- Gang stabbing or road rage? Late Sunday evening, a 25 year old man going to a barbecue at the Canyon Crest apartment complex on Newhall Avenue got into some kind of altercation with another motorist and his passenger, and was stabbed. Initially deputies thought the incident stemmed from a collision in the parking lot and likened it to "road rage," but KTLA 5 says no damage was found on the victim's car and now deputies think it might be gang related. Suspects were driving a Chevy Impala; the victim suffered two stab wounds and is in critical condition. KTLA 5
- And in a +++ for Saugus' fortunes, and further evidence of the importance of mental maps, KTLA interviewed one apartment resident who moved to the SCV from Burbank to get away from "all that kind of nonsense" in the San Fernando Valley. Now the woman is thinking she may have to move further north, perhaps as far north as Saugus, to escape the violence and tomfoolery.
- Big, interesting TIMES piece on the tide of lawsuits hitting California's cities, school districts and other agencies over at large voting systems. TIMES
- Winkler Removal in jeopardy: Dog-riding enthusiast, Nixon's number one fan, and Deutschland über alles apologist Stephen Winkler is in the news again. Last week, Perry Smith @ KHTS reported that Winkler's removal from the Board by his fellow board members is in the hands of SUSD's legal department, which has apparently not yet "initiated the necessary legal proceedings to effect the removal of [Winkler]" from the state Attorney General's perspective. That report coincided with an email from Winkler to me, in which Winkler said that although the SUSD Teacher's Union was happy to be rid of him, he still has a "tremendous interest in the completion of [his] term of office." He then switches to the third person, likens my blog to a reporter whom Nixon once praised, and says that Winkler is now living in the SUSD district, is ready to provide proof of his residence and complete his term in office. He says he's against holding a special election when that money could be used to educate children. And finally, he promises not to make an appearance at the SUSD board (which meets tonight to deal with, among other things, unspecified new litigation against the district) and ends, by what else, invoking Nixon: "Just think! How much fun you are all missing, by not allowing me to complete my term of office. You do not have Winkler to kick around anymore." EMAIL
- The body of a 59 year old Castaic woman, who has been missing since last month, was found over two weeks ago in a desert area near California City. Martha Myers went missing sometime in August according to her daughter, and though coroner officials found her body on September 1, they only now were able to identify her. Cause of death won't be determined for "two to three months" following tox and blood tests. She was found in the open desert, near her car according to the SIGNAL but the woman's family knew it was her just a day after the discovery of her body. Her family had set up a facebook page to assist in the search.
- Bryce Laspisa: It seems the search for missing 19 year old college student Bryce Laspisa has been called off. A September 13th report in the Chicago Trib (Laspisa's family is originally from Illinois) quotes an LASD Spokesperson as saying that Deputies have exhausted searching in the Castaic area. Also Patch.com from OC shows a new picture of the missing teen. And on Facebook, the family says there are no meetings or searches scheduled for today. What's this all mean? Well Laspisa's mother wrote a letter to him yesterday, telling her son that "You may be confused or scared or hurting and we continue to pray that you are found soon." Meanwhile, participants at the "Web Slueths.com" forum bat around theories about Laspisa....perhaps he is/was afraid to announce that he is gay and ran off instead, or perhaps he staged his own disappearance to leave his worldly possessions behind and strike out and live on his own, Into the Wild style, as men of his age often romanticize such living (I speak from experience, the call of Thoreau & London & the solitary lives of monks & solititude, ora et labora influenced me at that age too). It seems the consensus is that he is not dead. SLEUTHS
- Sick burn: Official Military.com Magazine editorial slams Buck McKeon for trying to tie action in Syria to the sequestration cuts he, and the rest of Congress, voted for in 2011. "McKeon argues that sequestration is crimping the very military capabilities that the U.S. likely would want to use in Syria and other hot spots in a still highly volatile world. But he talks as if sequestration suddenly dropped in out of the blue to paralyze the federal budget process.Not so. Lawmakers turned to this mindless policy because they could not reach consensus on spending priorities, and so settled for taking 10 percent off the top of every federal budget account for the next 10 years.It was an admission of abject failure of a core duty of Congress: Prioritizing and managing the nation’s finances." Ouch. MILITARY.COM
- Dave Bossert announces the publication of his first book: Remembering Roy E. Disney: Memories and Photos of a Storied LIfe. Congrats! Always wanted to write a book. Bossert says his publisher has greenlighted a second book and he and John Boston have formed a "Local Writers Club of Two." BEACON
- Beacon writer Chris Sharp interviews City Council candidate Dante Acosta and comes away impressed. BEACON
- Yep, Halloween is already here: Times piece on the arms race between Knott's, Six Flags MM, and Universal Studios on who can scare you the most. Magic Mountain is building a new and frightening maze to scare you, but they don't have curvaceous Elvira like Knott's Berry Farm does. TIMES
Nine years of the Valley’s town square · 2006–2015
Comments (3)