So much news I dare not leave it until Monday morning.
News
- Council Candidate fund raising: The Signal’s Katie Geyer took a look at campaign finance disclosure reports filed on Friday and has the numbers: Mayor Bob Kellar has raised the most for the six month time frame ($7,300 for a total of $41.5k) followed by Spierer, Ender, Gutzeit and Trautman. Link
- Lennar builds solar-powered homes: The home builder says the houses -with solar panels on the roof, tankless water heaters, and other energy-efficient features- will take advantage of the SCV’s most abundant natural resource, sunlight. The homes are built in the West Creek development and will cost between $650k-$700k. Daily News has more, KHTS has pictures.
- Writer’s Strike and the SCV: The Writer’s Guild of America strike has lasted nearly four months now, and its impact in Santa Clarita is becoming a bit more clear. Santa Clarita Studios, home to TV shows The Unit, The Riches, and Big Love, has shut down production on its 10 sound stages and lost at least $1 million since the strike began. The City says film permits have dropped and that some 6,000 people are kept employed directly or indirectly by continued filming. There’s hope that a deal between the writers and the major studios may be in the works. Link
- Alemany/Ferry cleared of wrongdoing: The private Catholic school and its aggressive Prinicipal (also a Santa Clarita City Councilman) are cleared of any wrongdoing after an apparently short investigation by the CIF. At issue was whether a meeting held by Ferry and Alemany in December for 17 SCV football athletes violated an “Undue influence” clause in the Southern Section rules. Canyon High, Valencia, and Saugus high coaches said Alemany was improperly poaching talent from the SCV, an allegation Ferry called “sour grapes.” The CIF commish says Ferry ought to meet with SCV high school officials. Times
- Smyth at Hollywood Anti-Piracy Event: The freshman Assemblyman attends a “Assembly Select Committee on the Preservation of the Entertainment Industry” in Burbank and says that people who download music and movies from the internet don’t understand who they are harming. Burbank Leader
- Mayor rides with citizens: The “Hit the Trail” bicycle event on Saturday was a hit with residents and probably didn’t hurt the Mayor’s reelection efforts either. KHTS has a brief report.
Super Bowl Sunday!
- Where to watch: The SCVTalk.com Headquarters orbit high above the Santa Clarita Valley, and this year marks the first time I’ll enjoy the Super Bowl in High Definition. I’d invite my readers over, but there’s not too much room in my 1,200 sq. ft. floating command center. But don’t despair! Cary Osborne has the scoop on where you can watch the game in the SCV.
- Watch for cool ad filmed in SCV: Stephen Peeples has the juice on an interesting
ToyotaFord ad that’s filmed entirely in the SCV and should air today (involves a centrifuge, physics, and some mad science). Link
Miscellaneous:
- New Coffee house in SCV: Maui Wowi Hawaiian Coffees & Smoothies will open a shop in Castaic. Interesting timing considering the recent pot bust, no (Maui Wowie is a strain of pot)? Speaking of drugs, a far-out, psychedelic Santa Clarita man was part of this long LA Times story on a Peruvian drug named Ayahuasca.
- Bob Spierer on SCV Police Department: The council candidate and former captain of the SCV Sheriff’s office opines on a recent editorial that argued for a Santa Clarita Police Department.
- Candidate Endorsements: Barack Obama gets George Clooney’s Endorsement while Hillary Clinton gets support from Hollywood heavyweights Ron Howard and Rob Reiner. On the Republican side, the Governator endorses McCain, while no Hollywood types get behind Mitt Romney. Read who supports your candidate in this Times list.
- Anger over Newhall Hardware: I’m surprised how angry people are over Newhall Hardware’s closure. Four letters to the editor today blame the City in one way or another, saying the restriping of SFR/Main Street, the back-in parking debacle and other decisions helped kill Newhall Hardware. “Face it City Council, you guy screwed up. You have successfully ruined countless lives, careers and a crucial part of the community,” one Old Town Newhall business owner says. “I point my finger at a body of five egotists that sit on our City Council,” says another. And Linda Slocum who has paid more attention to Old Town Newhall than just about anyone else in the media, also has an angry post up at her website. “This is our town and our history we’re talking about, and we’re allowing a bunch of weenies at City Hall to destroy it for us to satisfy their own personal agendas,” she writes. She also re-typed John Boston’s parting editorial in the Escape. Will the anger translate into more voters in the City Council election? Will the closure harm incumbents like Kellar and Trautman? Which candidate, if any, will use the closure of Newhall Hardware as a campaign issue?