- The Signal's Luke "On the" Money checks out the judge's ruling in the CVRA lawsuit that was just decided in favor of the plaintiffs against the City of Palmdale. In particular, the judge ruled, minorities do not have to be geographically concentrated "for racially polarized voting to take place." That strikes directly at the heart of each SCV agency being sued; they have all claimed, with little empirical data to back them up, that minorities are equally distributed throughout the community. Money also reports that the League of California Cities is taking an interest in these lawsuits.SIGNAL
- State Senator Steve Knight, who represents a state senate district that includes part of the SCV, says he doesn't like the idea of municipal or school district elections, rather than at-large elections. "You've got to have five minds that are looking at the city as a whole," he told a crowd of about 30 at a Town Hall he held last Thursday night in the SCV, adding that one solution might be to "reach out to minority communities to encourage more people to seek local office." He also discussed the chloride issue and California's business climate. SIGNAL
- Speaking of Town Halls, Assemblyman Scott Wilk will co-host one tomorrow night with a California health care expert on the topic of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. "It's important we know how these new complicated laws affect families, employers and employees," Wilk said. The town hall will be at the Activity Center at 5:30pm. BEACON
- Fascinating article by Jana Adkins on the "out of control" problem of "pocket listings," whereby a Realtor either represents both seller and buyer, or somehow keeps the home out of the MLS, or just tries to keep it secret. Of course other Realtors hate the idea, but it's not illegal. All's fair in love and the free market is it not? SIGNAL
- Looks like the residents of the high and mighty Summit neighborhood have been hosting a distinctly urban Food Truck Wednesdays. Our own LADY DUCAYNE investigates.
- Distracted driver, possibly playing with cell phone, drives into family room of house in Canyon Country and sends four people to the hospital. SIGNAL
- Shut ins rejoice! Safeway & Vons are local hiring delivery drivers to deliver groceries to SCV shoppers who buy groceries online. JOB LISTING
- Two local men, one a former CUSD board member and a Glendale Police Lieutenant and the other a PTA volunteer, will challenge the three incumbents in the Saugus Union School District's board race this November. They're not competing for Winkler's vacant seat however; so odds are against them. One of the challengers, Chris Trunkey, made the interesting observation that SCV public schools should be improved because they're now effectively competing against private and charter schools. SIGNAL
- City to expand parking lot at Valencia library by 27 spaces. CITY BRIEFS
- New California-wide crime report shows that despite the controversial and hated early release program, part 1 violent crimes in the state remain at about half of what they were 20 years ago. Even homicides, rapes, aggravated assaults and motor vehicle thefts are down in recent years; the only caetgory that has gone up is arson. KHTS
- One of the good ones: Billy's Surf, Skate, Snow, Wake shop, a downtown Newhall institution for as long as I can remember, is going out of business, the store announced Saturday on Facebook. Lots of people remember spending their time & money in Billy's as a kid and are sad to see it go. FACEBOOK, SIGNAL
- People on the east side of the valley were so alarmed by lighting and thunderstorm activity further east that they may have called the police (I thought, but can't confirm this morning, that I read that somewhere) on Friday. In any case, 100+ comments about dry vs heat lightning means you're truly an SCVer. FACEBOOK
- Why can't we figure out a way to do this during every rush hour? CalTrans will take one northbound lane and make it into a southbound lane between Frazier Park and Gorman. I'm not a traffic engineer, but I have been stuck in traffic many times during rush hour and wondered why we can't devise a system to use the excess capacity in the opposite lanes during rush hour. Call it a "smart" freeway that automatically and safely closes lanes in non-peak directions and opens them in peak directions. They do this on the Golden Gate Bridge. SCVNEWS
- An Hispanic man who stabbed another Hispanic man after making racial slurs against the victim's black friend was arrested Saturday in the City of Bell by the SCV Sheriff's Station "Special Assignment Team," or SAT. SIGNAL
- Letter writer wonders why residents of Piru, Fillmore and Santa Paula don't have to clean their chloride like we're being forced to. Good question, until the Editor inserts a note that says those communities built purification plants "at great cost" in 2010. SIGNAL LTE
- The Signal is happy a Republican won in the Central Valley in a special election, making the Democrats' super-majority power in the StateHouse just a bit more fragile and weak. But they still have a Super Majority. "We are not advocating for Republicans or Democrats here....[just] open and transparent government processes and a balanced two party approach to government. It can be done." Wait, I saw that movie. It was California from 2005-2011 or so. Gridlock, huge deficits, massive cuts, total dysfunction. Would anyone say we were better off then than now? SIGNAL
- Bossert pulls out a two year old hit piece on Gloria Mercado-Fortine, the Hart Board member and City Council candidate whose "integrity" has been questioned in the past. BEACON
- City Council candidate Marsha McLean was one of those people who opted out of getting an Edison Smart Meter. I have no idea why but a few years ago, SCE's "smart meter" plans were seen by some as a step toward yielding the soveignty of the US to the UN, or something. I think Glenn Beck mentioned it almost nightly. McLean says she's also going to opt out of the gas company's new smart meters. I for one welcome smart meters. I want an IP addresss on everything. FACEBOOK
- Must read Boston column: If you liked my coyote piece, you'll like Boston's. In it Big John Boston writes about taking walks with the person he loves most in the world, his daughter, and tells her stories about the Tataviam people and coyotes, which have inhabited the SCV for one million years. Boston admires the animals and says eradication efforts have been tried before, but always fail because the 'yotes are simply too smart. BEACON
- Neat: Leon Worden writes about a small village, perhaps as small as a family, that lived at what is today called Riverpark well before the Tataviam people lived in this area. We only learned of these people after Newhall Land developed the land and archived arrowheads, and other items they found. I wonder what they called this place, near the Metrolink Station & Saugus Speedway. It's certainly not Canyon Country yet it's not Saugus either. SCVHISTORY
- Nicely played, Korea: Korean TV news station uses fake American pilot names in report on Southwest airplane that had its forward landing gear fail during landing. BLOG
Nine years of the Valley’s town square · 2006–2015
Comments (2)