Featured Articles from the Imperial Valley Press Online

Sports Writer Heading into the Police Activities League's national boxing championship in Kansas City, Mo., last week, four fighters from the Imperial Valley were decisive underdogs. Beating the odds, no Valley fighter finished lower than fourth place in his division and one came away as national champion. Thirteen-year-old El Centro resident Juanito Soto won the 75-pound division, earning a spot at the 2004 Olympic boxing tryouts. Soto defeated Puerto Rico's Jose Guzman in a 10-2 decision in the national final.

El Centro resident Jo Ann Rodrigues Finley may be able set her home's thermostat below 83 degrees Fahrenheit this summer, when temperatures will go above 110 and stay there for months. Finley is the beneficiary of Citizens Energy Corp.'s solar homes project, which was unveiled at her home Thursday. The program aims to reduce energy bills for low-income residents through the use of rooftop solar collection systems. She is the first Valley resident to receive such a system free of charge, and if all goes according to plan, it will slash her electricity bill by 50 to 80 percent, depending on estimates.  Citizens Energy Corp., a nonprofit, is a partner with San Diego Gas & Electric on the Sunrise Powerlink transmission line, and is using proceeds from the line to fund the program.

A Holtville resident said someone tried to scam her, saying they were with Publishers Clearing House in New York and wanted to give her $2.5 million. After consulting an attorney, the woman was told it was a fraud, according to Sheriff's Office logs. The Sheriff's Office took a report for the fraud attempt. - Elizabeth Varin, evarin@ivpressonline.com $90K in meth seized at checkpoint SALTON CITY - El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents at the Indio station seized more than an estimated $90,000 in methamphetamine at the Highway 86 checkpoint between Westmorland and Salton City on Tuesday afternoon.

HOLTVILLE ? Kathie Morris could scarcely believe her ears when she heard the news from her husband at 6 a.m. Sunday. Joshua Ayon, 22, had been shot once in the head and once in the heart on the sidewalk that borders her house at the corner of Olive and Wooldridge avenues here. A yellow carnation and three dried patches of blood, one trailing from the street, marked the spot where the attack ended. Morris said that despite being within 30 feet of the shooting, the gunshots did not wake her; absent, too, were any loud arguments between Ayon and the two suspects.

Jose Antonio Cisneros, the Calexico resident accused of killing his mother in late November, will face a first-degree murder charge, a judge ruled Thursday. “I do find that there was this attempt to kill on the mind of the defendant,” said Judge Christopher Plourd, referring to Cisneros, who allegedly killed his mother, Sylvia Cisneros while in her Calexico home near the 1000 block of F. Torres Street on Nov. 20. The defendant, 31, will also face an attempted murder charge for allegedly trying to kill his sister Melissa Cisneros.

Leonard Knight, the man responsible for the iconic sculpture Salvation Mountain, visited his creation briefly Sunday. It was his first visit this year and his third visit since December 2011, when he was placed in a managed-care facility. “This is something I've been promising him as a payoff for his eye surgeries,” said Dan Westfall, Knight's caretaker and president of Salvation Mountain Inc. Leonard, as his admirers call him, had a simple message: love each other. “Everybody love everybody - does that sound OK?

CALEXICO - Dippy Duck wiggled and waved to hundreds of students at Cesar Chavez Elementary School on Wednesday as part of the Imperial Irrigation District's water safety awareness campaign. The district's “Stay Active, Play Safe, Be Cool” campaign will be presented to just under 25,000 students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade at 45 schools all over the Valley in coming weeks. Students giggled and enthusiastically responded to questions for prizes as presenters taught them safety information such as staying away from canals or calling for help if they see someone or something in a canal.

My children have several foot-powered (i.e. Razor) scooters and they wear their helmets. I have seen several other children in the neighborhood riding without helmets. Some other parents and I were wondering if there is a helmet law for such scooters, as well as for skateboards. They are concerned that they will be fined if there is a helmet law and it is enforced. — Concerned Parent Besides being a very bad idea, it is apparently illegal for kids to be zipping around on their scooters with no helmet.

NILAND - Imperial County fire officials will conduct a three-month evaluation of the Niland Fire Department starting today after its entire firefighting staff was laid off for not being certified to provide emergency medical services. The request to have the Imperial County Fire Department conduct its review of the operations and administration of the Niland Fire Department follows Friday's move by the department's board of directors to release the nine-member firefighting crew, said board President John Almueti.

St. Augustine grass is commonly used for lawns in Southern California and Arizona. One of the most serious insect pests on St. Augustine lawns is the southern chinch bug, Blissus insularis Berber. Southern chinch bug adults are about .125 of an inch long, or about the size of a grain of rice. Adults are black with whitish wings that fold flat over their backs. There is a triangular black patch at the middle of the outer wing margins. Chinch bugs over-winter as adults and become active in the spring.

Salton Sea fishing guide Ray Garnett reported good corvina fishing most days last week while guiding customers along the west side of the Salton Sea from the Navy base all the way north to the snag off Avenue 81 at the extreme north end of the sea. Garnett, who mainly uses live tilapia for bait, also reported some customers limiting out with soft plastic baits. Coachella Valley fishermen Joe Kitagawa and Jose Aguiar launched from Johnson's landing Sunday and boated nine corvina up to 10 pounds using live tilapia.

WESTMORLAND - Brandon Walker, from Seeley, believes fishing is part of the Imperial Valley environment and for that reason Walker decided to participate in a catfish tournament last weekend. “I have been fishing since I was a little boy,” said Walker. “It is just something you do in the Valley.” This was Walker's first year competing in the sixth annual Catfish Tournament. Adults and juniors throughout the Imperial Valley took to canals May 11 morning in search of channel and flathead catfish.

For youth baseball players who love to participate in America?s past time, Little League Fall Ball is getting ready to hit the diamond next month. ?We started Fall Ball a couple of years ago,? said Tony Ojeda, California District 22 administrator. ?We wanted to have this for those kids who want to play baseball more than other sports.? Teams from Brawley, Calexico, El Centro, Heber, Holtville, Imperial, Seaview and Sunbeam will be competing in the fall baseball league. District 22 has been registering girls and boys between the ages of 9 and 12 since July 2 and will stop online registration July 31. Individual league registration will be posted online when information becomes available at www.eteamz.

The 2012 World Series came down Sunday night to a one-run extra-innings lead being held by Brawley native Sergio Romo and Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera batted .330 on the regular season, but it didn't phase the San Francisco Giants' closer. Romo froze Cabrera for the called strike three and his team's second World Series championship in three years. “It brings chills,” Romo's former coach and current Brawley Union High baseball coach Pedro Carrranza said. “They can take a lot of things from you in this life, but they can't take this memory away,” he said.