Happy Leap Year day or whatever one would call today. And since there are 366 days this year, you all get an extra Daily Brief.
News
- Deputies fire on suspects for second time in a week: For the second time in a week, SCV Sheriff’s Deputies opened fire on suspects after mistaking an object held by the suspects for a gun on Wednesday night. And, for the second time in a week, the Deputies missed, impacting a car the suspects were riding in instead.
The Sheriff’s blogKHTS put it this way: “Fearing for his safety and that of his partner, one of the deputies fired one shot, missing the suspect but getting all three suspects’ attention.” The suspects, arrested on vandalism charges, are all named, but we don’t know the identities of the Deputies other than they work in the COBRA unit. Parimal Rohit has the story, but this has also been picked up by KNBC, which cites an LASD source outside the SCV Sheriff’s office and says that “Sheriff’s Internal Affairs detectives were investigating the shooting.” - Palmdale woman arrested on DUI charges after crash that injured her son: 41 year old Angela Bass was driving northbound on Highway 14 just after midnight Thursday morning when her vehicle “veered in lanes, hit the center divider and subsequently went off the side of the freeway…into an embankment.” She narrowly missed two CHP officers who were helping a stranded motorist. Her two year old son, riding in an improperly secured child seat, was severely injured in the crash and Bass was arrested on charges of Driving under the influence and child endangerment. Rohit has the story.
- “Hate Acts” Decline at Hart: First you need the definition of a “hate act” or “bias-motivated act,” so Signal writer Sharon Cotal provides that in her lede: “Acts motivated by prejudice against another student because of race, religion or sexual orientation have decreased more than 50 per cent in the Hart District compared to this time last year,” she says. Such acts could include fighting, name calling and “threats made against someone because they are different.” In recent years the District has struggled with racial tension; in the spring of 2006, a near-riot broke out at Hart High reportedly along racial lines, and later that year, the District had to settle with some African American students who said Valencia High and District officials hadn’t done enough to combat racism on the campus. Cotal has the report.
- Hawks nest in powerlines, throw monkey wrench in Edison plans: Edison is busy building those ginormous electrical transmission towers over the mountains and into Saugus, but at one existing tower in Saugus, they’ve run into a federally protected red-tailed hawk who’s built a nest. A Saugus resident says Edison ought to halt until the hawk mommy and daddy have their offspring, and Edison says it’s “totally environmentally-friendly” and won’t do anything while the hawks are in nesting season. So what’s the problem? Parimal Rohit reports that Edison plans to take down the tower in the next few weeks. He’s got more on that and the reason for these new power lines here.
- SCV woman gets 9 years for running over pedestrian: A 25 year old Santa Clarita woman named Julia O’Connor was sentenced this week after pleading guilty to running over a 70 year old man. The AP reports that O’Connor was coming off a “three day methamphetamine binge and fell asleep at the wheel.” Link
- SFVBJ reports (briefly) on McFarland Kellar allegations: The Valley’s Business Journal doesn’t tell us much more than we already know, but does say that McFarland believes Mayor Bob Kellar “did not disclose income from the 2005 sale of property along Sierra Highway that was purchased by College of the Canyons.” I’m going to have to dig into the archives; I seem to recall much controversy about the selection and sale price of that property. The Journal also says the City Council has decided not to investigate McFarland’s allegations. City Attorney Carl Newton told council on Tuesday that he would look into state disclosure laws. Link
- Signal talks to murderer’s mother: Robert Wheeler, the man who shot & killed a store clerk on New Years Day 2005, apparently suffered from an intestinal disease and had been taking antidepressants, according to his mother. “After treatments, he was ungrounded and mentally not normal,” Wheeler’s mother told Parimal Rohit. “He [Wheeler] takes full responsibility for what happened,” she said. “He belongs in a mental institute for the rest of his life.” Wheeler was recently sentenced to two life terms in prison. Link
- Bike trail from Ventura to SCV? Our tiny farming neighbor, Santa Paula, is building a plaza and a 3.2 mile recreational trail for pedestrians and bicyclists. The local connection? The Ventura County star says that eventually, this trail will connect Ventura, Fillmore, and Santa Paul to Santa Clarita. Wouldn’t that be a beautiful ride? Link
- Another furniture chain bites the dust: First it was Levitz in Stevenson Ranch (who’s building is now an ugly, vacant reminder of the economic downturn), then Homemaker’s Furniture, and now Wickes Furniture on Carl Boyer Drive in Canyon Country is shutting its doors according to a press release. All of the chain’s 38 stores in California, Illinois, Nevada and Indiana are closing after a bankruptcy court order, and discounts of up to 50% will be offered starting tomorrow. Pat Aidem at the Daily News had an excellent article about a month ago on the connection between the downturn in the housing market and its relationship with the furniture business. Press release
Our Legislators:
- Runner on Rim of the Valley Corridor and Elsmere: The conservative State Senator, representing the 17th District and part of Santa Clarita, has introduced a bill that would add Elsmere Canyon -once the proposed site for a mega trash dump- to the Rim of the Valley Corridor, an important designation that could protect the canyon in the future. Carol Rock reports.
- Outlook Dim for NCLB according to McKeon: The Senior Republican on the Houses’ Education and Work Committee tells EdWeek that due to the presidential election, a reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind legislation probably won’t happen in 2008. “We’re in a climate where it doesn’t look very favorable to get the reauthorization done,” he said. McKeon was one of several Republican House members who worked on the landmark legislation when it was proposed in 2002. Link
Media
- Daily News cuts expected today: At least twenty cuts are expected from the Daily News’ newsroom, which might affect some reporters who work on Santa Clarita stories. You can follow the story at The Nut Graph, a Daily News’ staffer’s blog.
- And on Creekside? I admit that I don’t follow the sports desk at the Signal as closely as I should, but I’m hearing rumors of cuts there as well. There are at least three staffers working sports for the SCV, including editor Cary Osborne, writer/commentator Amanda Branam, and writer Andrew Barlam. I haven’t seen anything from Grant Marek lately. What I do know, however, is that The Signal recently let go of its longtime paginator (that’s the guy who organizes the layout of the newspaper) and that the editorial department is now doing pagination. Also, Stephen Peeples, the one time content producer for MySantaClarita and Beatles maniac has been given the title of “Online Editor.”
- Despite that…. I’ve been pleased with The Signal lately. There’s been so much “hard news” on the front page in recent weeks that I’ve come to miss the various cutesy stories about school children that often find their way onto A-1. Just a little though.
Blogs, Opinion and More:
- Sterling King & Jim Farley on Las Lomas (literally): The duo who vociferously opposed the open space initiative and have since become regular fixtures at City Council meetings are now tackling Las Lomas, the controversial 5,500 home development slated for the Newhall Pass. King and Farley have set up a new YouTube account and added some nicer production values to their two first videos which were filmed inside the Las Lomas/Frank McHaddad territory itself. “We plan to take the fight to LA City over [Las Lomas] and work with Santa Clarita assisting them in the fight,” King told me in an email. The pair are also building a website to oppose Las Lomas. You can view their first two videos here.
- Mayor Sam speculates on Las Lomas and Kellar: Mayor Sam, the blogger who follows LA City politics and is suspicious of all things Santa Clarita, speculates that McFarland’s recent allegations against Mayor Bob Kellar may have something to do with Las Lomas. Is he out of the loop or does he know something we don’t know? Whatever the case, he says Santa Clarita doesn’t take transparency seriously. Link
- Lynne Plambeck Op/Ed today: Say what you will about Lynne Plambeck, but she follows development in the SCV more closely than anybody, myself and the Signal staff included. The longtime environmentalist remarks today on the County’s recent (As of Tuesday) approval of the not-so-attractively named Tick Canyon development in Canyon Country. “Even with houses in foreclosure and supposedly the worst housing market in years, developers continue to get approvals from the county for more. So it was no surprise that projects, with a total of 1,000 additional units, were approved by the County Tuesday,” she writes. She then goes on to write about a recent Atlantic Monthly article which said that today’s suburbs might become tomorrow’s slums. She ends her column with an optimistic review of old Town Newhall redevelopment: “Mixed-use housing is planned above the commercial sidewalk stores in our new “theater” district. Walkability will be the answer to high gasoline prices and with the train station just blocks away, even those that still must commute will find a relaxing and less expensive way to do it.” Do you think urban style lofts will ever come to downtown Newhall? Anyway, it’s a good column, I encourage you to read it.