December 20, 2007 - Daily Brief
Written by Jeff on December 29th, 2007I’m so excited. For the first time ever, someone with an iPhone visited SCVTalk.com. Someone hip and cool enough to have Time’s “Invention of the Year” cared enough about my website to visit it! Hopefully that old curmudgeon from the North Pole will deliver one to me for Christmas so I can see for myself how it looks on the iPhone.
News
- Glass Half Empty or Half Full on Sheriff’s Report: Merrick Bobb, an independent counsel for Los Angeles County, has released his second semiannual report on the Sheriff’s Department for 2007, and the results can be interepreted in different ways. If you just read the Signal/Wire report, you’ll see this line regarding internal investigations into use of force: “Half of the internal force reviews are thorough, through half could have been better.” Hop on over to the Times and read, “The Sheriff’s Department failed to thoroughly investigate half of its recent use-of-force cases, according to a monitor’s report on Wednesday.” The differences don’t end there; the Times mentions an incident involving a Deputy shooting what witnesses say was an unarmed youth, while the Signal’s report doesn’t get into specifics. There’s not much in either newspaper story updating Bobb’s May 2007 report, which said that the Santa Clarita Sheriff’s station “lacked high quality investigations” into citizen complaints and was in the need of the “most improvement.”
- CLWA to use more treated wastewater for irrigation: The water agency plans “to reuse some 22,000 acre-feet of treated wastewater for irrigation and other nondrinking puproses” following a court decision this summer that shut off nearly half of Santa Clarita’s water supply from the State Water Project. Pat Aidem reports
- Shot robber aims for appeal: Michael Lugo, the 30 year old convicted burglar who was shot three times as he tried to enter a Canyon Country home, didn’t actually force open a screen door and therefore may not have technically committed burglarly. At least that’s what Lugo’s sister and lawyer are claiming in a detailed report by Karen Elowitt at the Signal today. “I do not believe he was trying to rob that lady,” Lugo’s sister told Elowitt. There’s a lot more in this report, so check it out.
- Recent rain puts Southland above average: If you’re a weather fan like me, then this is the time of year you get out your rainfall scorecard and compare it with last year. The Daily News reports that the recent storm that hit Southern California has put the entire region “ahead of its normal rainfall pace” by about three quarters of an inch. The recent storm dumped about 3 inches on the Los Angeles area. Link
- Cemex Truce extended six months: City of Santa Clarita vs. Cemex Round Two will be delayed until at least June 2008, thanks to an extension of the truce that bars the city from campaigning against the mine and bars Cemex from “acquiring the necessary permits to operate” the contorversial Soledad canyon Quarry. City officials hope the extension will give Buck McKeon and other legislators time to work out a deal with the Mexican mining conglomerate. No word on whether the city will use the time to make more Thank You Buck signs.
- County puts off Landmark Village hearing: SCOPE and Lynne Plambeck asked the county to delay an important meeting on the first phase of the Newhall Ranch project until after the holidays, and the county has agreed. The meeting will be held on January 9, 2008.
- The Avenue at Santa Clarita website: Hat tip to Dave Bossert for the find: Monteverde Companies, the firm that’s hoping to develop a sleepy Wiley Canyon neighborhood and an old mule ranch into a mixed-use urban micro-city has built a website with some more details and renderings of the project, named “The Avenue at Santa Clarita.” Link Check out what The Avenue might look like if you were to gaze at it from the west.
Birds, Good Eats and more:
- Christmas Bird Count: The Audobon Society will host a “Christmas Bird count” on December 29 in and around the Santa Clara river. Teresa Savaikie writes in a column today in the Signal that such bird counts provide “recreational and social opportunities for people who love the outdoors, but also help provide serious scientific data.” Savaikie says she was first awakened to wildlife in the SCV when she spotted an orange bird in her yard. I can relate : I sometimes hear the frightening shriek of a massive white barn owl that hangs around my house; unfortunately this bird of prey has eluded my camera’s long and fast lens. Anyway, if you want to participate in the bird count, show up at at Western Bagel in the KMart shopping center at 7am on December 29.
- Best taco in Santa Clarita? So there’s a guy on Chowhound who plans to write a book with at least 50 taco recipes inspired by taco trucks and taquerias throughout Southern California. “My mission is to collect recipes for killer tacos that will knock your socks off,” he says. He’s making a trip from Oregon on December 22 and should pass through the SCV on his way to LA and San Diego, but he won’t stop here unless there’s some really good tacos in town. I’ve dined at a few Newhall taquerias (even had Mexican coke!) but it wasn’t anything to write home about. What say you? Are there any taco vendors or “roach coaches” with killer tacos in town? Link
- I Heart on Spears’ pregnancy, Ashley Tisdale: Jamie Lynn, Brittney’s 16 year old sister, apparently hangs around Valencia and may even have an apartment here, which just might explain why the star of Zoey 101 got pregnant. “This is the clearest proof yet that you can’t make it very long in Valencia without a baby,” I Heart says in a blog post covering celebrity news and gossip as it relates to our humble valley.
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