Part of a complete and nutrious breakfast, your Daily Brief is ready.
News
- Hart Counselor arrested for checking into hotel with boy: Roselyn Hubbell, 33, the Golden Valley High counselor who resigned her spot amid “inappropriate contact” allegations last month, was arrested last week after she allegedly tried to check into an SFV hotel with an underage boy. The fuzz says they had “information” about the woman and the planned tryst, so they simply showed up at the hotel and waited. She’ll face felony charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and child endangerment. Sharon Cotal has the details here.
- Bear spotted in Saugus. Everybody panic! A black bear wandered into some Saugus neighborhoods on Friday morning, then returned later that night, the Signal reported this weekend. When it returned that night, it visited the backyard of one lucky homeowner. There, Sheriff’s Deputies and Fish & Game workers were able to chase the bear out of the yard then coax it back up into the mountains. Stephen Peeples has a beary interesting report (I couldn’t resist, sorry).
- What Lennar says about the Landsource/Newhall Land BK: Lennar’s 16% stake in the LandSource venture may disappear and much of LandSource’s assets may be sold off as the Chapter 11 process gets underway, according to a Form 8K report filed by Lennar. In its report to the SEC, filed June 12, the Florida-based homebuilder says the BK filing “could result in a substantial reduction (or total elimination) of our interest in LandSource, [and] loss by LandSource of some or all of the properties it owns.” That, of course, would include the 15,000 acre Newhall Ranch property, located west of Magic Mountain, where Newhall Land hopes to build some 21,000 homes. Last week, Newhall Land put on a brave face and said the project was still a go; groundbreaking on phase 1, LandMark Village, is scheduled for next year. The BK process continues this week in Delaware.
- Signal tackles high food prices: Excellent article by Tammy Marashlian in Sunday’s Signal. The reporter and other Signal staffers visited several grocery stores in the SCV to compare food prices in 2008 with 2007 prices in what’s becoming an annual “What’s the price for a gallon of milk?” story. What she found was pretty surprising; 1lb of ground beef at an Albertsons store had risen from $1.99 to $3.79 per pound, while a gallon of milk cost $.60 more this year than last. Price increases weren’t universal though; some stores had cheaper prices for certain items. Marashlian then talked with County econ guru Jack Kyser about the reasons for the price increases, most of which you’re doubtlessly familiar with by now: higher fuel prices, ethanol production, natural disasters and increased demand & consumption overseas have combined to drive food prices up. Link
- Real Estate blogger has charts, and we love charts! The Southland Regional Real Estate association report on the SCV real estate market in May isn’t available yet, but you can review the April numbers in context thanks to Linda Slocum’s excellent blog post, which features some nice median pricing charts. The charts show prices in almost all areas of the SCV nosediving like Viper at Magic Mountain in the last 12 months, but despite that (or perhaps because of that), Slocum says home sales are increasing and inventory is decreasing. “This is still a buyer’s market, although sellers are seeing much more activity than before, including the return of multiple offers,” Slocum concludes. Oh, also, the LA Times Real Estate blog used the SCV as an example to show how short sales have increased in the last few years. Between May 06 and May 07, only 31 homes were short sales, but between May 07 and May 08, that number increased to 1,956.
- Make believe is a big industry in Santa Clarita: On Friday, Mayor Bob Kellar, Assemblyman Cam Smyth, and County econ chief Jack Kyser were at a restaurant in Magic Mountain to discuss the film industry’s impact and relationship with Santa Clarita. You’ve already heard most of these numbers; the city brags about the income Hollywood brings to Santa Clarita, but did you know that some 7,000 local residents are employed in the film industry? Santa Clarita is well known for its friendliness to the film industry, but it still faces competition from out-of-state communities that offer tax breaks and other incentives. Also, as a bonus, Jim Holt mentions Chatsworth’s “billion dollar” adult film industry. Link
- Helping out the Tindells: Jim Tindell is that Saugus gent who suffered severe burns over much of his body while trying to rescue some of his horses during last year’s Buckweed Fire. His mobile home was destroyed in the fire and Tindell spent five months recovering from his injuries. In that time, his family shuffled from temporary house to temporary house until this weekend, when some 70 Habitat for Humanity volunteers spurced up a 60 year old home in Newhall for the Tindells. The best news is that they’ll still be able to run their Heads Up horse therapy program. Signal report, Daily News
- Santa Clarita #9 out of 65 cities for crime. Everybody panic! So now we’ve gone from calling ourselves one of the safest cities in the country to the 9th safest city in the state; at least that’s what Parimal Rohit found when he delved deeper into the recent FBI crime report. Rohit says Santa Clarita is among the state’s best in six different categories and among the worst in one particularly disturbing category: Arson. There were 26 reported incidents of arson last year. Those who think Santa Clarita is becoming a criminal mecca would do well to check Stockton’s statistics (shudder). Link
- One Valley One Vision study session tomorrow night: At tomorrow night’s Planning Commission meeting, staff will present draft conservation and open space parts of the One Valley One Vision general plan. This follows a recent meeting where staff detailed some disaster scenarios from the same plan. Tomorrow’s report will cover “historical resources, water resources, climate change, parks and open space,” all of which are hot-button topics in some SCV circles. Anyway, more information is here.
Misc:
- Signal asks what’s up on Centre Pointe Parkway? Five cases of “sexually inappropriate contact” between students and teachers/staff, a coach arrested for sexual assault who worked at Canyon High without going through the district’s pre-hire process, and a female counselor arrested as she was allegedly trying to bed down a high school student. “This is appalling,” The Signal said in a strong Sunday editorial. The paper mentions that none of the people alleged to have had inappropriate contact have been named, leaving parents “to speculate, to compare notes -and understandably- to spread rumors.” And of the District’s training in this matter? It’s sexual harassment only, which sounds like it’s aimed at adults, not adults who work with minors. And it only applies to “administrators and management,” the Signal says. Finally the paper asks why the board hasn’t spoken out about this…Anyway, it’s a good editorial.
- Nothing like two good old fashioned wedge issues to anchor Sunday’s opinion section: Count on archaeo-conservative Roger Gitlin to bring up all the standard arguments against gay marriage (more to the point, gay relationships) in a Sunday op/ed. The columnist who’s sponsoring a Praise America rally next week said in the column that the soon-to-be fact legality of gay marriage in California amounts to an assault on traditional marriage. “To assault the traditional institution of marriage is to erode our society as we know it,” Gitlin said, without going into detail on how a married gay couple would harm his, or any other person’s marriage. I give him points for getting several religious people’s views on the issue though; Gitlin spoke with a Jewish rabbi, an LDS stake president, and a fundamentalist Pastor about the matter. And in another Sunday op/ed, another (new?) conservative columnist named Al Sonja Schmidt says children are having nightmares because of all the liberals who talk about global climate change.
- The highs and lows of being a human, or Monday Musings: On the one hand, I liked this video which resonated with me for some reason, and on the other hand I got depressed this morning when I read this terrible story.