- Detectives investigating a Craigslist ad posted in Newhall that offered a female baby, 8 months old, for free. "[We] just can't take it anymore. Need to let her go. Her cost is just too much for me and my girlfriend. Shots are up to date." Detectives and reporters are trying to determine if it is real or a hoax. There's a picture of the child and a report at CBS 2, Holt at SIGNAL
- And over in Stevenson Ranch, parents must have been frightened nearly out of their wits as a four year old boy drown in a community pool, but was breathing on his own by the time a helicopter flew in and took him to the hospital Saturday. Boyer at KHTS
- Unemployment rate in City of Santa Clarita rises to 6.2%, up from 5.6% in May. But City econ czar Jason Crawford says that's to be expected as teachers enter summer breaks and students return home from college. Adkins at SIGNAL
- Interesting article on how Main Street and Old Town Newhall property owners are considering levying a property tax on themselves in order to fund, direct, organize and manage Main Street's future. It seems our timing couldn't have been better: the City stepped in and fixed a broken marketplace, the state wiped out the tools the City did to do that (Redevelopment), so now private property owners -aware of the potential of the place- are coming up with their own method called a Property Business Improvement District that's been used successfully in other areas. Adkins at SIGNAL
- Einstein K-6 organizers in trouble after not notifying Castaic Union School District that they will open their K-6 charter school within CUSD's boundaries. Recall that KHTS' Perry Smith uncovered the location of the future school, within the Industrial Center, a place that's actually covered by Castaic Union, not Saugus Union (As I mistakenly believed). CUSD Supe Jim Gibson says he will formally protest the "activity." More will happen in August Smith reports via SCVNEWS
- Meanwhile, Mike Devlin says that SUSD is still waiting on the County to ok a special election fill Stephen Winkler's old seat. That and a look at who has actually filed (only one challenger so far!) in the local school district races. SCVTALK
- Dr. Lee Rogers, the Simi Valley podiatrist who ran an energetic campaign last year to unseat Buck McKeon, has officially filed again to run in 2014. But so has McKeon, and Luke "On the" Money's report about it includes an explicit denial from McKeon's spokesperson that "at this time the Congressman has no plans to retire." He's still got work left to do, like forcing the Air Force to buy drones that can't fly through bad weather. Ooops my partisanship sneaking through. Money at the SIGNAL
- Petz meanwhile, the SCV's most earnest conservative and perhaps an SCV/AV Tea Party bellwhether, cries out, "Save us George Runner, save us!" Oh and he hates our open primary system which he thinks will leave us with "mush" come November. Should be an exciting June if Runner and/or Strickland or perhaps Smyth jump in. Come on now, McKeon's not really going to run again, is he readers? Petz via FACEBOOK
- Oh, is that all. I am dissappoint. Someone finally asked Frank Ferry what he was doing in Washington DC when he broke his leg, fractured his pelving bone, and his upper left shoulder. I was thinking he was hobknobbing with GOP bigwigs and fantasizing about a Ferry/McKeon primary race; turns out he was just helping his fiancee's kid move to GWU. Money at SIGNAL
- Speaking of politics, tomorrow you may actually have a reason to listen to KHTS' Joe Messina as he and attorney Kevin Shenkman -currently suing the City, Sulphur Springs, and COC for violations of California's Voting Rights Act- discuss the suit and for two hour. During the first hour, Messina will be host, the second hour will be moderated by someone. And just so it's clear, Messina isn't talking for the Hart District. Perry Smith invites your input & questions at FACEBOOK
- And in the farcical political world that is the unincorporated area's Town Councils, the Castaic Town Council -which is sort of kind of divided up into Districts- has canceled a forthcoming election as only one person each from the two districts decided to file the $50 fee to run. One other guy did too until he found out he would have to run against someone else; then he dropped out. The Town Councils are supposed to advise Supervisor Antonovich on what the areas need; I think we have two of them: Castaic, which has been treated very well indeed by the County, and West Ranch, where there are still meetings of the Town Council but I haven't heard of an election in almost five years. Smith at KHTS
- Eerie coincidence & tragedy: Coaster Guy, our local Six Flags blogger, notes the death of a Texas woman who was ejected Friday from a roller coaster she was on called New Texas Giant at Six Flags Texas. Witnesses say the woman's safety harness imply opened up during the first drop, and the woman fell 153' to the ground, where she died. Coaster Guy notes the eerie similarity to a death in 1978 on our own Collosus in which a woman's safety harness simply failed and a 20 year old woman fell to her death. Both rides are built partially or completely out of wood. COASTER GUY
- Heroic SCV dog goes to the trouble of finding rabid bat, taking it down and saving the SCV from vampire-spreading airborne mammals a rabid bat attack and what does he get? A yummy treat, an enthusiastic "Who's a good boy???!?" from the Mayor, and a miniaturized key to the City to attach to his dog collar? No, he goes to jail and gets quarantined for it. For up to 6 months! This is the fourth bat with rabies to be found in the SCV. Worden at SCVNEWS
- Drunk 45 year old woman with hard to pronounce and spell name arrested Saturday after driving slowly into a street sign, which fell over and hit some parked cars at Valencia & Rockwell. At 11:18am in the morning. Boyer at KHTS
- Great and touching report from Luke "On the" Money about a Syrian family that literally escaped from Syria last year just as the Civil War there was kicking into high gear. SIGNAL
- Dave Bossert slams Mayo hospital for not getting ranked by US News and World Reports' latest hospital survey, and thinks they are quite incompetent and that we in the SCV deserve better. But he also thinks they have some kind of sophisticated media/psy-ops operation at Mayo to the point where they can get positive coverage about a Singing nurse in the LA Times, a local TV news show, and the Signal. BEACON
- Daryl Gates' Legacy: Great Wall Street Journal piece about the rise of militarized police forces in the US. From Gates' first SWAT teams in the 60s until 2005, when there were some 50,000 raids by SWAT & militarized police forces across the country, the Journal asks if we've gone to far, noting that SWAT teams have busted up & even killed old men gambling & watching sports in garages, VFW halls and basements. We have our own nearly mechanized police force in the SCV; they showed up in force with a tank-like vehicle a few weeks ago in Canyon Country because some guy refused to come out of his house. WALL STREET JOURNAL, SIGNAL PIC from Canyon Country
- OJ Simpson lead prosecutor Marcia Clark visited and held a talk at the Canyon Country library last week. CITY BRIEFS
- Signal Editors don't like Obama's Affordable Care Act, nothing that it was messy and put together in a haphazard & secret fashion. That's not how I recall it; I recall it being highly politicized and covered in depth, with traditional deal-making and vote-swapping (hallmarks of a healthy if somewhat cringe-inducing democracy) going on until the "Cornhusker Kickback" was pounced on by conservatives as evidence of corruption. Look, the ACA is a product of Congress; it's like sausage, you don't want to know how it's made. SIGNAL
- LTE Writer pens letter to R. Rex Parris, the other lawyer suing the City of Santa Clarita and the mayor of Lancaster, asking him to leave us alone. SIGNAL
- Lady Ducayne reviews a baker in town that aims to capitalize on the east coast craze of "Cronuts," some kind of painstakingly made, light yet fried croissant/donut. Copycats of the trademarked name "Cronuts" are appearing all over LA, and even in the SCV. Lady Ducayne tried one of the pretenders out and was not only disappointed but won't even name the bakery that gave her a fake Cronut. LADY DUCAYNE.
Nine years of the Valley’s town square · 2006–2015
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