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September 2, 2011· scvtalk.com · WordPress (SCVTalk 3.0) · Wayback capture

September 2, 2011 – Daily Brief *

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

  • A 31 year old Saugus woman was found dead in her home in Plum Canyon yesterday. Homicide detectives are investigating and questioning her boyfriend but no word yet if the death was suspicious. Neighbors of the woman say Sheriff’s Deputies had recently visited the woman’s home for domestic violence calls and said that the woman had been beaten up by her boyfriend in the past SCV NEWS, SIGNAL *EDIT: Boyfriend arrested for murder. Eric Earle, 40, is in the clink on $1 million bail SIGNAL
  • That 4.2 quake in Newhall yesterday got everyone’s attention, with the LA Times saying it’s the most powerful quake we’ve had in the Southland in 1 year. SIGNAL KHTS says it’s a good reminder for September, which is Disaster Preparedness Month KHTS
  • A New 400 foot tall Lex Luther:Drop of Doom ride is planned for Magic Mountain. The ride will be attached to the existing Superman Escape ride and sounds very similar: riders will shoot up to the top, enjoy 5 seconds of free fall, and be stopped on the way down. Video at SCVNEWS, SIGNAL
  • Check out Disney’s new website promoting the infrastructure they’ve already built in their Golden Oak Ranch property in Placerita Canyon. There’s an entire suburban street with requisite cul-de-sac, an urban business district more charming than anything we’ve got in the real SCV, and more GOLDEN OAK RANCH
  • Bad news on jobs in August: the economy had net zero job growth in August. Local governments shed 20,000 additional jobs last month (yay!Smaller government) while private job growth was essentially flat NY TIMES, THINK PROGRESS
  • Gas prices expected to rise ahead of Labor Day weekend SIGNAL
  • It’s the curse of recessionary economics: revenues to state governments go down as unemployment increases at the same time that people need more help and assistance to get on their feet and train for new jobs. Case in point: COC, where classes are 98% full with deep waiting lists and applications for financial aid are at an all time high according to ace .edu reporter Tammy Marashlian SIGNAL
  • Meanwhile, California Community college chancellor says tuition costs may increase at community colleges again next spring. For the fall term rates increased from $26 to $36/credit hour COUGAR NEWS
  • LA County will update west siders on the result of a library needs survey next week at the West Ranch Town Council meeting WRB
  • We have our own Chesley “Sully” Sulenberger! A 77 year old Lancaster pilot was flying from the AV to Long Beach when he experienced mechanical failures on his 1946 single engine airplane. So the ace pilot landed on Sierra Highway near Acton, injuring no one -including his lady friend passenger- in the process. I love these kinds of stories SCVNEWS
  • Speaking of aces, a Valencia company has just finished a transport vehicle system that will help move & protect new, privately-funded rockets destined to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. Leon Worden, ever the space geek, explains it all KHTS
  • The SCV Sheriff’s Station will continue its aggressive DUI campaign this holiday weekend, with yet another DUI checkpoint somewhere in the SCV. I’ll say this for Becker: he’s the most aggressive Sheriff’s Captain I’ve seen since starting this blog…question is are weekly DUI checkpoints a good use of resources? SIGNAL
  • Three former Master’s College students have started up an IT management company called Cloud 49. The firm offers cloud computing resources, disaster recovery, backup services etc SIGNAL
  • The wedge between fiscal hawks and defense hawks grows: American Conservative magazine blogger accuses Buck McKeon of exploiting the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 to increase defense spending. Our Congressman will give a speech to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, in which he will say that defense spending should be exempt from efforts to reduce the deficit. AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE
  • Not a job I would ever get: Buck McKeon is looking to hire a communications director after his long time PR person Lindsay Mask left to join a pr firm SCV NEWS
  • Another LTE from a library user claiming most workers don’t know what they’re doing in our new libraries. SIGNAL
  • LTE author disputes that Newhall Ranch will be bad for the SCV, saying that essentially, Newhall Ranch should be judged by how much land will be preserved. Doesn’t this strike you as faulty logic? Newhall Ranch is good because it doesn’t touch x amount of acres. Those acres aren’t touched right now! SIGNAL
  • The SCV should be thankful to Senator Barbara Boxer for all the work she’s done for the SCV over the years, says Lynne Plambeck SIGNAL
  • The latest API scores are a “A testament to the quality of education here in the valley, these scores also show how much we Santa Clarita Valley residents value our own future.” I’d say that’s especially true in light of the amount schools have been forced to cutback on their budgets  SIGNAL

Comments

45 · as published
  1. MikeSeptember 2, 2011 at 8:23 am
    I live about a mile from the possible homicide and I’m surprised we don’t hear about from that enclave. It’s always been a shady little pocket of Saugus (easy there, CC), and I marvel at the drunks and tweaked-out fools that dart across Bouquet to snag some essentials at the 7-Eleven. In other news, here’s an animation of the planned coaster. Looks nuts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn5X805NVLY
  2. Mr PerezSeptember 3, 2011 at 4:11 pm
    It goes up, it comes down. How is that nuts/scary? lol
  3. WalkerSeptember 2, 2011 at 8:30 am
    The signal says the boyfriend has been arrested on Murder charges.
  4. PetzSeptember 2, 2011 at 8:39 am
    You don’t have to read Freakonomics to recognize that something is very “fishy” with the Newhall API score. And while no one has mentioned it here operation “Fast and Furious” is beginning to look like Obama’s Watergate. America needs to know what the president knew, and when he knew it. The cover up of the crime is always what gets you.
  5. Phil EllisSeptember 2, 2011 at 10:55 am
    So, Petz, what is fishing about it?
  6. Phil EllisSeptember 2, 2011 at 10:56 am
    Make that fishy. I need to stop multi-tasking.
  7. Leon WordenSeptember 2, 2011 at 12:06 pm
    you’re fishing.
  8. Phil EllisSeptember 2, 2011 at 12:26 pm
    I wish
  9. PetzSeptember 2, 2011 at 9:04 am
    The mainstream media in town failed to report on the SCV Patriots meeting last night in Stevenson Ranch. Hundreds of patriots filled the community room at the Residence Inn including Petz, Bill Reynolds, David Gauny, the Messinas, Scott Wilk. Please plan to attend The Constitution Day celebration on September 17. This is a nonpartisan event sponsored to inprove your knowledge of the Constitution
  10. PetzSeptember 2, 2011 at 9:15 am
    Berta Gonzalez-Harper was also in the house.
  11. JeffSeptember 2, 2011 at 9:16 am
    “The mainstream media in town failed to report on the SCV Patriots meeting last night’ You have your own blog now. Instead of ranting about Obama, why don’t you do something useful for your audience and post local news about conservatives. I’d link to you as long as you don’t threaten me again.
  12. PetzSeptember 2, 2011 at 9:52 am
    Petz offered to clean up any light bulbs you received in the mail. The Patriot Report is merely a public sevice giving SCVTALK an exclusive.
  13. Timothy Myers SRSeptember 2, 2011 at 9:27 am
    Speaking of Freakonomics Petz, I called the Residence Inn and their LARGEST room holds 150 people, so I wonder about this assertion of “hundreds.”
  14. PetzSeptember 2, 2011 at 9:55 am
    Took some journalistic liberty “Million Man March” style-but the room was SRO. Reports of the “Tea Party demise are inaccurate. Very little partisanship in the room.
  15. Timothy Myers SRSeptember 2, 2011 at 9:58 am
    Are you sure Berta and Bill did not think it was the pickup point for the Soylent Green factory?
  16. PetzSeptember 2, 2011 at 10:07 am
    They sat in the back.
  17. BertaSeptember 2, 2011 at 11:28 am
    I am a little too “salty” for the soylent green factory; you are much blander so you go Tim!
  18. Timothy Myers SRSeptember 2, 2011 at 1:02 pm
    I am sure I am on the list. I get a senior discount 60% of the time (unsolicited) and young men in their 20′s in the service industry (restaurant, mechanics, construction, etc.) refer to me as “boss.”
  19. MikeSeptember 2, 2011 at 1:05 pm
    Berta, I’ve missed you
  20. JeffSeptember 2, 2011 at 1:45 pm
    cosign
  21. BertaSeptember 2, 2011 at 2:21 pm
    Mike and Jeff you are very sweet! I thank you both for your kind comments! Mike congrats on the under 40 nomination… I admit I miss sharing thoughts and ideas, the discussion, with you and a few others. I still read scvtalk nearly every day and notice that even though I have not posted in many months until yesterday, some folks still insist on getting their shots in and posting outright lies about me such as “Jane” yesterday. I do not miss that at all. Have a happy, safe Labor Day weekend all!
  22. MikeSeptember 2, 2011 at 4:50 pm
    Thanks Berta, welcome back.
  23. ToddSeptember 2, 2011 at 10:32 am
    Remind me to call the fire marshal next time theres a meeting of the so-called Patriots….
  24. MikeSeptember 2, 2011 at 1:04 pm
    Ask the hotel staff to count the spent bottles of “Two if By Tea” and divide by two.
  25. ToddSeptember 2, 2011 at 2:27 pm
    Isn’t that Limbaugh’s crap?
  26. PetzSeptember 2, 2011 at 2:32 pm
    Yeah right, Rush starts a new company that employs people making the highest quality iced tea in America-after establishing Snapple as a national brand , and he gets you poking insults from the peanut gallery.
  27. LarMccSeptember 2, 2011 at 11:51 pm
    Sorry, that tea is crap. It’s sweetened junk that is mostly water, sugar and then some “tea essence” (per the label). The best tea in the world is TeJava, it contains brewed tea. That’s it. They carry it at Trader Joes and most markets: http://www.tejava.com
  28. ToddSeptember 4, 2011 at 1:30 am
    Who’s poking insults here Steven? I asked a question. Nothing more.
  29. Leon WordenSeptember 2, 2011 at 12:07 pm
    Hi Petz! Want coverage? Send out a press release next time.
  30. PetzSeptember 2, 2011 at 12:48 pm
    You must receive them already. Will you cover Constitution Day?
  31. Leon WordenSeptember 2, 2011 at 1:57 pm
    Hi Steve! We try to advance whatever we know about – pls use this address for press releases – info@scvnews.com
  32. Damage IncSeptember 2, 2011 at 12:45 pm
    Photographic evidence of these “hundreds”.
  33. PetzSeptember 2, 2011 at 1:43 pm
    Come to Constitution Day if you want evidence.
  34. Damage IncSeptember 2, 2011 at 2:35 pm
    How about you back up your claims with photographic evidence, I have a hard time believing you when your kind could hardly get anyone local to show up to Gitlin’s minute man crank convention last year.
  35. Your Web GuruSeptember 2, 2011 at 5:16 pm
    Petz, I’m VERY disappointed in you and your group for choosing a meeting venue in unincorporated L.A. County. I hardly think it fitting to call yourselves “SCV” Patriots.
  36. PetzSeptember 2, 2011 at 5:35 pm
    One Vision One Valley…sat next to a gentleman who traveled from Pine Mountain. How was your flag burning?
  37. Your Web GuruSeptember 2, 2011 at 6:13 pm
    It was fabulous. It morphed into a combination effigy-burning and weenie roast!
  38. BertaSeptember 2, 2011 at 5:44 pm
    Guru the “V” in SCV is for “valley” and Stevenson Ranch is most certainly in the Santa Clarita Valley therefore SCV Patriots is appropriate.
  39. Your Web GuruSeptember 2, 2011 at 6:15 pm
    I’m just razzing my good friend Petz. We STANCH residents sometimes feel left out of the SCV loop.
  40. BertaSeptember 2, 2011 at 6:29 pm
    Got it, thanks.
  41. PetzSeptember 3, 2011 at 3:26 am
    The Guru knows that Petz extended him a personal invitation to attend, so how he feels “left out” when the event was in his backyard is perplexing. Well maybe not after learning that he walks his dogs in the bike lanes.
  42. Your Web GuruSeptember 3, 2011 at 7:00 am
    I’m curious about the local Tea Party’s reaction to Republican elected officials who, despite voting against the Federal Stimulus package, subsequently requested stimulus funds claiming they would “help create jobs” in their districts? This included such Tea Party notables and Republican presidential candidates as Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry and Ron Paul. How do they justify their association with Tea Party ideology when their hypocrisy is so blatantly apparent? Will they be held accountable for their actions, or will Tea Party officials let this slide in their single-minded quest to get Obama out of the White House?
  43. LarMccSeptember 2, 2011 at 6:50 pm
    I am surprised The Signal actually published my LTE today about the libraries. Even more interesting are the comments. The first one out of the box chose to attack me and cited my postings here on SCVTalk. I have NEVER been anti takeover of the libraries. I was against HOW the city went about it. It was rushed into, poorly planned and shoved down peoples throats. All we have gotten from the city is spin and lies. They lied about the special tax, lied about having council people on the library board and now are lying about the performance of the new setup. I do not think you will find anything I have ever posted that was against the concept of the city assuming so-called local control. I do not like dishonesty coming from our city government. When I see it, I will call them on it. What I experienced on my visits to the library reflects the rush job the city did. The staff was unfamiliar with the facilities, not knowledgeable about policies and quite frankly they did not appear to have a clue. The four people at the counter looked totally lost and had to track down the one person in the back who could help pick out specific books for my kids. All we ever use the library for is books, I could care less about other enhancements the city did. For some people, perhaps things are better. But I have yet to talk to anyone that did not feel service has gone way down hill. The ship has sailed and we are in the library business like it or not. I don’t want to beat a dead horse on this, but I felt it was important to point out that everything is not so great there, unlike the glowing column Marsha Mclean wrote. Things will get better in time, hopefully by speaking out we can light a fire under the city and get them to hold their vendors feet to the fire. And for the record, I am against the library takeover bill, AB438. The decision to outsource should be kept at the local level. WE elected the 4 bozos on the council and voter apathy has returned them to office. You reap what you sow and we did in this case. Maybe next election, people will actually pay attention to who is running and what they stand for and we can get a bigger turnout than in the past.
  44. BertaSeptember 2, 2011 at 9:43 pm
    LarMcc I read your LTE. I have no reason to doubt your experience however; it does not square with my recent experiences at the Canyon Country branch. I attended the grand opening and everything was very nice and went smoothly. I borrowed a book on early California history and forgot when it was due. I went online and tried to check my account but my card number was not recognized. I called the local branch and the FIRST AND ONLY person I spoke with apologized, checked my library card number and saw that my card was not linked to the system for some reason, linked it properly, informed me my book was overdue and I owed .60 cents, offered to renew so that I could finish reading it, renewed for me, and said I could pay the fine online or when returning book, all within under 3 minutes. When I again went to the branch to return the book and pay the fine, I was promptly and courteously attended in less than two minutes. I also browsed some new titles, and enjoyed my time at my local library branch after having been asked if I need help by a young woman returning books to the shelves. You say, “They lied about the special tax, lied about having council people on the library board and now are lying about the performance of the new setup.” My response is that 1. They did not lie about the special tax but in fact decided we did not even need it anyway so why litigate with the county. Instead, we taxpayers within city limits get to save that $27.84. 2. Mayor McLean and ProTem Ender are both on the Council and they ARE the library board. 3. MY experiences using our new library system have been positive. Further, I have now read, including yours, I believe four individuals complaining out of a population of approximately 174,000 residents which hardly indicates massive problems with our new library system. Are there perhaps some kinks still to work out, perhaps. Is it a disaster, not even close. At least we can agree on AB438. In my opinion, it is nothing more than one more union grab for power.
  45. LarMccSeptember 2, 2011 at 11:45 pm
    It’s good that your experience was fine there. Mine was quite the opposite and details were limited in my LTE due to the signals space limitations. Upon returning the books, I had to track someone down, who did not know the answer as to what was overdue. They found someone that supposedly did. I asked specifically about what was overdue and if I owed anything. I got a blank stare and she told me to just return everything. I asked where and she pointed to the counter. I tried to put the books on the counter and she then said there was a slot. I had to look a while and found a cart blocking the return slot which I moved and put the books in. I left with no answers. I held off on writing anything and was going to let it pass. But I decided to after logging on to the library website and seeing I owe almost $10 in overdue fees. Everyone uses the library differently. We are simple ‘get the books and go’ people. I couldn’t care less about all the window dressing improvements they did, I do not hang out there. I understand for some, things are better. For me they were not based on experiences at the Valencia and Newhall branches. I stand by my statement about the lies. The city still claims they could collect the tax but chose not to. I went through the trouble of looking up the language from the actual tax bill and it was very clear the city could not. Perhaps the city was going to use some sort of bizarre twinkie type defense in litigation, but the reality is that someone at the city ‘thought’ they could collect the tax and later realized they could not. The city would never admit this, knew they would lose in court and instead took the position that they could if they want to but they chose not to. I did write another LTE detailing this here: http://www.the-signal.com/archives/39909/ When it came to the library board, the whole council decided to sit on the board. Some questioned this, but the city again represented that this was common practice and even got the signal to join in on spreading yet another lie. I took the time, researched 23 cities at random and found only one city where one library board member also sat on the council. I again wrote another LTE here calling the city out on this: http://www.the-signal.com/archives/44823/ As for your final point, again, some will have good experiences here, some may not. I have chatted about it with several people and no one is impressed. Also, I do not recall ever calling this a “disaster.” It’s just not up to par with what I was used to with the county. I am sure it will get better with time, but again, the city promised better service from day one. For us, they have yet to deliver. As for LTE’s, if you want to use this as a basis for success, there are four letters complaining and one good letter. That good letter was from Lois Eisenberg, who I am certain sits around all day and tries to find positive things to write about. It was mostly about getting her library card with a picture on it. But counting her letter, that is 4 to 1. I am disgusted by the attitude of most of our council people on many issues. The library is just another example, but I really don’t want to debate the past all over again. I know that this is the city’s sacred cow and I hope that by calling them out on things I may help contribute to them considering the errors of their ways and representing us better next time. And no, I don’t mean voting a certain way, they need to learn how to listen to and respect people. However, you are correct about AB438 and at least we can agree on that.
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