Daily Brief, locked and loaded, after the jump.
News
- Sheriff Baca to propose County jail changes, Pitchess possibly expanded: An additional 2,000+ beds and two new facilities may be added onto the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic if county authorities approve a reorganization plan Sheriff Lee Baca will present next week. The add-on to Pitchess is part of a $672 million plan to expand jail capacity county-wide and might lead to the closure of the notorious Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles. The Daily News says this new plan supersedes an older one, which would have expanded Pitchess in order to accommodate female inmates from a facility in East LA. The new facility will house those female inmates plus others, it appears. County supes will discuss the plan next Tuesday. Daily News reports, Times reports.
- County lawyers look into Palmer application: Supervisor Antonovich, who’s county territory includes the SCV, has asked an LA County attorney to determine whether Las Lomas Developer Dan Palmer “broke the law when he declared Las Lomas [Land Company] the sole owner of 555 acres,” according to The Signal. At issue is the application Palmer submitted to the county; that application indicated that the firm owned all the land it planned to build on, but a Signal story last month revealed that several parcels were owned by a Van Nuys man. Supervisor Antonovich has, if I recall correctly, gone on the record as opposing the Las Lomas project. Jim Holt reports.
- Tony Strickland launches campaign for 19th State Senate Seat: The former chief of staff to Senator Tom McClintock officially announced he was running for State Senator at a meeting of supporters in Santa Clarita yesterday. The 19th Senate Seat, which stretches from the western Santa Clarita Valley all the way to Santa Barbara, is reportedly in play this year, and Strickland will face off against a Santa Barabara Democrat named Hannah Beth Jackson. Strickland told supporters that if the GOP loses CA-19, then Democrats will have a veto-proof two-thirds majority in Sacramento. If he wins, he’d join his wife Audra who serves as an Assemblywoman in Sacramento; that’d make the second husband/wife team serving Santa Clarita and nearby areas in the State (George and Sharon Runner are the other married couple). The Signal and KHTS reported on this, but only KHTS’ report is online.
- Homicide Detectives searching for gang member involved in Val Verde murder: Last week, an altercation broke out at a birthday party in Val Verde. The fight led to two victims being shot, and one died. Detectives are now searching for a gang member who showed up at the party and shot the two victims, both of whom were not involved in gangs. Jerry Berrios at the DN has the story.
- SCV Christian High school dropped, for now: “A myriad of factors” delays the construction of a second Christian High School in Santa Clarita, though Village Christian School and Legacy Christian Academy will still move forward with the creation of a 7th and 8th grade classes on their existing campus. Sharon Cotal reports.
- They couldn’t resist the clever headline: The SCV Sheriff’s blog notes that Deputies recently caught a thief who stole a soft frozen lemonade cart from an Industrial Center property. The thief was spotted by another business owner, and to quote the blog, “Deputies quickly responded, as did the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Aero Bureau helicopter.” Wow! A helicopter chase of a lemonade cart? Anyway, it was altogether too tempting to not brand the story with a clever headline. The SCV Sheriff’s blog headline is “A Bitter End for Lemonade Machine Thief” while KHTS chose the more taste-bud correct “A Sour Finish for Would-Be Lemonade Machine Thief.” Link
- City/Pardee Homes dedicate 900+ acres of open space: The property borders Placerita Canyon on the South, Sand Canyon on the East, and Fair Oaks Community to the north, according to Katie Geyer. The dedication is the largest in city history. Notable quote: ““You can see how we’re starting to develop that belt of undeveloped land around the city,” Parks chief Rick Gould told The Signal. Now all we need to wait for is crime to plummet right?
Blogs & Notes
- March Chamber Newsletter online: In this month’s issue
formerCEO Larry Mankin says a chamber membership is more important than ever in a time of economic downturn. Also, a report on Margie Anne Clark, a former Signal staffer, editor of elite Magazine and Magazine of Santa Clarita who recently joined Congressman Buck McKeon’s staff as a caseworker who will help constituents “navigate the maze of the federal bureaucracy,” plus an article and priceless picture (see below) on revenue the City received in 2007 from the local auto dealers. Link (PDF) - Realtor says modestly priced homes selling like “crazy”: “Well priced homes in the $300’s (that aren’t major major fixers) are selling like crazy, in Canyon Country homes are even going out in the upper $200’s right now. Essentially, if your the lowest priced listing in a somewhat desirable, or very in-demand Santa Clarita tract (of which there are many), you’re probably going to sell. Furthermore, many of these foreclosure listings are starting out priced about 2-5% below comps sometimes….those types of deals are selling in just a few days generally, sometimes hours!” he says.
- AT&T Classic may not return to Santa Clarita next year: The contract to hold the AT&T Classic golf tournament at Valencia Country Club is up, and Signal sports editor Cary Osborne says a deal for next year is uncertain. The event injected some $7 million into the local economy last year. Osborne has the story.
- Recent water story has Lynne Plambeck pondering local implications: You probably saw the headlines: aspirin, sex drugs, hormones and other trace amounts of pharmaceuticals have been detected in water sources around the country. Lynne Plambeck, local environmentalist and water expert, was surprised to learn that the SCV’s water agencies are also participating in the program that lead to the discovery of those water contaminants. She writes an interesting column in today’s Signal.
- SCVTalk interview of Bob Spierer: I’ll be interviewing City Council Candidate Bob Spierer soon. Suggestions for questions are welcome, as always. The interview will be posted as a podcast, just like the Laurie Ender and Diane Trautman interviews.
- Tim Myers on FormGate and McFarland’s motivation: Local Democrat Bruce McFarland started harping on Mayor Kellar’s disclosure forms just as mail-in ballots were being released, which makes Myers wonder if McFarland had planned this all along to affect the election. The blogger/businessman also digs in to the controversial COC/Canyon Country land deal that seems to be at the center of this controversy (at least for one set of forms that would have disclosed Mayor Kellar’s income on that deal in 2005). In the end though, Kellar is still an incumbent, and most SCV residents don’t know or care about the matter, so it probably won’t affect the election, Myers says. Good read
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