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May 10, 2011· scvtalk.com · WordPress (SCVTalk 3.0) · Wayback capture

May 10, 2011 – Daily Brief

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

  • The SCV Chamber of Commerce says a high speed rail line plus an HSR Train station could be an economic “boon” for the SCV. Dana Cop, chair the business interest group says, “High-speed rail will allow the job market to grow and jobs to be created.” But City leaders don’t sound so convinced and Mike Murphy, the City’s integovernmental relations guy sounds skeptical a station stop in the SCV is really being considered. SIGNAL
  • Meanwhile, the blogger who covers the California High Speed Rail authority says it’s understandable why Palmdale is so upset at the thought of losing that alignment and an HSR station. The Antelope Valley, he points out, could be home to 1 million people in the next 20 years HSR BLOG
  • Frank Ferry thinks the Assembly bill that would require cities to hold votes prior to outsourcing formerly county library services is mainly about protecting union jobs. The City Council is likely to voice its disapproval of the bill, AB 438, at tonight’s Council meeting SIGNAL
  • Ugh: A pair of nasty car crashes in the SCV yesterday. First a Castaic man was ejected from his pickup truck and killed on San Francisquito Road after his truck went off the road. CBS2 Later, a 22 year old woman allegedly turned in front of oncoming traffic at McBean and Springhill, which resulted in a collision with a pickup truck driven by an off-duty Sheriff’s Deputy. The woman is in critical condition and if you look at her crumpled sedan you can see why SIGNAL
  • The SCV Child and Family Center is shutting down its daycare and preschool services following budget cuts. The center, which receives a large portion of its funding from the state, says it can no longer afford to run the preschool for some 70 low income families without impact the services it offers adults in town.
  • Joe for President of Awesometown campaign begins with a youtube video of “Joe Awesome” explaining to his stereotypical Valencia family why he’s running for President of Awesometown. I approached it with an open mind, I really did, but, alas, I didn’t laugh. Apparently Joe’s ego is quite fragile; comments have been disabled on the video at YOUTUBE
  • Okay everyone back to your previous driving habits, gas prices are headed back down again, this time permanently. Oh wait. That’s what we said the last time they spiked to $4+/gallon. Analysts think gas prices could be below $4/gallon in California by Memorial Day, which is oddly when gas prices usually start to rise ahead of the summer vacation season LA TIMES
  • Whoa Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have separated LA TIMES
  • The task of re-authoring the ten year old Authorization for Military Force (which gave carte blanche to President Bush following 9/11) falls to a large extent onto Buck McKeon’s Armed Services Committee, according to POLITICO. Meanwhile, the LAWFARE blog takes a look at how McKeon wants to handle terrorism detainees, which is related to the AUMF bill.
  • Study of 7 million children born in California in the 1990s and 2000s reveals that children conceived of during the winter months have “a significantly greater risk of autism.” SCIENCE DAILY
  • For all you Skypers out there, you have a new owner. Microsoft has purchased Skype for $8.5 billion. LA TIMES
  • Interesting column on the high cost of low-paid teachers. NY TIMES
  • Letter writer wants Buck McKeon to give credit to President Obama as well as President Bush for killing Osama Bin Laden SIGNAL

Comments

18 · as published
  1. TaTonkaMay 10, 2011 at 5:50 am
    Does anyone have the link to the federal governments cost/benefit analysis of the high speed rail project? I am sure there must have been one done but I cant find a link to it anywhere.
  2. PetzMay 10, 2011 at 6:47 am
    There is no benefit.
  3. TaTonkaMay 10, 2011 at 6:52 am
    That post will be hidden soon
  4. NateMay 10, 2011 at 7:43 am
    Thumbs down for cynicalness
  5. ScooterMay 10, 2011 at 9:09 am
    I can tell you that as a passenger I have travelled throughout Europe on high speed rail. I have found little or no cost benefits. The ticket prices are very similar and in many cases more expensive than airfare.
  6. TaTonkaMay 10, 2011 at 9:17 am
    In 1999 I took rail from Berlin to Amsterdam. It was a nice ride. If I remember right it cost around 100.00 round trip. I am happy to say I have no memory of the trip back to Berlin. Oh and Amsterdam was a blast!!!
  7. Bill ReynoldsMay 10, 2011 at 9:23 am
    I would be perfectly happy with high speed rail travel IF it was created and operated by the private sector. We’re already heavily in debt subsidizing rail travel, bloated entitlements, illegal immigrants, etc. This post will soon be hidden. }
  8. David KMay 10, 2011 at 3:23 pm
    It would be great if the private sector would build high speed rail, and I expect private investment to be a part of the funding for California HSR. But why is rail held to a higher standard when it comes to public vs private investment than any other form of transportation in America? Where are the privately built commercial airports in America? (Hint, they dont exist) Why have private-public toll roads in California been a total failure? If infrastructure was profitable, private industry would have built it already. Since its not, government’s role is to build it. That’s why government has built our roads and airports, and continues to spend billions every year subsidizing them (User fees like gas taxes pay for barely half of our road budget, the rest comes from general taxes). Does the tea party crowd on SCVTalk believe that our current infrastructure magically appeared? It is here because the government spent our tax money to build it.
  9. Bill ReynoldsMay 10, 2011 at 7:06 pm
    If the gov’t could prove worthy of managing anything effectively, I would rejoice. How is the state of KaliFonia doing managing its budget? Hello!
  10. TaTonkaMay 10, 2011 at 7:17 am
    This will probably piss my conservative friends off. I like the idea of getting urgent text messages from the government. I am suprised someone did not think of that sooner. Post will be hidden soon.
  11. Timothy Myers SR.May 10, 2011 at 7:33 am
    I am just not sure what to make of that “Joe for President of Awesometown” webisode 1. I found the only sympathetic character the eye rolling sullen middle school son, and kind of found myself wanting to slap the grade school striving daughter. By the way, what in the heck are they eating?
  12. IHeartSCVMay 10, 2011 at 7:51 am
    RE: High-speed Rail Story Dana Cop’s quotations show a lot of thought has gone into the Chamber’s support for a stop in Santa Clarita: “High-speed rail will allow the job market to grow and jobs to be created”, and “Any opportunity to create more jobs in Santa Clarita is great since Santa Clarita has become a hub of employment. I like to call Santa Clarita the biggest small town you’ll ever know.” I love these kind of sophisticated insights into the SCV’s economy and job climate. But I mean really, why the story? A big new project and the Chamber of Commerce supports it with myopic, unqualified optimism and vague, numberless assurances of more jobs and local revenue? Not really a shocker.
  13. Timothy Myers SR.May 10, 2011 at 7:59 am
    Of more interest is the usual intellectual inconsistency where Repubs hate public works projects in general but LOVE them when they believe they can get their paws on some of the money. I am not shocked because my Nebraska bride and I have taken five children through the teen years so we should understand intellectual inconsistency better than most.
  14. TaTonkaMay 10, 2011 at 8:12 am
    My sources connected to Arnold Schwarzenegger tell me that Maria dumped him because he was to liberal. Go figure!
  15. ToddMay 10, 2011 at 9:51 am
    Bill, your post wouldn’t be hidden if only you could keep to the point. I’d be happy to debate te merits of privatizing rail with you, but I know now that your entire argument is predicated on unrelated issues such as immigration and social protection programs. That lesson is free. Too bad you’ll ignore it.
  16. Bill ReynoldsMay 10, 2011 at 11:14 am
    You know what they say about assumptions, eh Todd…. but please enlighten us all to the merits of gov’t operated/funded rail lines.
  17. NateMay 10, 2011 at 4:03 pm
    Todd you would have better luck going outside and talking to a really smart rock, it probably has a better chance of recognizing what am ASSumption is.
  18. NateMay 10, 2011 at 4:05 pm
    The invisible hand of the free market makes bad post invisible. Ron Paul would be proud of you Jeff. Now END THE FED!!!
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