I got some emails from concerned liberals yesterday wondering if my assessment of Sarah Palin’s speech marked a change in who I was supporting for POTUS. Ha! Far from it! I include this picture of the basket on the back of my bike as proof. Sticker art courtesy of ObamaSpoke.com, the only place on the web that serves the Barack-boosting bicycling constituency.
- Death and new life on Highway 126 near Santa Paula: A flatbed truck pulling a trailer hit a curb along Highway 126, skipped back along the highway, hit a car, then plowed into a five man work crew that was cleaning up the center median on Thursday. One of those men, a 22 year old from Thousand Oaks, was killed, and two others were injured. The men were working community service jobs rather than serving jail time, the Ventura County Star reports. Highway 126 westbound to Fillmore/Santa Clarita was closed for over two hours leading to a big traffic backup. In that traffic jam, KTLA reports, a pregnant woman went into a labor and gave birth on the side of the highway. Both the mother and baby were then rushed to a hospital and are doing well. Some of these traffic accidents I read about are real tear jerkers (especially the death of that brother and sister in July on I 5). Be careful out there! UPDATE: I guess this wasn’t the only death on the 126 this week- The Signal’s Brian Charles reports that a homeless man was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver on Highway 126 late Monday. Officers have no leads.
- Local real estate firm with political connections raided by cops: Some 28 commercial crime detectives raided the SCV offices of Gold Feather Realty, Gold Credit Investments, and the home of both firms’ owner, Celia Gallardo, after customers of the companies alleged fraud in a Ponzi scheme, according to KHTS. Reporter Carol Rock says that the company and Gallardo are “suspected of security fraud violations and mortgage fraud in dealings with several local residents, many of them community leaders.” She says customers of the firm “went to the sheriff during the last year when profits predicted and real estate deals turned out not to be what she promised.” Rock says some of the investors put their personal homes up as collateral and stand to lose “thousands of dollars.” Detectives are preparing to present their case to the DA and say that it “looks like there might be a Ponzi scheme the way the investments were handled.” What strikes me about this story is simply the scale of the investigation: Do we even have 28 detectives in Santa Clarita, let alone 28 “commercial crime” detectives? A quick search on the Detective mentioned in Rock’s story, David Lingscheit, reveals he’s worked a number of high-profile fraud investigations in Los Angeles County.
- More on Gallardo and Gold Feather: So if you’re not an insider, you might be wondering who Gallardo is exactly? Just five weeks ago, Signal features editor Michele Buttelman said Gallardo is “known for…encouraging businesses and residents to show civic pride in keeping Newhall clean and for her philanthropic efforts in the SCV.” Buttelman wrote that after attending a recent seminar Gallardo held at the Valencia County Club on “some interesting investment opportunities.” Gallardo and her firm are/were somewhat of a star in local real estate and charity gala circles; the firm co-sponsored the Kool & The Gang concert at the PAC with the City back in January, and Gallardo herself has won awards, including the “Young Californian” award. She’s also featured on Women Entrepreneurs of the SCV website. On Gold Feather’s site, Gallardo says she got started in real estate back in 1997 with a purchase in Newhall, and “grew that into over 6 million dollars worth of real estate.” She notes that she’s “succeeded and failed many times” along the way. Over on her Gold Credit Investments website (which is no longer online, but is accessible through Google cache), she describes a nation-wide real estate investment strategy in which she “established a pool of investors” in order to buy distressed properties all around the country for “pennies on the dollar.” Her idea, she said, could help people with good credit “invest in real estate with no money out of your pocket!” No telling where this darling-business-gone-wrong story is going, but it’s got all the right ingredients (real estate, political connections, and allegations of defrauded “community leaders”) for Vital Express-scale intrigue.
- City Council Agenda hot and fresh, just like momma used to make: Did I miss something? Was the Mayo Hospital/Campus expansion item pulled from the September 9 City Council agenda? Because I’m not seeing it on the official agenda, which was put out by the city today. Anywho, what have those folks on Valencia Blvd got in store for us? There’s some 2 hour parking restrictions for Main Street, a $670,331 loan request from a private non-profit who wants to rehabilitate a Canyon Country apartment complex into an affordable housing development (yeah, my antenna went up on this one too, I’ll look into it!), a contract for hanging all those periodic banners on streetlights around town, and a second reading of the somewhat controversial historic preservation ordinance. Even I Heart is going to have a tough time making this snoozer interesting. Agenda
- Maybe all the City Council members were too busy endorsing other Republicans to worry about Mayo: All five members of the City Council -Kellar, McLean, Ferry, Weste and Ender- endorsed Republican Tony Strickland for California’s 19th Senate seat, the Star reports today. The press release says Santa Clarita is only the second city in California’s 19th District to endorse Strickland (our rival Thousand Oaks beat us to that). Strickland says he’s happy the Council endorsed him: “I am dedicated to serving the residents of Santa Clarita and continuing my fight to eliminate the rampant waste, fraud and abuse in our state.” What’s interesting about this press release is that it has a lengthy quote from our own Scott Wilk, who tells CA-19 voters that Santa Clarita’s endorsement of Strickland proves his broad appeal “outside his political base.” . Mayor Bob thinks Strickland is so good that he says Tony should have your vote “regardless if you’re a Republican, Democrat or Independent.” Take a look at the Endorsements page of rival Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson to see how different our district is on the east, west, north and inland areas (in comparison, Strickland’s endorsement page is way out of date).
- Whoa! Back away from the camera Buck! Our Congressman was interviewed briefly by Education Week’s Alyson Klein at this week’s Republican National Convention (yeah I guess he was in St. Paul) about why McKeon -lead Republican member of the House Education & Labor Committee- thinks John McCain would be a better education president than Barack Obama. His answer is…bizarre at first. McKeon insinuates that a President Barack Obama would tell children “what time they should go to recess, what books [they] should read at what time.” Then he gets back on message about No Child Left Behind, President Bush’s signature legislation that is (was?) up for renewal this year. YouTube
- Home price versus median family wage: Interesting chart over at real estate blog LA Land, which posted a Credit Suisse report that shows how out of whack home prices are compared to the median family wage. The chart goes all the way back to the 1980s and is relatively stable until early 2001, when it roars up and peaks around the 4th quarter of 2005. It declines rapidly from there. The overall gist of the report: Home prices won’t reach equilibrium with median family wages for another 12-18 months.
- More harsh words from Parents against Measure SA: These come courtesy of KHTS which reports on the opposition of the Parent’s group to Measure SA, the $300 million bond initiative the Hart District hopes you’ll approve this November. Joe Messina and former Hart Board member Phil Ellis pulled no punches in describing why the 38th Republican Committee refused to say yay or nay on the measure: “After the Hart District’s pathetic record of spending Measure V money, I am not surprised that the Republican Party refused to endorse Measure SA,” said Phil Ellis. And Messina: “This should send a message to other Republicans in Santa Clarita Valley. Taxpayers should look carefully at this new bond and they will realize all these projects were promised in Measure V.” Republican infighting is so juicy!
- SCV still the place for schools: Santa Clarita’s schools all did pretty well on the state’s Academic Performance Index report, KHTS & the Signal are reporting. KHTS says that of 54 public elementary, junior and high schools in the SCV, some “39 achieved more than 800 on the API,” which is a state defined goal. One school in particular, McGrath Elementary in Newhall, jumped over 50 points in the index over last year, an excellent result given that the school has a high percentage of Spanish speaking students. KHTS, Signal, LA Times school database and info tool
- Bone marrow drive for 2 year old underway: The boy, Jacob Fierro, is two years old and has leukemia. He needs a bone marrow transplant and a church in Canyon Country is organizing a bone marrow drive tomorrow. All you need to do is get your cheek swabbed to see if you’re compatible. Link