The execution of the American coot must be prosecuted with extreme prejudice, for my lawn and herb garden are threatened.
News
- Bridgeport Homeowners want to kill birds: No one from the Bridgeport Homeowner’s Association wImage not recoveredduckhunt.jpgould actually speak on record with the Signal, but reporter Katie Geyer found out that the association had obtained a “depredation permit” from the US Fish & Wildlife Service that would allow the group to trap and kill the American coot, a “duck like bird native to the area” that hangs out in Bridgeport’s man-made lake. Some residents of Bridgeport complain that the small black bird poops all over the place and eats grass in their yards. One said they are like rats. Environmentalists are outraged, noting that homeowners chose to live next to a lake that would attract such birds. They plan to stage a protest today in front of Bridgeport. One option for killing the birds would be to feed them “cracked corn,” a tranquilizer that would knock the birds out and allow them to be killed elsewhere. Link
- Door-to-door solicitors arrested: For some reason Santa Clarita seems to attract aggressive door-to-door solicitors. They usually sell magazines and sometimes claim to work on behalf of local organizations. Sheriff’s Deputies yesterday arrested one such pair of solicitors who didn’t have a proper license to go door to door. The two men are from Illinois and the fuzz says they were “aggressively” going door-to-door after 8pm. More details at SCVSheriff.com
- More on Newhall Ranch from VC Star: Ventura’s biggest newspaper notes the approval for Landmark Village and briefly summarizes the decade-long battle between Los Angeles and Ventura Counties over development of the largest housing project in California, Newhall Ranch.Image not recoveredcoot1.jpg
- Real Estate Reports: SCV Realtor Darla Vanderlip has some real estate statistics posted on her website. As of yesterday, there are currently 1998 homes for sale in Santa Clarita, and from a cursory comparison of various communities, it looks like homes in Canyon Country are the most difficult to sell with only 26 closed deals out of 583 listings. Meanwhile, another realtor has posted some neat pictures of snow on our local mountains after last week’s storms.
- Tilting Crown Princess the fault of senior crew members: Remember that scary report in the summer of 2006 about a Princess Cruise ship that suddenly tilted to one side, forcing frightened passengers and crew to grasp at fixtures so they wouldn’t fall? The incident off Florida on the Santa Clarita-based company’s newest cruise ship emptied the Crown Princess’ swimming pool and injured some 300 people. The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that the fault lies squarely on the ship’s senior crew, including the second officer who apparently disengaged the ship’s autopilot and steered the 113,000 ton vessel the wrong way. Enhanced training is recommended by the board. AP has a report.
Opinion
- Plambeck on Newhall Ranch and Regional Planning Commission: Lynne Plambeck, who made her name fighting the 21,000 home Newhall Ranch project, has a long op/ed in today’s Signal about the Regional Planning Commission’s approval of Landmark Village, the first phase of Newhall Ranch. She says that while the commission allowed her and a “dedicated band of patriots” to speak about issues not addressed in EIR, they essentially ignored it all and approved the project anyway. She says the EIR didn’t detail the fact that owls, hawks, falcons and even a golden eagle nest in the Landmark Village project area. She asks the fundamental question: What happened to democracy in LA County? “We cannot vote our supervisor out of office, even if we are discouraged with planning decisions or other services or even public process in our community because [Supervisor Antonovich’s] district is too large for our little vote to make a difference,” she says. Not online.