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March 3, 2011· scvtalk.com · WordPress (SCVTalk 3.0) · Wayback capture

March 3, 2011 – Daily Brief

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

  • The City of Santa Clarita and the County of Los Angeles are in negotiations over the purchase of two library buildings and the materials in all three County libraries in the SCV. They’re keeping quiet about the progress of the negotiations, but The Signal says the process is closely defined by state law and has several milestones we can watch out for. SIGNAL
  • Meanwhile, attorney Don Ricketts of Save our Libraries has asked the superior court to dismiss the Brown Act violation lawsuit his group brought to the court late last year. The other lawsuit SOL has brought -alleging the City violated education code by not establishing a library board of trustees prior to the takeover- still stands however SIGNAL (be sure to read Don Ricketts’s comment below the story
  • No formal charges have been made against the Canyon Country martial arts instructor who was accused of inappropriately touching a child in January. A detective investigating the case said it’s a case of he said/she said and the DA won’t bring charges, but the officer says he has “reason to believe this did occur.” The accused man, 64 yr old Dante Lusica, denies the allegations and says the woman who made them was being malicious, possibly for financial reasons. Recall that when this story broke readers were mad at the Signal and LASD for not releasing the man’s name; Dante Lusica is now living with the consequences. SIGNAL
  • A hint of things to come: The City of Costa Mesa is laying off 43% of its employees and outsourcing 18 city services to private corporations by fall 2011. LA TIMES
  • Sheriff’s Deputies bust big dog fighting ring in Lake Los Angeles. 17 fighting dogs, some cocaine, and three children were found at the home. LA Weekly comments darkly, “As if we needed another reason to never set foot north of Santa Clarita.” LA WEEKLY
  • 20 years since the beating of Rodney King. LA TIMES Think there’s no SCV connection? Well there is: at least one of the officers involved used to call Santa Clarita home.
  • LA MTA saw a 3% boost in bus travel and 9% boost in rail travel as gas prices spiked in January. No data for February yet but one Santa Clarita commuter says he’s started taking the bus even though it’s less convenient and less comfortable ABC 7
  • Holy *insert farm animal here*! The eBay auction for that piece of Justin Bieber’s hair actually raised $40,668, 100% of which will go to the Gentle Barn. Way to go Ellen. LA TIMES, EBAY
  • Lynne Plambeck is discouraged that only 20 or so people showed up to talk about OVOV at the recent Planning Commission. “One has to ponder why so few in the community turned out to comment on this document that will supposedly guide the city’s development over the next 50 years,” she writes. SIGNAL
  • LTE writer suggests making Whittaker-Bermite into a giant recreational area. SIGNAL
  • Excellent Time Ranger column this week in which John Boston tells a tale about a Missouri wagon party that got stranded in Death Valley and sent out its two strongest men to find help. After wandering through the wilderness, the men stumbled into San Francisquito Canyon and the SCV, describing it thusly: “such a scene of abundance and rich plenty and comfort bursting thus upon our eyes, which for months had seen only the desolation and sadness of the desert, was like getting a glimpse of Paradise, and tears of joy ran down our faces.” You’ll have to read the rest to find out what happened next. TIME RANGER

Comments

55 · as published
  1. Gang FangMarch 3, 2011 at 10:22 am
    Ellen’s persona makes me cringe as if witnessing the contents of a hairy man’s shower drain, but her involvement with Gentle Barn is heartfelt and a gracious use of her “celebrity”. That place does great things.
  2. Bill ReynoldsMarch 3, 2011 at 11:25 am
    Lil Natie, AKA: “Lil Natie No Show”, where were you this morning? I was at the Way Station at 8:00am and you chickened out. Ha!
  3. Berta González-HarperMarch 3, 2011 at 11:40 am
    told you so…
  4. Bill ReynoldsMarch 3, 2011 at 11:59 am
    Berta G, check the bottom comments on the March 1st daily brief.
  5. Mr PerezMarch 3, 2011 at 12:24 pm
    Is the Way Station a normal hang out in the morning or was it just unique for this mornings schoolyard brawl?
  6. John AdamsMarch 3, 2011 at 12:35 pm
    Not sure if “brawl” would be the right term for this get together. KO in 1 is usually described different?
  7. Berta González-HarperMarch 3, 2011 at 2:06 pm
    @John Adams, agreed. I think apropos to this situation especially given the Way Station meeting place “just deserts” (‘that which is deserved’) would have been the loser gets meals and desserts served through a straw for a while… In my day, it was the usual consequence for a bully who just did not understand “stop it”.
  8. Mr Perez aka DilligafMarch 3, 2011 at 3:31 pm
    Is the breakfast at the Way Station good?
  9. Bill ReynoldsMarch 3, 2011 at 4:01 pm
    Roger that!
  10. Mr Perez aka DilligafMarch 3, 2011 at 4:56 pm
    That place always looked like they would have one big grill filled with hash browns, Mmmmmmmmmmm!
  11. NateMarch 4, 2011 at 9:34 am
    I am an egg plantation guy.
  12. NateMarch 4, 2011 at 9:33 am
    Berta is always so lady like
  13. Berta González-HarperMarch 4, 2011 at 12:47 pm
    I am a lady when addressing another lady or a gentleman. In your case, well let us just say I am not your doormat bud.
  14. Mr PerezMarch 3, 2011 at 2:22 pm
    I was just confused over the meeting location since someone posted earlier that the SCV conservatives met at IHOP.
  15. John AdamsMarch 3, 2011 at 2:33 pm
    Pretty sure they meet anywhere they damn well please. (and unlike a famous liberal they never complain about the required dress code)
  16. Mr PerezMarch 3, 2011 at 3:16 pm
    I’m sure they don’t want to eat at hippy joints. What dress code are you talking about?
  17. navigatorMarch 3, 2011 at 3:38 pm
    An infamous visit by a certain unnamed local columnist to the TPC dining facility.
  18. Mr Perez aka DilligafMarch 3, 2011 at 3:49 pm
    Well every business has a right to enforce a dress code. If it’s unfair then I have a right to not patronize it. Kind of reminds me of that episode on Seinfeld with the “Soup Nazi.”
  19. john AdamsMarch 3, 2011 at 5:00 pm
    LOL Hippy Joint! Brilliant! Hey I am a winner and have tiger blood.
  20. Mr Perez aka DilligafMarch 3, 2011 at 5:16 pm
    You must’ve taken the “Charlie Sheen or Qaddafi Quotes” test.
  21. NateMarch 4, 2011 at 9:31 am
    Some of us work… Billy Boy. We can’t all sue our Government contracted company for early retirement.
  22. HermanMarch 4, 2011 at 9:36 am
    Bill, why not let Nate pick the time and place, he obviously didn’t mean it when he asked you to do it.
  23. HermanMarch 4, 2011 at 9:45 am
    “Afraid. I would be there with bells on. Name the time and place right now” Sissy.
  24. Leon WordenMarch 3, 2011 at 11:26 am
    Three of the four Rodney King officers lived in SCV at the time. One each in Valencia, Castaic, and the murky Saugus/Santa Clarita area in the middle of town that is probably a candidate for your “where the heck is this?” poll. Incidentally, 3 of the 4 LAPD officers involved in the Rampart scandal lived here, too. Lending credence, of course, to the notion that there is an SCV connection to just about everything.
  25. Coastal SageMarch 3, 2011 at 8:22 pm
    The “Rodney King” cop who lived in the murky Saugus/Santa Clarita area in the middle of town, mentioned by Leon, lived down the street from me. He was one of the ones acquitted in the Federal civil rights criminal trial which sent two of the Rodney King beating cops to jail. He had previously been acquitted in the Simi Valley state court criminal trial. Our neighbor cop was a quiet, good neighbor. Unfortunately, after the trials his family life fell apart. He became a lawyer and moved away. If wish the LA Times had done a “Where are they now?” angle to the story, because I’m sure all my neighbors still wish that innocent cop well.
  26. Leon WordenMarch 3, 2011 at 9:00 pm
    Coast – here’s something I found on the Internet that I seem to have written in 1998: “Footnote from the “Whatever happened to” dept.: I ran into Ed Powell last week, for the first time in a couple of years. Ed, you might remember, is the father of former LAPD officer and ex-Valencia resident Larry Powell, who bore the brunt of the Clinton administration’s wrath against those involved in the 1991 Rodney King incident. “Larry is living in Southern California and making $7.50 an hour selling computers. He wants to write a book but is having trouble with the “Son of Sam” laws. God bless America.” (A few years earlier I had written a three-parter based on the evidence Larry’s dad had shown me …. evidence that the federal court deemed inadmissible. The story was pretty interesting — the verdict might have been quite different if the jury had been allowed to see the evidence — but unfortunately the story predated the posting of news & commentary on the web, and I haven’t seen it in years.)
  27. NickelDimeMarch 3, 2011 at 10:08 pm
    Doesn’t Stacey Koon live in Castaic? ref TimeMag article from 2007
  28. Leon WordenMarch 3, 2011 at 11:28 am
    Oh and of course Rodney King himself once went home-shopping here, but he ended up not buying. This was around the time he was arrested for dragging his wife behind his moving vehicle.
  29. Berta González-HarperMarch 3, 2011 at 11:42 am
    Regarding the Whittaker-Bermite site: Regardless of the property owner, whether City or private developer, if the property was thoroughly cleaned via existing insurance policies in vigor and safe for human habitation, I personally would like to see a USC type teaching hospital in the center of town. If there is enough usable acreage: to include restaurants, shops, and maybe a hotel on site to provide services to hospital visitors and the community at large. A teaching hospital, not affiliated with the State and its budget issues, would provide a new medical facility with ample free parking, attract higher quality of medical services and providers, thousands of high paying jobs, and could offer underinsured or uninsured patients free services by audiology, dental, medical, ophthalmology, etc students in order for them to gain hands on experience. Helipads and other necessary issues could be addressed before building takes place, and residents would be minimally impacted if planned correctly. A win, win situation for the community, City, unemployed folks, and everyone else I can thing of but HMNMH and G & L.
  30. navigatorMarch 3, 2011 at 11:47 am
    a new medical facility with ample free parking, WOW, what a concept!
  31. Berta González-HarperMarch 3, 2011 at 12:21 pm
    @Navigator, hey why not dream big and work to make my dreams a reality?
  32. navigatorMarch 3, 2011 at 12:28 pm
    I don’t have a problem with that. I do, however, think I’ll stick with Holy Cross. I’ve managed to walk out of there 3 times now with all appendages intact!
  33. Joe GrandeMarch 3, 2011 at 3:27 pm
    And if you do get sick from the ground wate, there’s a hospital near by.
  34. Coastal SageMarch 3, 2011 at 8:32 pm
    Berta, I think that’s a great idea. I personally favor the “all open space option” but yours is a good choice too. According to maps prepared by Whittaker’s consultants and posted on DTSC’s website, there are lots of areas on Bermite whose upper soil can never be cleaned up to residential/hospital/nursing home standards, plus other areas with very deep contaminated soil which also can never be cleaned up. Add to that several traces of the active San Gabriel Fault running more than 1 mile in width across the property, which are in a formal Alquist Priolo Zone where nothing can be built other than roads. The new maps leave the Bermite map looking like “swiss cheese” with a line of earthquake red ketchup across it. Those “swiss cheese” maps of “unfixable” contamination makes the current Porta Bella Specific Plan with residential land use design approved by the city in the early 1990′s not feasible to build in full. However, there is certainly room for the kind of hospital campus Berta describes.
  35. Berta González-HarperMarch 3, 2011 at 11:17 pm
    Thanks, J.
  36. CastaicClayMarch 3, 2011 at 12:49 pm
    I have been saying for years that Bermite should be our “Griffith Park”.
  37. spineflower2March 3, 2011 at 2:29 pm
    Agreed. It’s the only viable option unless you think the taxpayers should take the risk for a private developer. In other words, a Republican.
  38. navigatorMarch 3, 2011 at 3:10 pm
    Well, somebody has to pay the Democrats bills.
  39. Coastal SageMarch 3, 2011 at 8:49 pm
    Realistically, few people in Santa Clarita want their local tax money spent on subsidizing the building of 3000 apartments at Bermite with many of them designated for very low and low income housing, or for 4000 housing units including “moderate” income condos where market-rate condo buyers have to subsidize the cost of constructing the moderate income condos and have to perpetually subsidize the monthly HOA assessments for their “moderate” income housing each month (aka an inclusionary housing ordinance like that required by the Coastal Commission). Read the city staff’s “Draft Housing Element” for the One Valley, One Vision General Plan update, which calls for the city to adopt an inclusionary housing ordinance as well as to rezone property all over the city for 4000 low and very low income apartments. It’s a Tea Party wake up call, and something no right thinking Republican would vote for, assuming they have even read that Draft Housing Element. See: http://www.santa-clarita.com/ovov/_pdf/Draft%20Elements/GeneralPlan/8-HousingElement.pdf Also look at Article 34 of the California Constitution, which was passed by California’s voters in the 1950′s and whose meaning is very clear, according to the late California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk. See: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/.const/.article_34 Unfortunately, the meaning of Article 34 has been bastardized by liberal-era courts, however it still has meaning left if used by activists (like those in Santa Rosa) who don’t want their local tax dollars used to subsidize housing projects which will ruin their pleasant cities.
  40. Need for Involved CitizenryMarch 3, 2011 at 12:56 pm
    Wow – I cant’ believe I’m going to agree with something coming from Berta. A research hospital or major educational facility would be a great use for Whitaker Bermite. But it just won’t happen in my lifetime. The site will take too long to clean up. Right now, the City in order to save face on their emminent domain legal loss has brought in a developer Lewis that will create a mixed use but primarily residential development we don’t need. More houses will be built than jobs created because that’s what the developer says they can sell profitably. The City won’t care because they’ll get more sales tax revenue from all new residents and get a couple of new roads built. But the existing residents will get screwed because they’ll have to pay for big chunks of the infrastructure costs (improvements to water and utility systems as well as major roads and highways (see where Caltrans has asked for money to widen I-5 and SR 14 as a result of the OVOV growth), have significantly worse traffic conditions, and much worse air pollution. We won’t get much in the way of parks even though this would be a great site for a park because less clean up could be done with that kind of use. Thanks for approving OVOV Planning Commission and just ignoring these critical issues. By the way, for those who saw the last meeting where OVOV was approved, Lisa Eichmann and Dee Dee Jacobson had pretty much nothing to say about a 10,000 + page document. Makes one question their ability as Planning Commissioners. It is no wonder the City and CLWA get sued right and left! While some try to blame those suits on the initiators, the blame lies squarely with our City and Agency Staffs and appointed and elected representatives who figure they can just roll over public opinion a la Ender Math.
  41. navigatorMarch 3, 2011 at 3:13 pm
    I’ll bet there is no other phrase that will last with the City o’ Santa Clarita longer than “Ender Math”. I guess that’s her legacy.
  42. Mr Perez aka DilligafMarch 3, 2011 at 3:51 pm
    So it is starting to look like the city, or county, is going to change the median style on Valencia across from the Sheriff’s Office/Court Bldg/Library. That may eliminate the amount of daily accidents or near misses I am entertained with, thanks.
  43. Gang FangMarch 3, 2011 at 7:03 pm
    Are Berta & Bill doin’ the vertical joyride? You two seem awful cozy and united in your schoolyard threats. Gentle Barn, indeed……
  44. john AdamsMarch 4, 2011 at 6:46 am
    @ Berta I am pretty sure Nate and Gang are 2 different people. Gang makes to few spelling and typo mistakes. Nate does have multiple names (common among the confidence deficient) He will now come back with a new one. I suggest… “With_Bells_On”
  45. NateMarch 4, 2011 at 9:52 am
    Use your real name Mr. Ramirez.
  46. Gang FangMarch 3, 2011 at 10:36 pm
    Pardon? Who are you talking to? Wrong on both counts.
  47. Berta González-HarperMarch 3, 2011 at 11:16 pm
    @Hi Gang Fang, Nathan Imhoff, and your many “psycho” personalities, which are too many to name individually here, as far as I know Mr. Reynolds, is a happily married man. I on the other hand am free to sleep with whomever I chose, or not. I think you have “a thing” for either Bill or me and that is why you are so obsessed with getting our attention, even if it is in a negative manner. Poor loser. Speaking for myself, if you were the last “male” on the planet, I would gladly chose celibacy. I prefer that the men in my life have the capacity for intelligent conversation instead of vomiting the same stupid drivel you regurgitate. At some point, you and I are going to be in the same place at the same time even if I have to go where you are. Not a threat, a promise.
  48. Gang FangMarch 3, 2011 at 11:40 pm
    Nate & I are not the same person. Sorry. I hope this doesn’t confuse your next shower nozzle session.
  49. NateMarch 4, 2011 at 9:50 am
    Berta is pissed I exposed her hypocrisy but it is blatant as her mullet.
  50. Berta González-HarperMarch 4, 2011 at 12:07 am
    @Nate the odds of having two identical @$$%&#@ in the same City, posting on the same blog, spewing the same filthy vile comments, making identical comments about mullets, trucks, servicing, sex acts, etc, directed at the same two people, are just too farfetched. No matter what phony name you use, you always show your true colors, especially that wide yellow streak running down your back.
  51. Gang FangMarch 4, 2011 at 12:15 am
    Once again, Nate & I are two entirely different people. What’s more telling is that we both independently have similar reactions to your internet personas. When you spew nonsense like you and your boy Billy, the odds that many will spew back are rather high. And the mullet is kinda hard to ignore, you gotta admit.
  52. MikeMarch 4, 2011 at 7:52 am
    Two different people. Either could take BR, no problem. But if this were a battle royale, I think Herman would win.
  53. NateMarch 4, 2011 at 9:37 am
    Imagine that Berta’s assumptions wrong again…
  54. HermanMarch 4, 2011 at 9:22 am
    Uh, thanks?
  55. Berta González-HarperMarch 4, 2011 at 12:52 pm
    I am no hypocrite and I am also not a coward hiding behind multiple pseudonyms and Jeff Wilson’s protection to make my comments.
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