818 Roundup: Glendale-area physician dies in motorcycle crash, Sheriff Baca to retire

Jan. 8, 2014 12 AM PT

Welcome to your daily roundup of news headlines, 818 readers. Today is Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014.

The National Weather Service predicts it will be mostly sunny — nowhere near Arctic Vortex temperatures — with the high reaching about 66 degrees in the Glendale area, lows around 49 and partial clouds scattered in the evening.

Here are your top news stories in the region:

Thomas Grosch, 53, of La Cañada Flintridge, lost control of his motorcycle and died on the Glendale (2) Freeway near Mountain Street on Monday night. Grosch — who was an ear, nose and throat doctor — served as chief of surgery at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital and worked at Providence Saint Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank, where he served as chairman for ear, nose and throat department.

Sheriff Lee Baca announced he will retire at the end of January and will not seek a fifth term in office amid several scandals that had hit the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The 2, 5 freeways connector is slated to reopen on Friday nearly six months after a gas tanker crashed and caught fire, sending flames shooting through the air and dumping 8,500 gallons of gasoline that sent a “burning river of fuel” down the L.A. River and nearby storm drains, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Los Angeles Police Department will release a reward for any information in the killing last November of Joseph Gatto, a well-known artist and the father of area state Assemblyman Mike Gatto, found shot to death in his Silver Lake home. The Los Angeles City Council voted 12-0 Tuesday morning to offer a $50,000 reward for information in the case, the Los Angeles Times reports. LAPD Robbery-Homicide Capt. William Hayes said he hopes the reward will spur the public to provide the information investigators need.
Actress Carmen Zapata, who was known for her role in the Latino arts community and roles in the film Sister Act (1992) and sequel, and television shows, including NBC soap Santa Barbara, died in her Van Nuys home on Sunday, according to the Hollywood Reporter. She was 86. Zapata co-founded the Los Angeles’ Bilingual Foundation of the Arts in 1973.

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