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A picture during the fires of October 2007
- Brothers re-arrested in 2006 Murder case: Brothers Christopher and Ralph Rosas were arrested way back in March 2006 following the stabbing murder of Louis Campanelli, a Canyon Country bar owner, but were released shortly thereafter for lack of evidence. But on Friday, Detectives re-arrested the pair and arraigned on charges of first degree murder on Monday. Jim Holt has a detailed report.
- Home sales in So Cal jump 13.8% in July: The LA Times says “fire sales” boosted home purchases in Southern California last month, though experts say home sale prices will still take “months to hit bottom.” What’s more, the median home price in SoCal fell some 31% year over year in July from $505,000 to $348,000. Not sure on the stats for Santa Clarita yet, that report typically isn’t released until late in the month, but I have a friend who just bought a house in Canyon Country (on an 8,000 sq. ft. lot no less) for $178,000. Link Meanwhile, the Economist has a report that says the maturing of Option ARMs is the next “ticking time bomb” in American real estate.
- More on opposition to Hart Ballot Measure SA: First it was the Signal’s Sunday editorial on Hart’s proposed $300 million ballot iniatitive that would go towards modernizing schools and perhaps building a high school in Castaic; now KHTS has an article on the 2001 Measure V parent’s group that’s formed to oppose the current measure. KHTS reporter Jon Dell mentioned the group’s objections to Measure SA and got Superintendent Castellanos to speak on the record about the criticism. Castellanos seems to brush off the group’s concerns in the report,even going so far as to say that Measure V funds “were never used for district salaries.” That’s not the whole story, however; in October 2007, auditors found that the Hart District “lacks documented proof that Measure V funds were not inappropriately used” on vehicles and district salaries. KHTS story Also, Dave Bossert has what looks like a new press release from the parent’s group.
- Part 2 of Mentryville story: The debate about whether pepper trees are “historical” and ought to be preserved even if they are dying continues today in Part 2 of Jim Holt’s series on Mentryville.
- LA MTA details commuting patterns: The Times Bottleneck blog says the LA MTA is trying to defend its half cent transit sales tax by showing that commuting, traffic infrastructure and driving patterns are regional issues, rather than only Los Angeles issues and that the sales tax hike will help everyone in the LA area. That’s probably to counter Supervisor Antonovich’s claims. In any event, the MTA released a series of interesting slides that show traffic, commute, and job density patterns. One slide shows what MTA thinks will be commuting patterns in 2030- it says 49% of North County residents will still leave their “subregion” to commute to work. Link
- Hero of the week: Two thieves attempted the distract/purse snatch crime in a local grocery store on an 81 year old woman, but the woman was so sharp she warded them off and alerted store management. She then read the Signal story last week about the purse snatch crimes and “put two and two together.” Here’s the woman describing how the wanna-be thieves tried to separate her from her purse: “I wasn’t paying (strict) attention because on my right was suddenly another man and he wanted to put ice cream in my cart,” she said. “All the time, I had my hand on my purse. When he put the ice cream in my cart, I said ‘No’ and I said ‘Go away.’” Link
- SCV Republicans to welcome Senate Candidate Strickland at where else….IHOP! Tony Strickland, the Rooty-tooty, fresh ‘n fruity Republican who’s fixin’ to replace Tom McClintock in the California Senate, will be at the International House of Pancakes next week to talk to local Republicans. Speaking of that race, Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson is asking the Strickland campaign to put a stop to a 3rd party television spot, while Strickland’s campaign is running two television spots; one that touts the “unity” of the Olympic stage and the other which says $5 gallon gasoline was unthinkable five years ago and touts alternative energy solutions.
- LA Times Travel Blogger says new Magic Mountain CSI show “horrible”: Brady MacDonald recently visited Magic Mountain with a friend and after riding as many coasters as they could, they checked out the new CSI live-action show in the par. “To say it was bad would be putting it mildly. Other words come to mind: boring, pathetic, horrible. They should rename it “ACI (Air Conditioning Inside) because the theater’s cool respite was the show’s only redeeming value.” Link
- Olympic Story #1: The Daily News’ Tim Haddock, a sports writer, has an in-depth profile of Valencia high grad and BMX Olympian Mike Day. Day, it turns out, loves golf before BMXin, but he’s simiply not very good at golf. He made Team USA by skipping money-making events and learning “every hill, jump, and speck of dust” on a replice of the Beijing track in Chula Vista. Day races this week I think. Link
- Olympic Story #2: I Heart profiles several SCV Olympians in his latest blog post. Here’s his opening, which simultaneously made me smile and squirm: “Of course, there’s a very special place in my heart for all the Olympic athletes from Santa Clarita. Their intense training, hard work, and natural-born talent certainly helped them get to Beijing, but don’t underestimate how much us Claritans helped. We formed the womb from which these athletes so gloriously sprang, so it is our victory as much as theirs. Right?” Link
- Good commentary on North Newhall Specific Plan and Placerita Canyon’s “Rural Equestrian Lifestyle”: I’m now adding “rural equestrian lifestyle” to the lexicon of unique SCV phrases (the other being, of course, suburban bedroom community) after reading P-Canyon resident Valerie Thomas’ good explanation of some of the issues homeowners in the Canyon have with the City’s North Newhall Specific Plan. Thomsa gets specific on the zoning for the Casden property and how P-Canyon residents were promised back in the day that homes in the Placerita Canyon special district would be “zoned for no more than two homes per acre.” Now though, a developer plans some 650 homes, 600,000 sq. ft. of commercial space, and a rebuilt Southern Hotel/Spa for the location. But that will only fly if the city can build an alternative railroad crossing. I wonder if Ben Curtis, the guy who filed an FPPC complaint against Laurene Weste, is a P-Canyon resident. WRB