A man said to the universe: “Sir, I exist!” “However,” replied the universe. “The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation.” - American Poet and journalist Stephen Crane
News
- Las Lomas “Lives to fight on” but full LA City Council will weigh matter today: At a meeting of the Los Angeles City planning committee, members agreed last night that “Los Angeles must continue processing Las Lomas’ application to annex the development into the city,” according to the Daily News. That decision was made apparently because the city fears a lawsuit by the developer. But the whole project will come up for a vote before the Los Angeles City Council today, and Kerry Cavanaugh at the DN says that “generally the City Council supports the council member in whose district a project is located.” Las Lomas, the 5500 home project in the Newhall Pass, borders Greig Smith and Richard Alarcon’s district. Daily News
- Las Lomas VP hasn’t registered as LA Lobbyist: The LA Times says Hillary Norton Orozco, “the public face of the Las Lomas housing project” hasn’t registered as a lobbyist with LA City Hall which has helped her and the Las Lomas Land Company to conceal “how much it has spent promoting the controversial project.” Orozco says she’ll register now. The Times spoke with Steve Afriat, a paid lobbyist who’s working on behalf of Santa Clarita to fight the project. Link
- Laurie Ender flyer under fire: Two separate complaints today from two individuals regarding City Council Candidate Laurie Ender’s recent mailer to homes in the SCV. Recall that the mailer contained a list of names that’s a virtual who’s who of SCV politics: it was apparently funded by Frank Ferry’s committee, it was titled the Buck McKeon voter guide, and it said voters ought to elect Laurie Ender and Bob Kellar as a team. Democratic Activist & State Senate Candidate Bruce McFarland says that mailer was a violation of state law, particularly California Government Code Section 85501, a law that forbids a “controlled committee of a candidate” (Frank Ferry) from making “independent expenditures and may not contribute funds to another committee to support or oppose other candidates.” McFarland has filed complaints with the Public Integrity Division of the County DA’s office, the CA attorney general, and the Fair Political Practices commission. Dave Gauny, in a separate email to the media, echoed McFarland’s complaints, saying Ferry has committed a “significant violation” of state law and urging local media to investigate. No response from any of the parties yet. You can view the mailer and McFarland’s complaint at his brand new website, RecallFrankFerry.com
- Two crime shorts: Recall that disturbing story from 2006 in which a 21 year old female Canyon Country babysitter was arrested for abusing an 11 month old girl; that baby sitter was found guilty yesterday on two counts of sexual abuse by a jury in San Fernando Court. Amy Sigala was convicted of “physical penetration of a child” and “inflicting injury on a child.” And in another story, a 31 year old Lancaster man was arrested yesterday after leading deputies on a brief chase from the Target/Mervyn’s shopping center and into the Bridgeport apartments on McBean. Aaron Kellingsworth, 31, crashed his van into a car, fled the vehicle, and hid in a vacant apartment. Deputies found him and arrested him. Both stories are in today’s Signal covered by Parimal Rohit.
- New Runner crime initiative: The State Senator who’s running for reelection this fall asked voters to a sign a petition in front of a Santa Clarita shopping center yesterday. The initiative would penalize methamphetamine users at the same level as cocaine users, increase the penalty for felons who carry guns, and prevent illegal aliens from posting bail if they are charged with felonies. The iniatitive is titled the “Safe Neighborhoods Act” and Runner says he had no luck passing such bills in the State House, so he’s taking it to the voters in this election year instead. KHTS has the details.
- Sierra Club endorses Diane Trautman: The Planning Commissioner gets the “yes” recommendation from both the League of Conservation Voters and the Los Angeles Sierra Club. “Our endorsement team was very impressed with Diane Trautman’s grasp of the environmental issues facing Santa Clarita,” noted an Conservation Voter official.
I really have nowhere else to put these:
- Lauren Broadcasting on SCVTV…MIA? The company that produces high quality television content for Channel 20 and online at the SCVTV.com website hasn’t posted a news video since March 6, as best as I can tell. That’s almost two weeks ago. Their last SCV News broadcast opened with the shooting investigation at a 7-11 Store in Canyon Country on March 5. Lauren Broadcasting is captained by former Signal Publisher Richard Budman and the firm was sued in September of last year by the owners of The Signal. Last video news show
- New Signal Sports journalists with a pleasing names: Greg Eichelberger and Trevor Sojka are two new names on the Signal’s sports pages. It looks like Eichelberger comes from North County San Diego. Eichelberger has a roundup of Foothill Swim action in today’s Signal.
- Las Lomas Ad & Editorial Response: The Las Lomas land company bought a full-page ad in yesterday’s Daily News. The ad talked about last night’s planning committee meeting and argued that the project was responsible and necessary for greater Los Angeles. Today, in the same paper, comes a response from several elected officials, including our own Mayor Bob Kellar, LA City Councilman Greig Smith, Congressman Brad Sherman, and Sheila Kuehl. It starts out thusly: “As legislators representing communities in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, and the city of Los Angeles, we are united in our bipartisan opposition to the 555-acre massive Las Lomas “mini-city” proposed on the hillsides adjacent to the Interstate 5/State Route 14 interchange. This project would have devastating effects on Los Angeles, Santa Clarita and surrounding areas. This is absolutely the wrong project in the wrong place. ” Link
- Like Smyth, Buck McKeon wants headlines too: The eight term Congressman/City Father/Republican Godfather had two press releases on hot button topics yesterday: homeschooling & Parental rights and gun control. McKeon, responsible in part for writing laws regarding education in his role as the Senior Republican on the Education & Labor Committee, says the recent California court ruling on homeschooling is “an outrage.” And as the US Supreme Court tackles a real, honest-to-goodness 2nd Amendment issue this week in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, McKeon says that the case could be “the most important Second Amendment case of our time.” As if there was any doubt, the former western-wear store owner also affirmed his belief in the “cardinal principles set forth in the Second Amendment.” Link
- Get Educated on nature in the SCV with your host I Heart: The blogger who chronicles City Council meeting with an entertaining twist works as a biologist by day, and he’s started a new column called “OMG It’s Nature!” that focuses on “the natural goings-on in Santa Clarita.” His first topic? Fence Lizards, which sounds like a political term but is not. Check it out.
- Which Council Candidates are going to today’s LA City Council meeting on Las Lomas? Represent us there if you want our vote. I hear Diane Trautman’s heading to LA City Hall for the meeting, and I’m sure Mayor Kellar will as well. Our Council Candidates ought to suffer through rush hour traffic to get there (or earn bonus points for taking Metrolink), all for us. If I were a campaign manager, I’d be all over this with press releases and photos of my candidate at the big LA City Hall arguing for Santa Clarita.
- Dave Bossert defends Frank Ferry? I thought the two titanic egos were completely incompatible, but Bossert’s taken notice of Dave Gauny’s allegations about the Laurie Ender mailer. He opines on the subject here.
- FormGate Act Three? Come on already, what’s the next act in FormGate? The Signal reported on Saturday that Mayor Kellar hadn’t completed his amended forms with information required by the state. Katie Geyer apparently tried to reach Mayor Kellar for two days, but he offered no response.
- Thank You! Recently an all-time SCVTalk.com record was set. Over 1,000 unique visitors came to SCVTalk in one day, which shatters the previous record. I do this blog in my spare time and have a full time working-man job, but it’s become my passion and so I just want to thank you, my readers, for visiting this site, discussing things on it, and making it a success.