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Some dudes marry other dues. Get over it, says the t-shirt on the young man on the right
- Spontaneous demonstrations broke out in Valencia yesterday following the Supreme Court's decision to strike down portions of the anti-gay DOMA act and deny standing for proponents of California's Proposition 8. Dozens of (mostly) young SCVers descended on the usual protest corner at McBean & Valencia, waving their rainbow flags, carrying handmade signs, and celebrating. They even stood atop the Valencia Town Center marquee sign and waved a rainbow flag, something I thought I'd never see in the SCV. Even some local politicians showed up to celebrate; 2012 Congressional Candidate Dr. Lee Rogers was there as well. Great pics at SCV Unity Coalition,
- The Signal's Luke Money has a great piece on reaction to the ruling from local politicians. Congressman McKeon was very disappointed with the Justices' ruling, pulling out the old judicial activist card, and saying, paradoxically, that marriage was a God-given institution between a man and woman but that "these issues" should be decided on a state-by-state basis. Joe Messina said same sex marriage advocates just wanted the word "Marriage" to apply to them, even though he says same-sex couples already have the same practical rights as married heteros do. Jerry Brown, meanwhile, all but told California's 50+ counties to allow same-sex couples to marry. SIGNAL
- And KHTS' Perry Smith has a great piece today, where he spoke to gay men and women in the SCV (who were pessimistic about the Court earlier this week, following its decision to strike down portions of the Voting Rights Act), gave a detailed timeline of Prop 8's tortured history, and got some reaction from Joe Messina, who also accused the Courts of overturning the will of the people. KHTS
- Also, Petz is very upset and thinks SCOTUS' decision doesn't actually allow same sex couples to get married. FACEBOOK
- Attention City Webmasters: go purchase and deploy SameSexTourismSantaClarita.com or perhaps LGBT-SCV-IS-A-OK.com right now and deploy a gay-friendly SCV tourism site because the LA Times says we should expect a big influx of same sex couples coming to our great state to get married soon. I don't want to stereotype, but gays can be, well quite....festive, with one baker telling the Times that when same sex marriage was allowed briefly in 2008, his business was going like gangbusters, baking 3-4 wedding cakes a week for same sex couples from out of state who wanted to marry here. LA TIMES
- Deputies & K9 units are conducting an active manhunt this morning for one Scott Barrowclough, 38, of Canyon Country, for domestic violence threats against his girlfriend. The fuzz has closed Sierra Highway from Vasquez Canyon to 1/4 mile north of Baker Canyon road and say Barrowclough ditched his car in the area, is on foot, has a barbed wire tattoo around his neck and should be considered armed and dangerous. George Cummings at KHTS UPDATE: I hear from a reliable source the suspect has been captured without incident. The closure this morning affected COC Canyon Country students.
- And yesterday afternoon, a Sheriff's Deputy, responding to reports of a stabbing on Sundowner Way in Canyon Country didn't find a stabbing victim at all, and instead was attacked by four or even five individuals once he arrived on scene. A crowd even gathered around to watch the fight. Details are sketchy, but some 20 Deputies raced to the scene, rescued their colleague and arrested three men. KHTS via SCVNEWS
- Nice work Marsha: I think Marsha McLean and I are both transportation/transit geeks and love to nerd-out on transit, but she's actually in a position to do something about it. And that she has, announcing on Facebook that Metro has finally agreed to build a Metrolink station on the Antelope Valley & Ventura County lines at Burbank (Bob Hope) airport after she nagged them about it for 11 years. This is a dream come true for me; imagine just taking a train to the airport. No parking worries, just hop on the train, hop off, and get on the plane. And vice versa- have your loved one pick you up from the Newhall Metrolink station and enjoy a drink at the Refinery before you head home. Take that LAX! The platform will open in 2015. Now if only Marsha could bully Amtrak to serve us. FACEBOOK POST, METRO ANNOUNCEMENT
- Another day, another heartbreaking crash on a local freeway: Two children -and possibly one woman- were ejected from the SUV they were in onto the 5 Freeway yesterday afternoon near Castaic. Five others were injured as well in the multi-car crash, which started when the driver of SUV in the fast lane (the one carrying the children) had to take evasive action because a vehicle next to the SUV "made a sudden lane change." The woman driving the SUV lost control of her car, slammed into the guardrail, and the GMC Yukon rolled over several times. "Two kids were ejected," a CHP officer said. CHP officers say they're looking for the driver of the car that made the sudden lane change, and are investigating the crash as a crime. No word on how the children are, though at least one ten year old was able to walk after the crash. A helicopter landed on the freeway to whisk the injured away to a hospital. Jim Holt at the SIGNAL, pics from the scene at SCVNEWS
- Nice detailed write-up from the Beacon's Karen Jonas on what the City Council decided on Tuesday night with regards to the Lyons Corridor. As old SCVTalk readers will know, Lyons is my favorite street in the SCV because it's one of only a handful of major boulevards that's straight as an arrow, that doesn't wind its way north, south, then east, then west, but only east/west. Plus it also serves as a great dividing line between Valencia & the 91355 and Newhall & the 91321, with Lyons serving as kind of a no-man's land or DMZ if you will. Karen Jonas at the BEACON
- Also Jonas has details on the capital items/building projects that we'll see in the new fiscal year as a result of the new budget. Newhall Round-about is coming folks! Karen Jonas at BEACON
- Someone call the waahhmbulance: Lots of whining and some incorrect facts today from KHTS, which reports on Governor Brown's bill that would effectively kill Enterprise Zones, one of which we have in the SCV. Don Fleming of Valencia Acura says the EZ program "has been wonderful for our community" and he's sad that the river of free money from the state is about to end. Jonas Peterson, outgoing head of the Economic Development Corporation -which is funded by you and me- says the SCV's EZ program is one of the best in the state. Finally, the report claims that the EZ Program has "saved the city $280 million in taxes and led to the hiring of more than 7,000 employees." That's factually incorrect; the EZ Program has extended $280 million in tax credits to private, for profit businesses in the SCV EZ zone, not to the City of Santa Clarita. It's what wonks call a "tax expenditure," government spending through tax credits. KHTS
- The US Army wants to transfer some $128 million from "Warfighter Network Tactical" technology program to pay for more urgent needs as the Department deals with the fallout of the sequester. But Congressman McKeon blocked the request, essentially forcing the army to spend the money on the Warfighter technology. A site called DoDBuzz says Buck's move to micromanage the Army follows an immense lobbying effort by the maker of the Warfighter technology. DOD BUZZ
- Andy Fried, the one man army leading the opposition to CEMEX, details how the fight's progressing to keep the aggregate mine out of Soledad Canyon. Like Petz noticed earlier this month, Fried says that if Boxer's bill passes, the land-swap with Victorville would be executed, and the City of Santa Clarita would be on the hook to "reimburse the mining company if it is determined the surplus land sale doesn't sufficiently reimburse" CEMEX. Fried says it's unclear if that would happen. PRESS RELEASE via SCVNEWS
- Neat: LA DWP pays City of LA Residents to generate solar power "across the city's vast expanse of flat roof space." The goal is to generate 150 megawatts of solar power, enough to power some 30,000 homes. Wish we had a program like this in the SCV. LA TIMES
- Fourth of July is near! That means the return of our most cherished, hometowney tradition, the 4th of July parade in Newhall. But there's a lot more events too. Watch the video at CITY BRIEFS.
- Wendy Langhans wins the day: Great piece from KHTS nature writer Wendy Langhans comparing the shade trees we enjoy along our paseos and bike paths with the shade trees along the walkways on the embankments of the Tiber River in Rome. KHTS
- LTE writer echoes Frank Ferry, says we should sequester all of our state water project water in the SCV and not let it go downstream to those ungrateful Ventura County farmers. SIGNAL
- Ex-pat Canadian SCVer offended by Connect SCV (an ad-mag published by the Signal) referring to Canada Day (July 1) as a "weird holiday." "Most Americans could not tell you the name of the capital city of Canada, could not tell you how many provinces there are (what is a province, anyway?) or who the leaders are," she writes. Canada has capitals and provinces? I thought they just had moose, Mounties and hockey players, but this person is saying they are an actually nation. We learn in American schools that Canada is America's Hat, and Mexico is America's Beard. (kidding!) LTE
- Best Time Ranger ever Part 1: Do you know how to tell an old time SCV resident vs a newcomer? Ask them for their home number. On this date in 1963, only two prefixes covered the SCV- 259 for Newhall, and 252 for Canyon Country. I proudly own a 259 one by the way. Speaking of phones, Time Ranger tells a tale of police searching for bandits that broke into pay phones and stole some $38 in nickels. And did you know that Saugus Cafe -allegedly LA County's oldest restaurant- had to close on this date in 1943 due to war rationing? Time Ranger says if Saugus Cafe or Way Station ever close again, "life in the Santa Clarita Valley would have little meaning" and he'd move to Wyoming.
- Time Ranger Part 2: Also an unlucky Army pilot ejected over Wayside on this date in 38, bee-keeper, banker, "pioneer in these parts" and veteran of the Castaic Range Wars Will Erwin died in 1943, and perhaps the worst father in SCV history tried to trade his three year old daughter for a 1967 T-Bird on this date in 1973. Finally, for the foodies and BBQ fans among you, a well-known and famous BBQ restaurant called The Rib closed in 1973, and last and certainly best of all, on this date in 1983, Ruth Newhall noticed that the sun had set directly behind CalArts on the summer solstice, and that Lyons Avenue aligned with a (spring or fall, not sure) equinox, leading Ruth to think that future historians and archaeologists -digging up the great SCV civilization- would conclude that we worshipped a sun God. I told you Lyons Avenue was special TIME RANGER
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