Good morning to you from Ontario CA, where the roar of the nearby 10 Freeway reminds me of the perpetual roar of Interstate 5 back in Santa Clarita.
News
- Murder in Val Verde: Two men were shot and one died during an altercation with another man at a birthday party in Val Verde on Sunday morning. It’s the third shooting death in Val Verde in just six months. Rohit reports.
- Castaic Lake may be closed to boaters: Friday’s Los Angeles Times reported that officials in Ventura County decided to close Lake Casitas to recreational and fishing boaters over concerns that a destructive non-native mussel might invade the lake and threaten the water supply for some 60,000 people. That decision has Castaic Lake officials also pondering a temporary ban on fishing and recreational boaters in the SCV’s largest lake, according to the Ventura County Star. There are several fishing and boating related businesses in Castaic that could be affected by a decision, just as there are in Lake Casitas.
- Premako gets all the best assignments: First the B-17 ride, now this:Signal City Editor Josh Premako interviews an Iraq war Veteran and SCV resident who survived an IED blast in 2005. “Traffic was light on the dusty street running out of town, and it’s likely few people noticed as a yellow dump truck lumbered around the corner and down the road toward a hotel where U.S. soldiers were stationed,” he writes.
- Popular Mechanics on I5 Truck crash: The monthly magazine of physics, science, and popular, well, mechanics, reviews what happened in October during a fiery pileup in a tunnel on the Southbound I5 in the Newhall Pas.
- City Trumpets new businesses in Old Town Newhall: Since Newhall Hardware announced it was going to close in February, it’s been one PR problem after another for the City and its redevelopment plans in Newhall. First, the brand-new Martial Arts museum closed, then the owner of the Tresierras Market threatened to sue the city over advertising sign restrictions on Railroad. On Friday, though, the City was so delighted about some Newhall news that it sent out a press release about four businesses opening up in Old Town: A dry cleaners, a salon, and a party supply store. Loose Goose Wines also opened up a shop on Market Street, though I think that happened several months ago. “It’s still an appealing area,” Mayor Kellar says of Old Town Newhall.
Council Race heats up
- Candidate Editorials: All five city council candidates penned “Vote for Me” columns in Sunday’s Signal. The two men in the race, Bob Spierer and Mayor Bob Kellar opened up their pieces by appealing to the lizard part of your brain: “vote for me and I’ll reduce crime and preserve your neighborhood.” Diane Trautman opened up with a parable about a poorly planned skyscraper (it makes sense when you read it) and gave her environmental street cred while Maria Gutzeit said she’d be an independent vote on the council and had earned the trust of the business and environmental communities. And Laurie Ender started her column by first hammering Cemex then proclaiming her support for the hospital expansion, which probably killed her chances for any votes from the Valencia Summit neighborhoods. Anyway it’s all here on The Signal’s website.
- First you get the seniors, then you get the money, then you get the power: Can’t win a local election without appealing to the senior vote: SCVTV sponsored a candidate’s debate forum last week. Here’s the video
- Bob Spierer- Retired Sheriff? So what’s the deal with Bob Spierer’s job description on the City Council ballot? Everyone else’s jobs are current and up-to-date (Parks & Planning Commissioners, Incumbent, Business Woman/Elected Official), but Bob Spierer is listed a a Retired Sheriff’s Chief. It’s accurate in that he was a Santa Clarita Chief of Police in the 80s and early 90s, but last year Spierer was hired on to review child abuse cases for the county’s juvenile programs and probation department. The Daily News reported last year that Spierer would be “paid $150,000 a year for up to three years to review Los Angeles Probation Department reports” and describes that task as a full time job, but no mention is made of it on the ballot. If he’s a retired Sheriff, then I’m a retired Magic Mountain lemonade salesman by the same logic. And while we’re at it, why isn’t Mayor Bob Kellar listed as a real estate professional too? Can a candidate put whatever job description they like on the ballot?
Miscellaneous
- LA County Homicides: Jill Leovy, Times crime writer and homicide blogger, counted up how many arrests are made for murder in Los Angeles County by either the LAPD or LASD in 2007. “An arrest was made in about 41% of all murders committed in Los Angeles County in 2007″ she writes. There’s no difference in the arrest rates for the LAPD or LASD. Bringing it back to the SCV, there are several murders locally where no arrest has been made. In May of 2006, a 71 year old pizza worker was hacked to death with a machete in Stevenson Ranch. That case has gone cold. Also that year, there was a murder at a bar in Canyon Country; charges were filed but later dropped. And last fall, an 18 year old soccer player and Hart grad was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Newhall; no arrests in that case. On the positive side, an arrest was made in the shocking murder of Josh Pipho, 20, who was killed during a party in Stevenson Ranch.
- McFarland Apologizes to City Clerk Dawson: “I apologize to Sharon Dawson for stating she didn’t do her job correctly; I have found nothing that implicates Sharon Dawson in any wrongdoing,” he writes in a Sunday LTE.
- And two more on McFarland/Kellar: The Signal should have run a front-page apology to Bob Kellar following its publication of McFarland’s allegations two weeks ago, writes one woman. “Allowing a citizen to impugn someone’s integrity without confirmation is yellow journalism,” Jill Brody writes. And on the other side, reader Sheri Ruxton says it is proper to question elected officials and their finances. “Why hasn’t Mayor Kellar declared all his income?”
That’s it for the day. I’m off to a fascinating conference on SQL.
Cheerio!