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British adventurist in the SCV, the closure of the TCU (and inevitable protests that will follow), an iceman’s descendants, and Buck McKeon, Secretary of Education? All that ahead today’s Daily Brief.

News

• Mayo Transitional Care Unit to close in June: The 27 bed TCU where mostly seniors stay while recovering from hospital visits will close by June 5 and be converted to a general medical surgical unit, according to Katie Geyer at The Signal. Mayo CEO Roger Seaver says the closure of the unit will allow the SCV’s only hospital to “serve more people, including seniors” while a nursing director who manages the TCU says it’s simply a supply/demand issue. ““(In March), we had 43 inpatients who never got to a hospital nursing unit at all because there was no hospital bed available, yet there were empty beds in the TCU,Their entire hospital stay, overnight, was in the ER on a gurney,” she told Geyer, who has the full story here.
  
• TV Adventurist star meets fans at Valencia B&N: Bear Gryllls is the star of the Discovery Channel’s “Man vs Wild” and was at Valencia’s Barnes & Noble last night to meet fans and sign copies of his book according to The Signal. City Editor Josh Premako was on hand and interviewed the 33 year old former British commando, who has climbed Mt. Everest and sailed across the North Atlantic. At least one hundred people were at the B&N to meet Grylls. Signal report, the website of the stud himself.
• Canyon Country family related to iceman found in British Columbia: This is a pretty fascinating story. Every now and then,we hear about an old set of bones or human remains ‘unearthed’ high up in the mountains somewhere. Well, in 1999, three hunters found the remains of a man “wearing a spruce-root hat and a robe made of Arctic ground-squirrel pelts” in British Columbia. Scientists believe the iceman died somewhere between 1670 and 1850. That man, known to locals as the “Long Ago Person Found,” is an ancestor to an 80 year old Canyon Country woman who is both an Alaskan native American and a Jewish woman. The woman, Dorothy Rosenberg, had her DNA matched to the iceman and says it could be the beginning of her family’s “tree.” Jerry Berrios at the Daily News has the story.
• Canyon Country vet gets debt relief after Signal, NBC, McKeon attention: Carl Diekman, a veteran of the battle of Iwo Jima was told recently by the Veteran’s Administration that he owed nearly $4,000 after he failed to notify the federal agency that his marital status had changed. The news came as somewhat of a shock to Diekman, and The Signal has covered his story and the “outrage” surrounding it locally for about a week now. Well, good news came yesterday for Diekman in the form of a phone call from Buck McKeon, who told the WW2 and Korea veteran that the VA would not require him to repay the $4,000. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time,” Diekman reportedly told McKeon. Signal story, NBC 4 story.
• Crime shorts: Some beehives were stolen from a farm on the Old ROad (there are still farms on the Old Road?) last week, and on May 3, a “transient man from El Salvador was assaulted by several people” while sleeping on a bench at a park in Santa Clarita. The unidentified man had arrived from El Salvador just over two weeks ago when someone bashed him on the head and torso with an “unknown object.” He doesn’t remember the incident and woke up in the hospital. Signal And finally in a story just asking for puns and clever word use, two cold-as-ice thieves tried to steal a tip jar from a local ice cream parlor (sorry that’s the best I could come up with). Carol Rock has details on that.
• Magic Mountain remodel in time for summer: So our favorite local theme park/first employer for SCV teens has rebuilt itself yet again, and AmericanCoasters.com has pictures and details. What’s changed? Well, Six Flags is nearing completion of a new children’s park called Thomas Town. That park should include a new Thomas the Tank engine ride according to recent media reports. Flashback and Cyclone have both been removed, though new rides haven’t yet been built. And X, the topsy-turvy awesome roller coaster ride that’s been plagued by mechanical problems since it opened years ago, has received a brand new red/charcoal paint job and some new coaster cars. It’s now called X2 and is even more XTREEM!!! Valencia Falls, the pleasant looking water fountain at the entrance to the park, has been turned back on. Finally, the famous Sky Tower is open again, this time with a museum inside (that was put together by a local 20 something man) that chronicles the history of Magic Mountain. Oh, and not to be left out, but there’s a shiny new office building next to the park that looks like its about finished; I had thought for a time that it would be home to Newhall Land. Pictures here.
• County may create registrar/recorder office in SCV: The proposal would help business file papers without having to drive to Van Nuys or the Antelope Valley. Press release from Supervisor Antonovich at the West Ranch Beacon.
  

Blogs & Misc:

• Buck McKeon…US Secretary of Education? John McCain should have our congressman on his short list for SecEd if he wins the Presidency, says Patrick Riccards, an education blogger and former Capital hill staffer.
• Tim Myers continues dissecting SCV precincts: Which precincts had the highest turnout in the recent City Council election? Well, surprisingly, it was a precinct centered around Old Orchard. Conversely, the lowest turnout was in Canyon Country. So guess which part of town will get all the nasty projects? Tim Myers has the answer and more interesting numbers from the council election at WRB.
• Daily News hates idea of toll lanes on SoCal Freeways: The SFV paper says it’s a bad idea and will only benefit the rich. Studies disagree but whatever… Lexus lanes?

Categories: Daily Brief
Tags: features