- A 14 year old boy was allegedly trying to light a marijuana pipe when he dropped a barbecue lighter device in some dry brush and started a fire near Haskell Canyon road that consumed 40 acres and threatened 50 homes Sunday. The boy, along with another 14 year old ”tried stomping on the fire but ran away when that didn’t work,” according to the LA TIMES. The fire was knocked down quickly but not before two LACO firefighters injured their hands SIGNAL
- Oh, and just so you don’t think our youths are the only stupid ones, a 33 year old man and a 16 year old boy were arrested during the fire for trying to prevent helicopters from dropping water on the blaze, according to the Times.
- Some pretty amazing photos of the fire
- Merrick Bobb report reveals an SCV Sheriff’s Station that doesn’t take hate crimes seriously and uses force while arresting suspects more often than other stations. The report covers the period from 2004-2009 and singles out the SCV and Lakewood Sheriff’ Stations as needing improvement. SIGNAL
- A 35 year old Latino man was killed Saturday near Highway 14 after being hit by a northbound Metrolink train. Authorities think the man was sitting on the rails when he was struck and killed. The train was delayed for an hour an half while authorities investigated SIGNAL
- Nearly 50,000 students in the SCV will head back to school this week, mostly on Thursday, but some starting tomorrow and Wednesday as well SIGNAL
- The idea behind the state’s Enterprise Zone program is that tax incentives will encourage businesses to hire people it wouldn’t otherwise hire. Only no one really tracks whether the businesses hire anyone and even the City says they lack objective data and can only go by what local EZ recipients say. Interesting that the company mentioned in this story (Pacific Lock) was also mentioned in stimulus reporting last year SIGNAL
- Another review of that neat church coffee house in the Bridgeport area that depends on donations rather than charging prices for coffee SIGNAL
- Community workshop to be held on August 18 over the “Compass Plan area” of North Newhall, an area “bordered on the north by Via Princessa, on the east one block short of Alderbrook; Market Street on the south, and Spruce Streets on the west.” Three alternatives for the area will be shown to participants KHTS
- Kevin Korenthal, water board candidate, writes about an interesting new water processing technology called “Pellet Water Softening” that can soften SCV water supplies without creating salty waste material. The technology uses sand pellets “and a number of substances such as carbon dioxide and sodium hydroxide to cause the calcium in the water to adhere to the grains of sand that sit in the bottom of the tank.” KORENTHAL.COM. NickelDime covered this same technology before SCVTALK
- Speaking of water, the City of Santa Clarita will offer a SCUBA diving class starting next week. Looks pretty cool CITY BRIEFS
- Margaret Donnellan Todd must be a household name in the SCV by now, having defended the COLA Library system in the SCV from the City and now The Signal. She disputes the Signal’s recent editorial calling for the City’s takeover of the library system HERE
- And a trio of LTEs (1, 2, 3) defending the library status quo. If I had to judge, I’d say opinion on this matter is 70-30 in favor of keeping the libraries as they are. The City Council will meet two weeks from tomorrow to decide.
- I agree fully with Tim Myers on how bad term limits have been for the State of California and how they might be harmful to Santa Clarita as well SIGNAL
- Jackie MacDougall, co-founder of the SCV Family network, takes on Proposition 8 in the context of the SCV and finds little reason to oppose same sex marriage; in fact she says her research shows that same sex marriages can produce families and children that are “statistically indistinguishable” from heterosexual marriages SCV FAMILY
- Alan Ferdman says that if the City doesn’t restore its relationship with the Canyon Country Advisory Committee, it could result in more people pushing for a district-based rather than at-large City Council SIGNAL
- Nation’s Restaurant News finally answers my question: Why did Santa Clarita residents name Cheesecake Factory the #1 restaurant they wanted to have in town? Well it turns out, Cheesecake Factory is the most favored chain restaurant in the country according to a new study by the organization, which lists the top 16 chain restaurants nationwide (some of which we are lacking here in the SCV) HUFF PO
- Dave Bossert with the City as the abusive, cave-dwelling suitor and the unincorporated county areas as hapless victims meme again WRB
A decade of the Valley’s town square · 2006–2015
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37 · as published