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June 1, 2011· scvtalk.com · WordPress (SCVTalk 3.0) · Wayback capture

June 1, 2011 – Daily Brief

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

  • Scott Wilk reports in from the Citizen’s Redistricting Commission saying commissioners reacted favorably to two sample maps drawn up by a local coalition showing our preferred Assembly and State Senate Districts. He says the commission will release its first draft maps on June 10. You can see the districts the Coalition for Suburban Communities would like to see drawn HERE
  • Meanwhile, a redistricting consultant tells a local blog that California’s 26th Congressional district (Foothill/La Canada) could be combined with several other regional districts, possibly even the 25th. BLOG
  • The Signal, currently under occupation by Morris Media stooges, announced over the weekend that it hired Jason Schaff as its new Executive Editor. Schaff is a long-time journalist who was editor of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and worked at the LA Business Journal before that. He appears to take Lila Littlejohn’s current spot; Littlejohn will become City editor. Which may or may not bump current City Editor Natalie Everett somewhere else. Anyway the new editor could get started editing the Signal’s staffing page which would make tracking the Creekside re-shuffle a whole lot easier SIGNAL
  • Councilwoman Laurie Ender will announce her intention to campaign for a second term on the City Council today. She’s set to hold a press conference at City Hall this afternoon. All the Signal commenters chant G&L but is anyone listening? The Signal article credits Ender with being “instrumental” in the takeover & outsourcing of our library system. Bob Kellar announced his plans to seek reelection last month.  SIGNAL
  • City Briefs has some good photos of last week’s dedication of the Fallen Warrior Memorial Bridge CITY BRIEFS
  • Terrible car crash in Canyon Country claims the life of a 35 year old Canyon Country woman and puts two other men in the car in critical condition at Henry Mayo. KHTS
  • The Bakersfield Californian continues its excellent reporting on the options for routing of a High Speed Rail line. In its most recent report, it unearthed a 1994 study that looked at four different options for HSR through the SCV and into the Grapevine. Two of the options involved MagLev -Marsha McLean’s pet rail technology- and the other two involved “aggressive” and “very aggressive” tunneling and aerial features to get the steel-wheels train through the SCV and up the Grapevine while minimizing risk associated with earthquake faults. CA HSR caution that the study is old and not to read too much into it. The Grapevine alignment will be formally studied this year CALIFORNIAN
  • Good gravy, they’re actually going to shut down the 405 this summer in the Sepulveda Pass for 53 hours. Read all about it at WRB. Taking bets on how far traffic backs up on the 5 into the SCV- McBean? Magic Mountain exit?
  • Assemblyman Cameron Smyth’s office got pressured by a group of local residents yesterday who told his Deputy that Smyth should support extending certain California taxes so that education and other state functions aren’t slashed even more. One woman told Smyth’s staff that she went back to COC to become a nurse but couldn’t even find a seat in an entry-level course. The group they were with, Stand up for California, has SEIU backing SIGNAL, WEBSITE
  • Speaking of the state, a new bill has passed the State Senate that would require cities to review an “economic impact report” before approving big box retail development. The bill would compel retailers like WalMart to pay for the review, which would “give local officials insight into the expected revenues from the new store, the net impact on jobs in the area and the long-term effects on the surrounding community.”  Retailers like Costco would be exempt because they pay a living wage, whereas WalMart does not. Of course the League of California cities opposes the bill and I have no doubt the City would voice their opposition too SAC BEE
  • The Santa Clarita IRS agent who filed false tax returns and was convicted in January has been sentenced according to Reuters. He’ll serve three years in prison and faces $120,000 in restitution charges REUTERS
  • The woman who was so saddened by the death of a female duck on Lyons avenue last week that she wrote a letter to the Signal about it, has followed up with another LTE. She says later that day she and her husband presented the dead duck to its companions, who quacked twice “in thanks.” Then she buried it underneath a Duck Crossing sign. I love people like this- the whole world could go to s&(^ and they’d be there trying to make it a nicer place with even the smallest gestures SIGNAL
  • Someone is stealing dogs and cats from a County shelter in Los Angeles LA TIMES
  • Apple Store rumor: You know we have a confirmed Apple Store coming to the SCV sometime this year right? Well word on the street is for an August opening somewhere in the new Patios area of Westfield Town Center. This will make it easy for the iHeads to get a new iPhone come September.
  • New SCV Blog: The days of liberal SCVTalk.com dominating the local blogosphere are over. Some well-known local and not so-local conservatives have created a new conservative blog just for Santa Clarita named RIGHTONSCV.COM. With posts from Hart Board member/pundit Joe Messina, my buddy Kevin Korenthal, Messina’s wife, that fellow from WallBuilders who headlined a Mayors Prayer Breakfast, and some anonymous poster named “Patriotic Faith,” RightOnSCV.com is the place to go if you want to fret about whether the SCV is patriotic enough on Memorial Day, muse over the GOP presidential field, compare 2011 to 1938 Germany, or kiss a soldier. RIGHTONSCV.COM – where there’s an American Flag in every post.
  • I’m starting to appreciate Newhall Land’s “Joe Awesome for President of Awesometown” faux-campaign because it reveals what Newhall Land really thinks of the SCV and what we do and who we are. According to his campaign “bio,” Joe plays golf three times a week, runs errands for his wife at the mall,  and participates in a school carpool. Oh and his wife is a part time/full time realtor. AWESOMETOWN BLOG

Comments

27 · as published
  1. LarMccJune 1, 2011 at 7:42 am
    Thanks to The Signal for editing my LTE today on Hold the Mayo Hospital. They removed a line where I referenced the G&L Realty money that has flowed into many peoples pockets, including the hospital, their CEO and some of our councilpeoples campaigns. I guess they did not want to offend one of their big advertisers (the city).
  2. LindaJune 1, 2011 at 8:07 am
    Good letter, Larry. While I have always been treated well and fairly promptly at Henry Mayo, I know others have not. We do need another hospital in this valley. One note about the bullet proof partition in front of the receptionist: hospital violence is distressingly common; hence the presence of the security guard in the ER reception room as well.
  3. LarMccJune 1, 2011 at 9:51 am
    Thanks. Had no problems when I was in the ER once before. Then there were two relatives that were in there and the care was abysmal and that’s putting it mildly (but that was not in the ER). I don’t doubt the need for hospital security. But when comparing them head to head, it stood out as a noticeable difference.
  4. ToddJune 1, 2011 at 11:57 am
    Couldn’t agree more. HMNMH is AWFUL. When I was suffering from a kidney stone was in pain so intense, I literally had no peripheral vision. I drove myself to Holy Cross because of a previous awful incident at Mayo. At Holy Cross I was tended to properly, expediently and professionally. At Mayo, I was sort of disregarded and generally ignored, laying in the ER bed for 4 hours after being initially assessed and treated, before they could get around to finishing up my prescriptions and discharge paperwork. Regardless of how awful Mayo is, the valley’s population exceeds what that one little hospital can do. The fact that the Canyon Country residents have at least a 20 minute drive to the closest hospital is just awful for a suburban city with a population over 100,000. Yes, you expect that in a rural setting. Not in a populated area.
  5. Timothy Myers SR.June 1, 2011 at 7:55 am
    On Apple Store: I recently had occasion to go to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store at Fashion Island in Newport Beach and the Genius informed me that he was scheduled to do training of new personnel at the Store in Valencia in July or August, so that is an independent confirmation.
  6. AlpinerJune 1, 2011 at 8:11 am
    Interesting that Morris corporate management chose the new editor rather than waiting until the new publisher is hired and letting him or her hire their own people — which in my understanding is the normal procedure that most newspapers have been using for generations. Then again, Morris management also hired Littlejohn the same way if my memory is correct. So I guess there is precedent. Sadly, it now puts Littlejohn in a tough situation and one does wonder why the change at this time? Could this new editor also become the newspaper’s publisher?
  7. FredJune 1, 2011 at 8:19 am
    Checked out that new conservative site. I’ll bookmark it, stop by now and again, but I am not impressed as of yet. And I say that as someone warm to what they are attempting to do. The writing seems to be too sterile and matter-of-fact. What makes Jeff’s particular blog special and unique is that it is for the most part personal passion from a group of like-minded individuals who wish to see their worldview played out in our community. Hence, their witticisms and criticisms of our fair valley are filtered through this personal perspective. There is often a lot of angst and desperation expressed in these posts, say for instance, when a Signal reporter uses the word “flophouse” or the city council nixes the idea of bike lanes on McBean. And I take umbrage of the use of “loony” left in the masthead. I think that is a bit extreme. I wouldn’t call Jeff or anyone here “looney.” Misguided? Sure. Pollyannish, certainly. “Goofy?” That may be a stretch? But “looney?” I don’t see it, never have, except with maybe a few commenters. I tend to reserve the use of “loony” for people like Ed Begley, Jr., the people at Pacifica Radio, and Doug Henning.
  8. AlpinerJune 1, 2011 at 8:44 am
    I have to agree with Fred at this point. They need to focus much more on local issues. Too much of what they publish is national and already on thousands of larger websites. They need to bring a personal touch, as Jeff does, otherwise they become just one more “right” site. They need to claim the SCV in more than just name.
  9. PetzJune 2, 2011 at 4:48 am
    Fred, if you want a chance to shape the direction of a dedicated outlet for conservative views contact Joe Messina Jmessina@wildcat.la and jump on board as a contributor. “Looney Left” may not be a term that Petz would use-but let’s be honest and point out that RightonScv folks have not been encourage to use SCVTALK as an outlet for opposing views. This is a unique opportunity to help develop and support important values-if you are looking for the best taco in Newhall swing by Scvtalk and take a look.
  10. NateJune 2, 2011 at 9:03 am
    “If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn’t thinking.” ~George S. Patton
  11. ScvFanJune 1, 2011 at 8:44 am
    Ok….seriously the duck lady and her LTEs are beyond hilarious. I couldn’t believe how many comments the first LTE received. Record breaking for the Signal perhaps? She was ridiculed for her dramatics and unnecessary emotions and then…she writes ANOTHER one in the same ridiculous tone. Pure comedy.
  12. AleksJune 1, 2011 at 10:54 am
    This is the valley we live in.
  13. 4eyedsueJune 1, 2011 at 1:18 pm
    Instead of harassing high school math teachers in search of a little fun, local law enforcement should focus on solving this ducky-hit-and-run. RIP Daisy
  14. NateJune 2, 2011 at 12:18 pm
    The duck lady is obviously quirky but the people in the comments are just being A holes.
  15. Lori RivasJune 1, 2011 at 9:00 am
    Yes, please, let’s remember that Ender was instrumental in the takeover and outsourcing of our libraries. That is a stellar platform.
  16. LarMccJune 1, 2011 at 9:54 am
    She also was instruments in opening her purse for the hospital developer to dump $30 thousand in. She lost my vote then. Wonder if people will forget about that.
  17. Timothy Myers SR.June 1, 2011 at 11:36 am
    They can’t forget about it because they were not aware of it in the first place!
  18. MikeJune 1, 2011 at 11:24 am
    Telling that this new blog includes Roger Gitlin on its team. (Required reading: Roger Gitlin, Repugnant Racist http://scvtalk.com/2010/08/10/roger-gitlin-repugnant-racist/ )
  19. NateJune 2, 2011 at 9:09 am
    don’t forget this one. http://westranchbeacon.com/2011/03/roger-gitlin-wave-the-flag-johnny-reb/ Nate would like to know if Petz feels as his BFF Gitlin, that a true Patriot would refuse to take down the Stars and Bars?
  20. TaTonkaJune 1, 2011 at 4:04 pm
    Was there any important economic information out today? How is that hope and change working for you? I cant think of one valid reason to give this empty suit president 4 more years. PLEASE someone give me one. PLEASE!
  21. Timothy Myers SR.June 1, 2011 at 4:39 pm
    TaTonka: This is a local news blog. Go over to rightonscv.com and talk in the echo chamber.
  22. yourwebguruJune 1, 2011 at 4:43 pm
    Unemployment: 9.6% Interest rates: 15% Federal Deficit: At a record high The year: 1983 The President: Won by a landslide the following year. Don’t count the “empty suit” out just yet.
  23. TaTonkaJune 1, 2011 at 4:52 pm
    Well “your” You being the sharp individual you are. I am sure he has your vote.
  24. AleksJune 1, 2011 at 8:33 pm
    You think a Republican will be better in office? Democrat or Republican, it doesn’t matter. They are all just puppets in the end. There is only one party in this country: rich people.
  25. TaTonkaJune 1, 2011 at 4:47 pm
    Thanks Timmy but until there is one thing in life you can beat me at. I wont be taking any advice from you. Stick to predictions at least there youm are right 1 out of every 376 times.
  26. Gang FangJune 1, 2011 at 8:53 pm
    Maybe his administration will take up the task of helping Americans with severe grammar and spelling problems. And I’m gonna go ahead and wager that you could cash in on that, TaTonka.
  27. NateJune 2, 2011 at 9:04 am
    Somewhere there is a bridge with out a troll… free passage for all!
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