- A San Gabriel motorcycle police officer was injured in a crash on his way to work yesterday morning at Whites & Nadal in Canyon Country. The SGV Tribune says a 60 year old woman turned in front of the officer, and the officer collided with the car, suffering a broken leg and foot. Story at SGV TRIB, pics at THE SIGNAL
- More details emerge on the assault and savage beating of a local man and frequent social media user last Thursday night at around the same time Deputies were running a DUI checkpoint in Newhall. Detectives finally interviewed the victim yesterday, a few days after he was released from the hospital. Digging around some more, users found this (disturbing) Tweet, and though he's not been named a suspect by Detectives yet, the twitter user who posted the shot pretty much admits to beating the victim and brags about it; he even stuck around and took a picture for twitter while the victim was being loaded into an ambulance. Big discussion thread over at the SCV COMMUNITY FACEBOOK page on the attack.
- There was some excitement in my 'hood last night at around 6:45 pm. Police cruisers, a helicopter and Deputies with guns drawn walked and searched an area near Peachland, Cherry, and Apple streets for a man wearing a tan & plaid shirt who was spotted supposedly with a gun in his waistband. Cruisers raced through the neighborhood at first, but ultimately the suspect evaded capture and Deputies aren't sure he even had a gun, though they recovered a shirt and some drug paraphenalia. Smith at KHTS, SIGNAL
- Side note: it's really cute how my 7 month old son will stop what he's doing when he hears a police siren. Picture this: he's banging one cheap plastic toy against another when he suddenly hears sirens; then a quizzical and confused look on his face, touch of drool slipping from his lips wondering what in the world that noise is. Oh and the helicopter...I showed him that too. Oh and he spotted and zoned in on the moon for the first time this week. I wish I could get inside his head and experience what he's thinking/feeling or is he even capable of thinking like that without having learned a language yet? Can a human think if the human doesn't know a language? I digress and defer to the philosophers and neuroscientists.
- The driver of an SUV who collided with a bicyclist and left the scene of the crime only to turn himself in four hours later has been charged with a felony hit and run. The victim in the crash suffered a broken back and is still in the hospital. SIGNAL
- Neat: Jacob Landis, a 24 year old man who lost his hearing when he was 10, is bicycling from Maryland to Santa Clarita, stopping at every major league baseball stadium in a fundraising attempt for children who cannot afford hearing aids. Yesterday, Landis rode his bike to Advanced Bionics, the company that developed the cochlear implant that gave Landis his hearing back. Advanced Bionics threw a BBQ and donated some $4,453 to his effort. Incredible story. Mallory Fencil at SIGNAL
- Still no word on why Councilman Frank Ferry was in Washington DC where he apparently slipped and fell, breaking a leg. Mayor Kellar tells the Signal that the Council hopes he'll mend quickly and return to his seat by the end of the summer recess. SIGNAL. Meanwhile, Facebookers speculate on why he was in DC.
- Speaking of DC, the money Congressman McKeon is raking in from Defense Companies -especially individual employees of defense companies- is truly astonishing, as is the amount he's dishing out at various venues in DC, Nevada, Boston. Just one example: 17 employees of Northrop-Grumman gave the Congressman's election committee a total of $18,600 in the first half of this year ROLL CALL
- And it appears to have paid off for Northrop Grumman: though the Air Force, DoD and SecDef doesn't really want them, McKeon's committee has essentially ordered the purchase of remaining Global Hawk drones, massive airborne recon planes that have one critical flaw: they can't see, understand, or fly through bad weather. In fact, the Air Force has determined that the old U-2 spy plane (yeah the one Gary Powers was shot down in during the 1950s over the Soviet Union) is more effective, and cheaper to operate than this defective drone. So instead of saving $2.5 billion on a busted drone program, the Air Force will buy the planes because Congress wants them to. The Global Hawk is, by the way, manufactured in the Antelope Valley, so bully for the High Desert folks and their job prospects. FISCAL TIMES
- The Next McKeon: Our own Mike Devlin reports that David McKeon, son of Buck, has been elected chairman of the important and very influential Clark County Republican Party in Las Vegas. David McKeon beat a Ron Paul supporter. Gotta read this. SCVTALK
- Signal LTE writer sick and tired of chloride debate, concludes we've all been victims of a bait and switch and ends his smart letter with a "Salt is natural. Always going to be there. Clean up our water or give us back our softeners. Find new employment," he says to the 'crats at the various agencies. Oh and he also says Ventura people should clean up their water themselves. LTE
- A little odd: The Signal's ad sales people are now writing content for the paper, describing their favorite places in the SCV to eat food, buy used cars, care for their pets, or shop for clothes. It's neat to see some fresh content in the paper but are these ads or what? SIGNAL
- Senses on Main party tonight is Jersey Boardwalk themed and will feature 70 tons of sand, live music and hopefully some of those women in the bikinis posted on the blog at CITY BRIEFS
- Must read Time Ranger: On this date back in 1943, some workers up Soledad Canyon way found a strange thing while bulldozing in the area: a redwood coffin "decked out in fine silk clothes and a fancy woman's hat." The Coroner determined the human bones were male though, and a small male at that (perhaps a Chinese railroad worker, but who would go to the expense of burrying him like that?) Other theories are that the body "was a long-forgotten lady of the Soledad," or a crazy prospector type who disappeared in those parts in the 20s. Still not known today. Also, in 1973, a young CalArts student starred in a video film about being a transvestite. Discussing such a subject in Valencia....in 1973? Who would do such a thing? Well the student's name then was Paul Reubens, but you might know him better as he is known today: Pee Wee Herman. TIME RANGER
- My Time Ranger supplement: See how many places you can identify that are in the SCV in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, the cult classic 1985 film. Pee Wee has as much SCV cred as I Heart or anyone else I reckon, Large Marge says so.
- My satirical piece yesterday about deported bums re-invading the SCV and rioting during the Trayvon Martin vigil tonight touched quite a nerve and prompted a lot of discussion. Some hated me for it, some misunderstood it, and over on SantaClarita.com's Facebook page, I got into a discussion and friended a Castaic woman because of it, a woman who has a 15 year old black son, read my piece and said it struck such a nerve with her she was frightened it might be true. I'm sorry if I scared anyone with the piece, but whether you loved or hated it (or hate me now because of it) I'm glad some reflected on it and some connections were made because of it. SANTA CLARITA.COM, COMMENTS
Nine years of the Valley’s town square · 2006–2015
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