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February 27, 2012· scvtalk.com · WordPress (SCVTalk 3.0) · Wayback capture

February 27, 2012 Daily Brief-”Big News Weekend” Edition

By Timothy Myers SR. — Tim Myers

Plenty going on late Friday and through the weekend, so let’s get going:

  • Sharon Runner, who recently announced she would not run for reelection for the State Senate Seat formerly held by her husband, got a lung transplant on Friday at UCLA.  We wish her well.  SIGNAL
  • I resist the temptation to speak about “cradle to grave” Republican minimum wage plans because the pictures of 90 year old Maxine Coleman at a birthday celebration at the Wendy’s in Saugus probably show that having some place to work has kept her remarkably young and fit.  (From pics I would have guessed mid-60′s max)  SIGNAL
  • Jim Holt of the SIGNAL  concludes his series on “cold cases” with the brutal murder of Eddie Politelli in Stevenson Ranch in 2006 by a still unidentified machete wielding man.  This murder even has an eyewitness.
  • Is it about two weeks before the absentee ballots drop?  SIGNAL has story of “wonderful” things City has done with federal stimulus funds.
  • Drive carefully.  Motorcyclist   killed on Bouquet Canyon over the weekend and motorist  killed on Lake Hughes Road this morning.  Rain in the forecast so SLOW DOWN.
  • Only in 2012.  SCVNEWS pushes a story through social media on three alleged female gang members with the monikers Little Quack, Psycho and Tiny on the run in Newhall when one turns herself in after reading the story and then chides SCVNEWS on Facebook regarding incorrect information.  Could Mr. Zuckerberg have anticipated this?
  • Not cool, I know, but MYERS MUSINGS  details how I think that all this obsession with Jake’s Way Section 8 crime wave is not really borne out by the facts.
  • In a somewhat Signal edited version of this WRB diatribe, Dave Bossert states that he would be voting (and maybe running) in this City Council election but for the nastiness of Frank Ferry.  Still, people West of the freeway can participate in the election in carpetbagger fashion by contributing to Bob Kellar and TimBen Boydston.
  • “It mean I got’s no money to do a proper campaign mailer!”  Supporters of Ed Colley and Paul Strickland  write supportive letters to the editor.
  • I am not going to link to them but a lot of LTE’s recently about taking a screen or two away from “Chipwrecked” at the local multiplexes so we might see “The Iron Lady” and other serious films instead of driving to Pasadena.

Comments (51)

  1. Leon WordenFebruary 27, 2012 at 12:54 pm
    To our friends at The Signal: Congratulations and good luck under your new publisher. We mean it.
  2. mikeFebruary 27, 2012 at 12:58 pm
    who’s the new boss?
  3. Timothy Myers SRFebruary 27, 2012 at 1:02 pm
    Same as the old boss?
  4. IHeartSCVFebruary 27, 2012 at 1:02 pm
    Leon, I had no idea your readership was so broad. Congrats on being so popular with the short, 30-something female gang member demographic. Kidding aside, it does make for a pretty spectacular story arc.
  5. Leon WordenFebruary 27, 2012 at 1:12 pm
    Thanks iHeart … yeah our readership is rather broad … it was kind of funny when another local news entity reported having 1.0 million monthly independent page views in November because we looked back and saw that we had 1.3 million that same month across our multiple websites … we’re at 1.4 million now and counting… but yes, it is rather weird when life imitates art imitating life.
  6. IHeartSCVFebruary 27, 2012 at 2:14 pm
    I find those pageview metrics all but incomprehensible (luckily for me, I don’t need stats to know that IHeartSCV is profoundly obscure). For example, compete.com shows that your site had fewer unique visitors in November than The Signal, despite your report of more pageviews. I find it challenging to reconcile all of the various measurements with one another.
  7. brookFebruary 27, 2012 at 2:54 pm
    I would hope there is a pageview click credit for every time I visit the site. Congrats on the big million+ numbers! That big number means a lot of people are visiting (again and again) to learn about news. Right on!
  8. JaneFebruary 27, 2012 at 1:24 pm
    Gang – the gal was probably ticked at being referred to as “bulky” in the story.
  9. Timothy Myers SRFebruary 27, 2012 at 1:32 pm
    Then she should have said “Bones are for dogs!!!”
  10. LarMccFebruary 27, 2012 at 3:27 pm
    I think her email to Leon is sad. She claims to be a high school graduate yet writes a sentence with spelling, grammatical, punctuation errors and texting abbreviations in it. If I were trying to tell someone off, I would at least try to write something that did not make me look like an uneducated moron.
  11. Phil EllisFebruary 27, 2012 at 3:43 pm
    Obviously, not a local.
  12. PetzFebruary 27, 2012 at 2:10 pm
    Myers opinion piece in The Signal yesterday conveniently omited Hatami’s close ties to public sector unions. This is by itself reason not to vote for him. “Tough on crime”, but preparing to pick our pockets from a seat in the council chambers.
  13. Timothy Myers SRFebruary 27, 2012 at 3:07 pm
    Petz: So he is a Trojan horse, eh Petz? It is hard to explain the disingenuous position but I think that most people in public safety unions would put themselves down politically as “anti-union,” though that is intellectually dishonest. I don’t think they see themselves as members of a “union” union, hard as that is to believe.
  14. PetzFebruary 27, 2012 at 4:32 pm
    That may be true of the rank and file, but the union leadership knows how to game the political system. Petz thinks Mike Cruz is pulling the the Hatami puppet strings . You should have mentioned the union connection in your opinion piece.
  15. PetzFebruary 27, 2012 at 4:32 pm
    That may be true of the rank and file, but the union leadership knows how to game the political system. Petz thinks Mike Cruz is pulling the the Hatami puppet strings . You should have mentioned the union connection in your opinion piece.
  16. spineflower2February 27, 2012 at 2:49 pm
    Motorcycle accident was in San Francisquito Canyon, not Bouquet Canyon. This time.
  17. ToddFebruary 27, 2012 at 4:55 pm
    Per the CHP, about 4:30 today a car went off the road and in to the creek on Bouquet at The Oaks. So, I guess its all made good. Also theres snow on the Grapevine (duh), Escondido Summit on the 14 (not unheard of) and now in Irwindale at the 210/605. Wow.
  18. mikeFebruary 27, 2012 at 5:06 pm
    Where’s Irwindale?
  19. PetzFebruary 27, 2012 at 3:03 pm
    Did The Artist ever play in Santa Clarita?
  20. Timothy Myers SRFebruary 27, 2012 at 3:05 pm
    Nope, and neither did the Iron Lady. Plenty of screens for “Chipwrecked” though!
  21. Cheryl PhillipsFebruary 27, 2012 at 6:44 pm
    No Artist, no Iron Lady, no Beginners, no Tree of Life, no A Better Life, no My Week With Marilyn – pretty sad. Saw everyone of them down in the Valley at the Encino Laemmle or Sherman Oaks Arclight – shopped and ate a meal after each movie as well.
  22. DazzledFebruary 27, 2012 at 7:49 pm
    How about at the Stevenson Ranch Cineplex? Did any of those films show at the Stevenson Ranch Cineplex?
  23. brookFebruary 28, 2012 at 9:09 am
    Its not a plot to screw us out of “quality” films. Studios determine the size of release and usually these Oscar films are on a more limited release. Here is the recent Top 20 http://www.boxofficeguru.com/weekend20.htm The wide release films are on thousands of screens where films like My Week with Marilyn are on less than 600, the studios determine this number. The theater companies then place their share of the prints where the widest audience will go to see them. And many of these Oscar film studios are the small specialty divisions that churn out these small release films, Miramax, Paramount Classics, Fox Searchlight, etc. Unfortunately we are in a suburban town at the very north of Los Angeles. We are in fact lucky in LA to have so many theaters to see these limited release films. If one of these small films takes off and gets a wider release then perhaps we will see it up here too. Just like Juno, Slumdog Millionaire, Croching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Blair With Project all did when they were very small releases in the beginning. Otherwise we just suck it up and (gasp) drive over the hill.
  24. LarMccFebruary 27, 2012 at 3:21 pm
    I find Dave Bossert’s opening statement about Frank Ferry threatening to “bury” the West Ranch area very disturbing. This comes on the heels of another Ferry revelation (to me at least) from Diane Trautman via the City Council Watch FB page where Diane says she “learned after the 2008 election that at least one member of our local media had been threatened by Frank.” ( http://www.facebook.com/groups/101987883261253/ ) Add in all the other nonsense this guy has done including alleged threats to other candidates and threats to residents of this city. This is a mentally disturbed individual. This is someone that should not be running this city or even a school. I’ve been called out for being a “Ferry hater.” I don’t hate, I just have real concerns about a man that wields this little bit of power this way. Are we supposed to be fine with this? Some may claim that he is not “evil, or that he’s part of the devil’s trinity, or the king viper in the den of vipers.” Well, what do you call this behavior then? I personally find Ferry’s attitude toward others is very sick and am disgusted by it all.
  25. Timothy Myers SRFebruary 27, 2012 at 3:49 pm
    I have heard about these so-called “threats” from the people who they were made to and if they were actually afraid they are wussies and losers. Everyone knows a barking dog has not bite!
  26. LarMccFebruary 27, 2012 at 4:08 pm
    It’s not that people should not be afraid. I don’t think any of these people were affected by his threats besides The Signal (I am guessing). Perhaps I am too much of an idealist. I just don’t think government should work this way. Our leaders need to tolerate and respect other viewpoints. Someone that has this sort of attitude is someone that thinks only their viewpoint matters. And someone that thinks only their viewpoint is right is a dictator, IMHO. I am waiting for when He takes the throne of mayor again. Perhaps an invasion of Stevenson Ranch with the goal of eventually taking over LA City is in order.
  27. Need for Involved CitizenryFebruary 27, 2012 at 3:55 pm
    How could you omit that one of our local Republican groups endorsed Tim Ben Boydston and Bob Kellar for City Council Tim? You pissed that Laurie Ender didn’t get their nod?
  28. Timothy Myers SRFebruary 27, 2012 at 4:21 pm
    Endorsements don’t interest me unless a group endorses a candidate that loses control of their bladder in public!
  29. Angelo CandelabraFebruary 27, 2012 at 4:11 pm
    Today I checked in with a high level contact at city hall to find out their thoughts on the recent commentaries by Mr. Bossert. The initial reaction was “Huh? What commentaries?” Then, after reading his posts, they were sincerely indifferent. This surprised me as there was a time when he would get sorely under their skin. My contact mentioned that they don’t care what he has to say because they are no longer interested in annexing Stevenson Ranch because fixing the severe deficit in parks and recreational facilities would be too great of a burden on the city.
  30. Timothy Myers SRFebruary 27, 2012 at 4:24 pm
    What AC? Don’t you know that SR is practically Beverly Hills? Plus Westridge probably has some kind of record for per capita dollars of underwater housing.
  31. Angelo CandelabraFebruary 27, 2012 at 5:07 pm
    There are tracts in Stevenson Ranch where the homes are so close two neighbors could shake hands through the 2nd floor windows. Southern Oaks has beautiful homes, but to get there you have to drive down Pico Canyon which looks like hell between the freeway and the Old Road. Westridge has beautiful homes and nice recreational amenities, but that’s because it’s part of Valencia and not part of Stevenson Ranch. You are correct, there are quite a few foreclosures and short sales in Westridge. Also, the common areas there look poorly maintained (perhaps the HOA is struggling with underpaid dues).
  32. lstaedtlerFebruary 27, 2012 at 7:15 pm
    The same could be said of a lot of tract housing in Santa Clarita. While Pico Canyon is no dream, it is comparable to many major streets in the City.
  33. CastaicClayFebruary 28, 2012 at 8:08 am
    Can HOA’s put a lien on the bank owned properties if they are not paying dues like they would a family not paying dues?
  34. LarMccFebruary 28, 2012 at 8:32 am
    Yes, and banks can be hit with fines and everything else a homeowner would be hit with.
  35. GibsonFebruary 27, 2012 at 5:05 pm
    I think your source does not know the true impact of Stevenson Ranch/West Ranch area . In the Initial Fiscal Analysis that was done for West Ranch/Castaic/Tesoro area back in 2008, it stated that the Stevenson Ranch/West Ranch area generates over $6.1 million in excess revenue. The area brings in $10.6 million in revenues while the County is spending $4.5 million for services. The excess revenue generated could be used to build new parks. Its not like the City of Santa Clarita is brimming with parks either. They are also deficient but has definitely improved with the building of several new parks. I cant remember, but I think the vote in 2008 indicated that there was not a majority supporting annexation into the City or it was the lowest percentage compared to other areas.
  36. Timothy Myers SRFebruary 27, 2012 at 5:31 pm
    The plebiscite in question had three questions which were all answered in the affirmative in the Stevenson Ranch area. SR should be annexed to the City of Santa Clarita, SR should stay a part of the County, and SR should form its own City. Alex Salmond could take lessons on how to formulate a plebiscite that gets the same answer to different questions. The only County area where the (small) number of voters participating voted in a manner consistent with the conflicts inherent in the questions was Tesoro. Their literacy is not surprising since they are Valencia adjacent. Your excess is a bit illusory since any annexation would require the payment of “alimony” to the County as a break up fee, which would soak up most, if not all, of the excess for ten to twenty years. Plus, SR has maxed out on sales tax revenue. There is no room for additional big sales tax generators in the area.
  37. MikeFebruary 27, 2012 at 5:47 pm
    Tim, I typed mine before I saw yours. It was such an absurd set of questions, wasn’t it? Still, from the map you can see a real pattern. If this election was the basis for the city writing off SR/WR, then I think they made a mistake.
  38. MikeFebruary 27, 2012 at 5:43 pm
    Would the city necessarily get all that excess revenue? Some of that would stay with the county to offset the loss in revenue, right? Anyway, as for the vote, it was 2009, and Stevenson Ranch, with or without Westridge, preferred annexation more than the other two options. There was majority support for annexation in every precinct in Stevenson Ranch (plus Tesoro and the southeastern part of Castaic). The option to start a new city lost everywhere. (22-78 overall) Here’s a map I made back then showing the support of A (status quo) and C (annex). http://maps.google.com/?mid=1330391654
  39. gibsonFebruary 27, 2012 at 7:21 pm
    I did neglect to say that the County is entitled to any revenue loss from annexation. However, the County does not have to enforce that. Orange County encourages unincorporated areas to annex and does not require cities’ to pay Orange County lost revenue. But since it is a cash cow for LA County and they are strapped for revenue, they will most likely enforce it. However, if the County truly respected the voters’ opinion and they want to be annexed, I dont think the County should hold the residents hostage for lost revenue. As I see it, the residents are being shortchanged millions of dollars each year.
  40. Phil EllisFebruary 28, 2012 at 7:54 am
    LA County won’t give up a penny unless it is forced to do so.
  41. RemStarFebruary 27, 2012 at 8:20 pm
    Since the county is punking “West-Stevenson Ranch” by $6.1 million each year, why is Bossert bitching at the city? This shows how ineffective the West-Stevenson Ranch Grand High Council is at “representing” the interests of their “community.” Nice job, Dave Bossert. Your community “overpays” the county by $6.1 million and all you got were some ugly “welcome” signs.
  42. NateFebruary 28, 2012 at 8:00 am
    Bossert needs to be more effective at stuffing tacos in his pie hole and less effective at typing meaningless words.
  43. IHeartSCVFebruary 27, 2012 at 5:36 pm
    No need to play coy, Angelo; you can say “Ken” instead of “contact.” Incidentally, what happened to the OVOV spirit of valley-wide togetherness y’all at City Hall are supposed to have?
  44. Angelo CandelabraFebruary 27, 2012 at 7:42 pm
    Not correct. Also, it is not necessary to be so rude. I’ve never said a cross word to you.
  45. IHeartSCVFebruary 27, 2012 at 8:33 pm
    How was I rude, much less “so rude”? Because I over-reached in guessing the person you spoke with? It’s just that your vagueness makes for a boring revelation. To paraphrase: there’s at least one person you know at City Hall who finds Dave Bossert irrelevant.
  46. NateFebruary 28, 2012 at 8:03 am
    Ironic that that the Emo I”Heart”SCV rags on someone else about hiding behind a username… Whatcha hiding for big guy?
  47. IHeartSCVFebruary 28, 2012 at 8:20 am
    I’m not ragging on AC for being AC. I’m ragging on AC for giving a fact that is useless without a name: someone finds Dave Bossert irrelevant.
  48. PetzFebruary 27, 2012 at 6:55 pm
    Petz has had it. Tonight he obsrved the glaring lights mounted under the solar panels at Saugus High School. Are these solar powered hell no. Are they shielded to prevent light tresspass…hell no. This will not stand.
  49. Mr PerezFebruary 27, 2012 at 7:15 pm
    http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3299/3503448168_7cfb49b975.jpg Rise up!
  50. lstaedtlerFebruary 27, 2012 at 7:38 pm
    Good luck fighting the State!
  51. PetzFebruary 27, 2012 at 8:01 pm
    Petz knows Joe.

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