January 6, 2011 – Daily Brief

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

Frank Ferry released from hospital after 30+ day stay for surgery complications. This is great news for 2011. Balance has returned to the SCV’s Force KHTS, SIGNAL
McKeon sworn in for 10th term, tells area & national reporters that he’s very much opposed to cuts for the military. He also says the GOP will vote by January 12 to repeal the health care reform act passed last year. SIGNAL
LA Weekly on the “edifice complex” of various LA politicians, including our own Mike Antonovich, who has a courthouse, a park, and a few other things named after him in the 5th District of LA County. But he doesn’t think it’s a big deal. Critics say naming complexes after sitting elected officials is nothing more than a free campaign ad. We do it here in the SCV too; Buck McKeon parkway, Smyth drive, and on and on. But I think the George Caravalho activities center has fallen out of fashion LA WEEKLY
Way to go California: 93.2% of California drivers use their seat belts, the second-highest seat belt usage rate in the Country, according to the Times. Did you know in 1982 only 11% of Americans regularly wore seat belts? LA TIMES
Way to Go Santa Clarita: Turns out SCVers are pretty unselfish when it comes to donating their organs – Henry Mayo Hospital has won an award for something called “organ donation-conversion rate.” But as a commenter on the Signal points out, “I suppose in a manner of thinking, the more patients you “lose”, the greater the opportunity for organ donation.” SIGNAL
Way to go Fireman: Speaking of organ donations, the Signal has a great story about a County firefighter in the SCV whose life was saved by a liver donation he received in 2000 SIGNAL
Dan Palmer’s (of Las Lomas fame) Los Valles project in the Castaic/Hasley Hills area is dead, according to part 2 of the Signal’s Castaic High School report. I remember this project- it was to be built with a world-class golf course in rugged terrain. But the County says as far as they’re concerned, the project’s golf course and 200 luxury homes are caput SIGNAL
Boom burbs, like those built in San Bernardino County, could become the nation’s newest slums, the 21st century version of the Rust Belt, economists say. One economist says such areas may not recover from the housing bust until 2030. Thank goodness we in the SCV aren’t in dire straits like that…yet LA TIMES
As wealth inequality rises, the nation’s super rich are increasingly detached from pedestrian notions of loyalty to the countries that produced them, says an interesting ATLANTIC article
Lynne Plambeck frames the new lawsuit filed to stop Newhall Ranch as a way to protect tax & ratepayers from subsidizing Newhall Ranch’s development SIGNAL
Ohio homeless man with amazing radio voice gets job offers after appearing on YouTube video YOUTUBE
Wow, check out Motorola’s iPad killer ENGADGET

Comments (5)

ToddJanuary 6, 2011 at 11:24 am

I’ve long maintained that we need to enact a law prohibiting the naming of any public building, space, monument, etc. after any living person. The fact is, frighteningly, that a living person has yet to finish their contributions to society, be them good or bad. What if they name a courthouse after me, after years of dedicated service, and then 4 years later I get sloshed one night at the local watering hole, drive home and in the process kill a family in an accident? What happens then? I believe that there needs to be a mandatory cooling off period of at least 5 years before we name anything public after anyone. Too many times in the immediate mourning of someone, we rush to memorialize them, not stopping to think “in 100 years, will this person’s memory be lasting?” (Case in point… Freeway interchanges, specifically ones named after traffic reporters. Their contributions were invaluable while living, but in death, are they? Are all these traffic reporters the ones to invent traffic reporting, and forever change how we commute?) My alma matter took a lot of crap for not going Obama an honorary degree in 2009, when he was the commencement speaker. However, I happen to agree with their call… He’d been president for all of 5 months at that point…. It would be far more appropriate to bestow it upon him in at least his 4th year in office, if not his 8th, or even after his term ends. After all, how many Richard M. Nixon high schools are there in the US?

Kevin D. KorenthalJanuary 6, 2011 at 1:29 pm

I believe only dead people should have things named after them. The You Tube video was taking down due to a claim of copy write infringement.

ReaderMamaJanuary 6, 2011 at 1:51 pm

For the record, the donor conversion RATE is the number of actual donations that result from identified donors. It has nothing to do with the number of deaths at a particular hospital. People always slam Henry Mayo, but it is a class II trauma center with some excellent surgeons.

lvogelJanuary 6, 2011 at 7:57 pm

I agree, ReaderMama. I’ve been a patient at Henry Mayo Hospital on several occasions and have top notch care, especially from surgeons. I think that a person should automatically be an organ donor and be able to opt out if they choose, rather than it is now (you’re not unless you choose to be). Organ donation is one of the miracles of medicine and so many lives have been saved because of it. I mean if I’m going to die anyway from an illness, why shouldn’t I give my functioning (healthy) organs away? Yeah, McKeon is willing to spend $230 billion dollars to repeal the healthcare bill, at the same time that Blue Shield has increased their rates (for the third time since October) about 59% for over 200,000 individual policy holders. Plus our own congressman Darrel Issa wants to investigate our president on grounds he feels he’s corrupt and the effectiveness of FDA recalls. Way to get the economy moving!

AlpinerJanuary 6, 2011 at 8:14 pm

Jeff, my understanding is that Smyth Drive was named after Cam’s father, in recognition of his service as the former superintendent of the Hart District (it is in front of Valencia High School), not Cameron.

ToddJanuary 6, 2011 at 11:24 am
I’ve long maintained that we need to enact a law prohibiting the naming of any public building, space, monument, etc. after any living person. The fact is, frighteningly, that a living person has yet to finish their contributions to society, be them good or bad. What if they name a courthouse after me, after years of dedicated service, and then 4 years later I get sloshed one night at the local watering hole, drive home and in the process kill a family in an accident? What happens then? I believe that there needs to be a mandatory cooling off period of at least 5 years before we name anything public after anyone. Too many times in the immediate mourning of someone, we rush to memorialize them, not stopping to think “in 100 years, will this person’s memory be lasting?” (Case in point… Freeway interchanges, specifically ones named after traffic reporters. Their contributions were invaluable while living, but in death, are they? Are all these traffic reporters the ones to invent traffic reporting, and forever change how we commute?) My alma matter took a lot of crap for not going Obama an honorary degree in 2009, when he was the commencement speaker. However, I happen to agree with their call… He’d been president for all of 5 months at that point…. It would be far more appropriate to bestow it upon him in at least his 4th year in office, if not his 8th, or even after his term ends. After all, how many Richard M. Nixon high schools are there in the US?
Kevin D. KorenthalJanuary 6, 2011 at 1:29 pm
I believe only dead people should have things named after them. The You Tube video was taking down due to a claim of copy write infringement.
ReaderMamaJanuary 6, 2011 at 1:51 pm
For the record, the donor conversion RATE is the number of actual donations that result from identified donors. It has nothing to do with the number of deaths at a particular hospital. People always slam Henry Mayo, but it is a class II trauma center with some excellent surgeons.
lvogelJanuary 6, 2011 at 7:57 pm
I agree, ReaderMama. I’ve been a patient at Henry Mayo Hospital on several occasions and have top notch care, especially from surgeons. I think that a person should automatically be an organ donor and be able to opt out if they choose, rather than it is now (you’re not unless you choose to be). Organ donation is one of the miracles of medicine and so many lives have been saved because of it. I mean if I’m going to die anyway from an illness, why shouldn’t I give my functioning (healthy) organs away? Yeah, McKeon is willing to spend $230 billion dollars to repeal the healthcare bill, at the same time that Blue Shield has increased their rates (for the third time since October) about 59% for over 200,000 individual policy holders. Plus our own congressman Darrel Issa wants to investigate our president on grounds he feels he’s corrupt and the effectiveness of FDA recalls. Way to get the economy moving!
AlpinerJanuary 6, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Jeff, my understanding is that Smyth Drive was named after Cam’s father, in recognition of his service as the former superintendent of the Hart District (it is in front of Valencia High School), not Cameron.