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April 11, 2011· scvtalk.com · WordPress (SCVTalk 3.0) · Wayback capture

April 11, 2011 – Daily Brief

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

  • The public commission tasked with redrawing political boundaries will meet in areas near the Santa Clarita Valley and at least one area representative, Cameron Smyth, says SCVers should go and urge the commission to keep the SCV whole when it draws up Assembly, State Senate and even Congressional districts. SIGNAL
  • LSSI has hired LA County Public Library employees for 25 of 27 clerical positions, according to The Signal. The article doesn’t say whether the jobs are full or part time but it says the new LSSI employees will “earn equivalent or higher salaries” than they did at the County. The Signal says the next batch of employee hires -including two real librarians- will come from outside the SCV’s County system. SIGNAL
  • The LA Times has a moving obituary on Spc. Rudy Acosta, the 19 year old Canyon Country army medic who was killed by an Afghan security contractor last month. In the obit, Acosta’s father expresses anger that the US Military allows Afghan security contractors on its basses. “”Only American soldiers should be standing guard on American stations,” he said. “Soldiers on base shouldn’t have to be looking over their shoulder.” He says he is starting a campaign to end the practice of using Afghan contractors for security. LA TIMES
  • Some 5-15 acres of the Whittaker-Bermite site are so contaminated with hazardous perchlorate waste that it may not be possible to clean up, according to the Signal. The City plans to develop about 580 acres of the 996 acre site and only 150 acres are being cleaned up so it’s a small portion of the land. The City says it will just build roads or parks or other features over the highly contaminated sites. SIGNAL
  • Well the big government shutdown was averted at the last moment on Friday, but not before some interesting reporting on what our Congressman would have done had the government closed up. A reporter last week asked Congressman McKeon if he’d refuse to take a salary while the government was closed and McKeon responded, “Why should I do that?” But he told KPCC that in an effort to save money he’s furloughing some of his staff. KHTS, KPCC
  • Speaking of the last-minute budget deal, Scott Wilk has an interesting analysis of what it contains over at the WRB
  • Stevenson Ranch mom organizes charity to purchase iPads for children who are autistic SIGNAL
  • Henry Mayo neonatal intensive care unit on schedule for December 2011 opening according to a press release at KHTS
  • The brand new shopping center at Castaic Junction near the CHP station that opened right as the economy tanked has been sold. The 30,000 sq. ft. shopping center was sold for an undisclosed amount to a private investor. The shopping center never enjoyed more than one or two occupants and has sat largely vacant for a few years just off the 5. No word on what the new owner will do with it, though it is “suitable for medical use” according to the PRESS RELEASE
  • Interesting article on an Ikea Factory in West Virginia whose employees -thrilled just three years ago to get a job at an Ikea factory- are now trying to organize into a union. Workers at Ikea plants in Sweden get paid almost $20/hr, but in West Virgina workers are paid $8/hr and are routinely ordered to work overtime, leading one worker to say that Ikea Sweden treats its factory in the USA like a USA company treats a factory in Mexico LA TIMES
  • Sbarro Pizza files for bankruptcy/another fixture of my mall-cruising youth passes on LA TIMES
  • Ciclavia bicycle event draws thousands to closed streets of Los Angeles. Several SCVers went this time and had a great ride LA TIMES
  • Columnist criticizes “selfish” City Council for spending money on library takeover when (she alleges) the SCV Senior Center is in a deteriorating condition. “Exactly what are your plans for the future baby boomers? It seems you are planning for every other demographic but the influx of seniors that will be needing the services of a senior center,” she writes SIGNAL
  • Joe Messina says the Bible tells us to pray for elected leaders whether we voted for them or not. You can start with next month’s Mayors Prayer Breakfast. The keynote speaker at this year’s event is Jim Ryun, a former long distance runner and Congressman from Kansas. SIGNAL

Comments (27)

  1. LindaApril 11, 2011 at 8:02 am
    Hey Buck, I have a better question: Why should you receive a pay check during a government shutdown? Maybe instead of cutting Planned Parenthood there should be a move toward cutting the salaries and benefits of our highest paid, most priviliged, and least empathetic (borderline sociopathic) government employees.
  2. NateApril 11, 2011 at 8:43 am
    Yeah Buck why shouldn’t you get a pay check when our soliders fighting abroad won’t… way to spit in the face of our fighting men and women. Buck Sucks.
  3. lvogelApril 11, 2011 at 9:10 am
    “I’m very concerned about the people they’re working to help,” he said. “Everybody loses in a shutdown.” Except him….. I think the republicans should put THEIR money where their mouths are. Even Boehner said he’d return his pay during the days the government was shut down; what makes McKeon so special?
  4. NateApril 11, 2011 at 9:18 am
    LOL. The best quote “To me it was very important to take care of the troops,” he continued. “When we’re fighting three wars, including Libya, we have people out in harm’s way.” Oh I see. So it is important to take care of the troops, UNLESS it means ending birth control for NEARLY every female on a college campus in this country. How can a person be anti-abortion and anti-contraception? McKeon must believe life begins at errection.
  5. IHeartSCVApril 11, 2011 at 9:52 am
    I share your concern, Nate. If only “NEARLY every female on a college campus in this country” had a way to earn money to pay for their birth control. I worked part-time while a full-time student, but it would be outlandish to expect that everyone work to pay for the non-essentials that they want to buy, right? What else should the government purchase for them?
  6. JeffApril 11, 2011 at 9:57 am
    Yeah exactly. You know why do we even have government schools like the UC in the first place? The UC and CSU represent an unfair monopoly over private for profit colleges like Phoenix, DeVry and Ashford. Let the free market reign in higher education and costs will go way down, so low that female college students will be able to afford birth control. It’s time to get the government out of education and get the free market in!
  7. IHeartSCVApril 11, 2011 at 10:15 am
    Point taken. Though we need some public research funding (though not nec. public universities) to produce work that isn’t biased by private interests. Also, one pays for public higher education, and it’s not always as state/federally-subsidized as it is at the community college level.
  8. NateApril 11, 2011 at 10:17 am
    It is still upwards of 5k-7k a head per semester.
  9. NateApril 11, 2011 at 10:16 am
    But apparently subsidizes to Corporations like GE who pay no taxes seems to be the norm in the Republican party. Well some of us live in reality and not some Neo-Con utopia that tries to fight human nature and get 300 million people to fit into a mold shaped in Christ’s image.
  10. IHeartSCVApril 11, 2011 at 10:44 am
    Completely agree on GE–they shouldn’t be rewarded for having cozy relationships with elected officials and a huge number of employees devoted to finding new ways to skirt taxes. Community colleges aren’t $5K-$7K a semester though. CaliforniaColleges.edu puts the average cost of a year of tuition/fees at a community college at $624, $5,131 at a CSU, and $11,300 at a UC. So it costs 18 times as much for a year of UCing as a year of CCing. Books and living costs are about the same for everyone.
  11. NateApril 11, 2011 at 10:48 am
    We aren’t talking tuition. We are talking subsidy given to each student. I believe the subsidies should be performance based.
  12. ValCalApril 11, 2011 at 10:24 am
    I find it interesting that the commenters here, when talking about birth control, all say that the women/females are the ones who need to be able to afford birth control? So the men are exempt from the responsibility of birth control? And that the responsibility, both using and paying for birth control, falls solely on the woman’s shoulders? I think you all need to rethink that.
  13. NateApril 11, 2011 at 10:36 am
    The only one who thinks woman need to afford it is the misogynistic IHeartSCV. Who apparently hates woman almost as much as Santa Clarita.
  14. IHeartSCVApril 11, 2011 at 10:46 am
    I’m a little annoyed that I have to take a break from oppressing women to respond, but I’d be OK with any private party paying for birth control. I was just using the pronoun that Nate had selected to respond in-kind. Back to oppressing…
  15. LindaApril 11, 2011 at 11:10 am
    Fair or not, women shoulder a greater share of the burden when it comes to birth control and child bearing. That is the biological and sociological reality.
  16. Timothy Myers SR.April 11, 2011 at 1:32 pm
    ValCal: It is just pragmatic. Since the woman ends up with 100% of the responsibility (quite easy for the male to flee responsibility), and we can’t castrate all the males that we don’t want to breed like on the farm.
  17. lvogelApril 11, 2011 at 1:59 pm
    Yeah, the women end up with 100% of the responsiblity, yet most are men that make the ‘rules’ for women. Saw a show on tv the other day (some kinda of Jerry show, or something) and this idiot had 19 kids with 18 different women. He didn’t tell any of the women that he had this many ‘offspring’, yet there is no consiquence for him. My first thought Timothy Myers SR., was castration, but that would be taking away his rights.
  18. NavigatorApril 13, 2011 at 9:06 am
    ……………and his lefts!
  19. KevitivityApril 11, 2011 at 11:55 am
    $10 says that Ikea won’t ever build another factory in the US. and thats a lot of lost jobs.
  20. JeffApril 11, 2011 at 11:56 am
    From the sound of it, they’re not very good jobs.
  21. LindaApril 11, 2011 at 12:37 pm
    I agree. The differences between the way the company operates in Sweden and the way it operates in the U.S. are astonishing. It does seem as though we are the “New Third World” in this scenario.
  22. MikeApril 11, 2011 at 1:06 pm
    The real brunt of the Ikea manufacturing process in borne by its customers.
  23. Venturan (NDApril 11, 2011 at 1:58 pm
    Pro-tip #1: if you buy Ikea furniture, don’t plan on moving it. Save yourself the hassle and just give it away. Pro-tip #2: Don’t ever, ever trust the website’s ability to predict store quantities. Pro-tip #3: If you insist on shopping at Ikea, save boatloads of time by skipping Burbank and trekking to Carson or Costa Mesa.
  24. MikeApril 11, 2011 at 2:06 pm
    When I read that, I laughed so hard, I split the particle board sides of my Öesk.
  25. Jane DApril 11, 2011 at 12:14 pm
    Buck – Why are people surprised – he had the same attitude with the Howard & Phils bankruptcy. People were left waiting to be paid but it didn’t stop Buck from living in a mansion.
  26. ToddApril 11, 2011 at 12:23 pm
    Interesting addendum to the 10,000 petition signatures… SignOn.org has a petition calling for the reworking of Prop 13 (a cause I advocate, even ini don’t sign the online petition). Today alone, 500+ signatures. At least they all have names and cities that can ve viewed and reviewed by the public…
  27. Coastal SageApril 12, 2011 at 8:26 pm
    It’s still a stupid waste of time, because the petition has no legal effect…unlike a real initiative petition to amend Proposition 13 would. The practical questions is whether the Legislature will put a ballot measure on the statewide ballot to in some way amend Proposition 13 to raise revenues. I doubt it.

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