The Monterey Park City Council at its Wednesday, May 1, meeting will vote on establishing an ad hoc subcommittee that would inform the creation of an independent memorial committee to commemorate the Jan. 21, 2023, mass shooting. In an effort to honor the 11 victims who were killed in the Star Ballroom Dance Studio shooting and create a space for healing in the community, the city council will consider forming a subcommittee of two council members. Members would determine the details such as composition, responsibilities, budget, and timeline of an independent memorial committee. Officials cau ..read more

Members of the Halau Hula Moani‘a’ ala Anuhea warm up prior to their performance during the Annual Cherry Blossom Festival at Barnes Park in Monterey Park on Saturday, April 27, 2024. (Photo by Libby Cline Birmingham, Contributing Photographer) Performers from the Yuujou Daiko perform during the Annual Cherry Blossom Festival at Barnes Park in Monterey Park on Saturday, April 27, 2024. (Photo by Libby Cline Birmingham, Contributing Photographer) Four year old Keira Lian of Monterey Park creates a work of art during the Annual Cherry Blossom Festival at Barnes Park in Monterey Park ..read more

Following the COVID pandemic and the Lai Lai Ballroom shooting last year, for the first time in four years Monterey Park’s annual Cherry Blossom festival is a more celebratory atmosphere will bloom on this weekend’s festival. The city of Monterey Park is inviting the public to celebrate Japanese and Asian Pacific Islander culture during its 24th annual Cherry Blossom Festival starting on Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28. “Monterey Park has a long tradition of celebrating the many cultures that make up our community and the Cherry Blossom Festival is an excellent example of that history ..read more

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order this week following an urgent U.S. Department of Labor request to block three San Gabriel Valley poultry processing plants from using “oppressive” child labor. The order Monday, April 1, by U.S. District Court Judge Otis D. Wright II came in response to a Department of Labor lawsuit filed over the weekend that names L&Y Food of El Monte, Moon Poultry of Irwindale and JRC Culinary Group of Monterey Park as defendants. Also named as a co-defendant is the owner of the three companies, Fu Qian Chen Lu. Wright ordered the businesses to stop u ..read more

Before his arrest this week on federal child pornography charges, a former supervising attorney at a nonprofit that provides legal representation to foster children in juvenile dependency court earned praise as a volunteer photography instructor at Los Angeles County’s oldest children’s charity. Charles “Chuck” Aghoian, 61, of Camarillo, who worked at the Children’s Law Center of California, was charged Monday, March 11, with three counts of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Aghoian pleaded not guilty, posted bail and was released from custody ..read more

For the family of Nancy Ng, the nightmare began on Oct. 19, when the 29-year-old teacher’s aide from Monterey Park presumably drowned in Lake Atitlan in Guatemala during a yoga retreat. For San Bernardino County Deputy Public Defender Christina Blazek — believed to be the last person to have seen Ng alive  — the nightmare began about a month later. That’s when Ng’s family and one of its representatives publicly disclosed Blazek’s name and accused her of being silent and uncooperative in the search for Ng’s body, as well as hindering a Guatemalan police investigation. The whiff of mystery ..read more

Francois Ung and Shally Ung, owners of Arcadia Donuts, went to great lengths in recent weeks to hold a fundraiser in the name of their dear friend “Andy” Kao, who was among the 11 people killed during the Monterey Park attack just over a year ago. They’d reached out to local media. Francois spoke at a vigil on Jan. 21st in memory of his friend. They’d put a big banner up to promote the fundraiser – designed to raise funds for survivors and victims of the shooting. It was working. With each donut, over a couple of weekends prior to the solemn anniversary, they had raised about $2,000 for a vict ..read more

A purple-and-pink-hued poster, decorated with Chinese lanterns and advertising the upcoming play “Dance with New Year’s Eve,” reads: “Cheer or fear, which fate is near?” The producers of the show, on June 8 and 9 at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse, are hopeful about its intended tone. Showrunners with the Elite Performing Arts Group USA, a nonprofit based in the San Gabriel Valley, said their production reflects on the mass shooting that happened one year ago at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park on Jan. 21, 2023 — the eve of the Lunar New Year. The “Dance with New Year’s Eve” p ..read more

Cheer Liv is used to running back and forth between patients who are often on ventilators and in need of constant care. But Liv, a respiratory therapist at Garfield Medical Center, rarely gets the help he needs to keep up because of chronic understaffing. “We just can’t be limited in numbers,” the 43-year-old Monterey Park resident said. “I’m often trying to move equipment from one room to another, and these are patients who can’t breathe on their own.” Liv isn’t alone. Scores of employees throughout the Monterey Park hospital say they’re often scrambling to do the job of two or more people in ..read more

About a week after the Monterey Park mass shooting at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in January 2023, owner Maria Liang was too distraught to step back inside her dance studio. Four months later, she still hadn’t returned to dancing – and wasn’t sure she ever would. Then something happened in late December. After spending some time traveling, Liang returned to this tight-knit community in the San Gabriel Valley and, for the first time since the tragedy that left the community in mourning nearly a year ago, stepped back out onto the dance floor. An organization called the Chinatown Service Center w ..read more