News
- DiFi's visit to the SCV: US Senator Dianne Feinstein was in town yesterday, and the three-term Bay Area Democrat had a surprise announcement for guests at a City-sponsored luncheon at the Hyatt Valencia. Feinstein told the 400 guests that she had visited the proposed Cemex Mine site before the luncheon and offered to mediate between the City and Cemex on the disputed 56 million ton aggregate mining project in Soledad Canyon. While acknowledging that southern California needs "aggregate and cement," Feinstein said she would be "happy to sit down and try to see what might be worked out with the Bureau of Land Management, with Cemex, and with the City." Feinstein also spoke about gang prevention and had apparently been briefed on Santa Clarita gangs: "You're the third safest city in California and the 11th safest city in the nation, but you have five gangs with 200 people in them," Katie Geyer reports her saying. As you can imagine, Santa Clarita's finest reporters covered the event, so you have three full reports to read: Signal, Daily News, KHTS (with several pictures)
- Times on burn-victim turned safety advocate Michael Ewart: Fire victim Michael Ewart, 17, hasn't let the burns he suffered to 40% of his body slow him down or change his life. Since the devastating house fire he and his family escaped from in Valencia in December of 2005, Ewart's recovery has exceeded expectations, and the Hart student has pushed himself in both academics and athletics, even as he was adjusting to painful skin grafts. Ewart has not only recovered from his injuries, he's also become a safety advocate in the SCV. He will be honored as a CIF Southern Section "Champions for Character" during a luncheon tomorrow, and the Times sports page has a report on this remarkable young man.
- Council Notes: John Dell has a brief report outlining some of the matters voted on at Tuesday night's City Council meeting. The City Council approved a law enforcement facilities impact fee that would "make sure that new development chips in money needed to expand the County Sheriff's Department facilities in the SCV." Also approved: The City will spend $90,000 to explore potential sites for a Big League Dreams Sports park. Big League Dreams Inc builds replica sports parks designed to look like Major league stadiums, and it's estimated that building one in Santa Clarita could cost up to $30 million, but city staff say such a park would increase sports tourism and add a jewel to the city's parks crown. Councilmember Boydston, who has expressed reservations about the company in prior council meetings, voted no. Dell doesn't report on the lobbyist issue that was also up for debate last night, but I'll keep my eye out for reports on that. Link
- Hart District's Measure V money mixed with vehicle funds, district salaries: An audit of the Hart District's Measure V finances has been released, and the results seem open to interpretation going by two articles on the report. According to Carl Goldman at KHTS, the report says "it is possible that some Measure V funds were used to pay administrative salaries and transportation purchases, something prohibited by restrictions placed on the use of Measure V funds." Over at the Daily News, Pat Aidem calls the report's language "somewhat twisted" and quotes from the auditor's conclusion: The Hart School District "lacks documented proof that Measure V funds were not inappropriately used." Hart officials acknowledge sloppy accounting procedures but say the monies were not "inappropriately spent."
- Dead biker wasn't discovered for 48 hours: Sheriff's officials have identified a dead motorcyclist who was found on Saturday north of Soledad Canyon Road. The deceased man is Joseph Hanna, a 60 year old Saugus resident. Officials think Hanna may have crashed his motorcycle 48 hours earlier and died after suffering "multiple traumatic injuries." Sheriff's officials are asking for any witnesses to the crash to step forward. Christi Anne Corpus has a report
- Prodigy at Placerita Junior High? San Antonio's WOAI TV station, of all places, reports on 13 year old Allison Reed, a Placerita Junior High student who's science fair project was dedicated to finding the cause of cancer in dogs. Reed had a Golden Retriever named Sassy who died of bladder cancer when the dog was only three years old. Naturally, she wanted to know why Sassy died, so she extracted "the mutated cancer genes from her dog's tumor and then isolated the cancer-fighting gene," as part of her 8th grade science project. She had help from her parents, who are both cancer researchers at an unspecified biotech company. I never put a lot of faith in local television news reporting, but this ought to be pretty simple to verify, and I hope someone locally follows up on this girl. LinkEdit: Nevermind, the Signal reported on this back in September. Link My bad
- Mountain Lions in Canyon Country, Coyotes in Valencia, oh my!: SCV residents have spotted more coyotes this year than in previous years, the Signal reports today. Tammy Marashlian spoke with a Valencia woman who was surprised to see a coyote during the day in her backyard recently, something she's never experienced in 28 years of living in Santa Clarita. Ian Swift (who btw is the only 30 something guy on the Signal's Most Influential List) at the Placerita Nature Center says dealing with Wile E. Coyote is a fact of life for Santa Claritans, and he doesn't look kindly on gimmicks like spreading (squirting?) wolf urine around your property to deter coyotes, which is also mentioned in Marashlian's report. Yeah. The words " PredatorPee.com" actually appear in the Signal today, and my school-boy giggles just won't stop. Link
- Boston out as Opinion Editor? John Boston's command of the English language may reign supreme over all in the SCV, but it looks like his stint as Opinion Editor is over, at least going by the ever-changing masthead in today's Signal. According to that, Santa Clarita's resident wordsmith/folklorist has been busted down (up?) to Senior Columnist whereas before he was listed as Opinion Editor. And on today's Op/Ed page, da chief herself, Editor Lila Littlejohn, is listed, whereas before Boston was. I think this marks the second time Boston has left the opinion editor position. During his two + months as Opinion Editor, he wrote quite a few Sunday columns but was criticized here for not focusing on local topics. Hey, if you're a Boston fanboi like I am, don't worry, you can still see his work in the new and improved Escape, which has gotten a mixed reaction over at TITTS
- Gary Horton rocks the religious right: I've always enjoyed Signal Columnist/Businessman Gary Horton's columns in the Signal, but the man confuses me frankly. He writes and talks like a Democrat, castigates McKeon and Bush for their support of the Iraq war, advocates for social justice, and apparently takes good care of his employees over at Landscape Development, Inc. Take, for instance, his column in today's Signal in which he mourns the religious right's stranglehold on GOP politics and mentions how the top three GOP candidates for the Republican nomination are bending over backwards to make themselves palpable to Evangelical voters. "Proper or not, like it or not, political operators like Karl Rove and Co. have tricked and forced religion into our politics- from whence it bleeds onto our Opinion pages," he writes. All that posturing and bending to the right wing of the GOP hasn't changed Horton's vote though. When the rubber meets the road, Horton is still a strong supporter of Buck McKeon and Mitt Romney, having donated money to the former in the past and $2,300 to the latter in May.
- Upcoming Debates: Individuals running for a seat on the Hart District board will face each other and the public twice in the coming days. Tomorrow night, local Democratic and Republican groups will host a debate between the Hart Board Candidates at City Hall. Leon Worden will moderate. My Santa Clarita.com has more. Then on Monday, KHTS News Director John Dell and Signal Editor Lila Littlejohn will manage three debates. First, Newhall School District candidates will debate, followed by candidates for the Newhall Water Board (including Lynne Plambeck who was slammed recently by the Chamber of Commerce) and finally candidates for the Hart Board. KHTS has the details on that debate, which will be broadcast live on AM 1220. Link
- Speaking of Hart Candidates: Kevin Korenthal, that local blogger who focuses mostly on national politics, is working the "Tell It" forum, answering questions about Hart Board Candidate Joe Messina. Some of the forum members are bringing up Messina's conservative background and his sponsorship of the always-controversial
Mayor'sMayors Prayer Breakfast. Is Korenthal directly working on the campaign for Messina? Survey says...
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