin behind a furniture store in the 13100 block of Firestone Boulevard, Whittier police said. Almanzan's hands and feet were tied with cord and her body was badly charred, Officer Jason Zuhlke said at the time. Her identity was confirmed through dental records.

A woman's burned body was found in a Dumpster near Interstate 5 in Santa Fe Springs just after midnight Monday, police said. Firefighters extinguishing a fire in the trash bin behind a furniture store in the 13100 block of Firestone Boulevard found the charred remains of a human body, according to a Whittier Police Department news release. Investigators said the victim's hands and feet appeared to have been tied with some kind of extension or lamp cord. Officials also said the victim had two tattoos: a butterfly on her left shoulder and the name "David" on her right shoulder.

Cravings Rebecca, 10 Torrey Pines Elementary La Jolla Waves crashing, rolling -- it tells a story, a sad song. It's storytelling that it wants. Emotions. Wants Personality. Wants something. Anything. It wants a life. A life. A love. A reason. Good Night Cristina, 9 Lakeview Elementary Santa Fe Springs Put the covers on. Don't yell "Mom!" I'll turn off the light. Don't be full of fright! Now I'm snoozing off . . . Mom! Best Brother Alexis, 8 Cloverdale Elementary Irvine You're my favorite baby bro'!

Marijon Ancich barely moved, his expression never changing. The white-haired football coach from Santa Fe Springs St. Paul High showed no emotion as his team converted on fourth down early in a recent game against Whittier Pioneer. Ancich remained similarly stoic after quarterback Paul Lopez salvaged a broken play by passing for a touchdown. But this riled him: Leading by two touchdowns, his team was penalized for a false start. "What the hell is going on?" the suddenly animated coach bellowed as he hobbled along the sideline on his balky right knee.

The city of Cerritos is used to raking in awards and distinctions. Named an All-America City in 2008 and a Tree City USA for 11 consecutive years, Cerritos bills itself as an oasis in an urban desert. A fountain adjacent to City Hall belches up clean, chlorinated water to the delight of area children, who romp in their bathing suits in the sun reflected off the city's award-winning, titanium-clad library.

Re "Death of Saturn dream," editorial, May 3 A year ago, I sold my 1995 Saturn SC-2, which had about 220,000 miles on it. It still looked and ran great. I absolutely would have purchased a 2008 version. Alas, as your editorial stated, there was no compact American Saturn anymore. This company was supposed to be the Toyota/Honda killer; it was headed in the right direction. Unfortunately, between the cowardly corporation and greedy unions, and to my disappointment, this was not to be. Gregory Greenfield Santa Fe Springs :: Another loss in the demise of the Pontiac brand is the dearth of any American Indian name as a constant in public life outside the last weekend in November.

Re "Middle-class jobless run into a welfare wall," March 26 In your article, one of the people interviewed was wondering what happens to the middle-class families who were making good money. Perhaps sounding coldhearted here, one can repeat the ubiquitous statement being tossed around these days -- what has happened to personal responsibility? We hear of the plight of the middle class or above, people who have had no foresight. It appears they have not saved a dime, never mind the eight to 10 months of monthly income needed these days to hold them over after a job loss or health problem.